I'm a fan of the Penguin Guide, enjoy comparing opinions, impressed by the
massiveness of the accomplishment of those two guys reviewing all those
albums and... over the years, come to the sense that they haven't listened
to ALL of that shit as closely as needed for accurate reviews. But a very
high batting average.
My pet peeves for being omitted from the guide: Releases as leader of Bill
Laswell, Jon Hassell and Egberto Gismonti.
I have a couple of Marsalis albums but don't have much respect for his
curator philosophy. Comments on this list make me curious about the Blue
Alley set, but I'll always remember a homemade cassette I had with one of
the first Wynton albums on one side ("Think of One"?) and Charles
Tolliver's "The Ringer" on the other. The difference sounded so dramatic to
my ears. Two guys who were very fluent in the jazz language of their
instruments, but the later had developed his own approach to the language
and really had something to say with it. The emotional/soul/art content of
Tolliver's playing on "The Ringer" is way beyond young Wynton....
Martin
