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Overlooked: Giovanni Russonello (Audio)

Oct 25, 2018
Hamiett Bluiett, the great baritone saxophone innovator, is best known as a co-founder of the World Saxophone Quartet, a group whose music kept faith with the African-American musical tradition while leaping far into the avant-garde. But left to his own, Bluiett was able to make his big, unwieldy horn do remarkable things as a soloist. Bluiett died this month, and on this episode of "Overlooked," we pay tribute to him in an appropriately oddball fashion: first playing a bunch of solo recordings, including his first solo record, “Birthright,” followed by solo performances featuring artists from across the musical spectrum, such as Charley Patton, Ryuichi Sakamoto. Miles Okazaki, Milford Graves and even Bob Dylan. The second half of the show began with a classic recording by the World Saxophone Quartet, then moved into tracks by a bunch of different quartets, painting a quick panorama of the different ways that four musicians can interact: Makaya McCraven, Battle Trance, Coltrane and even the Modern Jazz Quartet and more. This diverse playlist was created by this week's in-studio guest, the writer Giovanni Russonello, who covers jazz for the New York Times and wrote Hamiet Bluiett’s obituary (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/obituaries/hamiet-bluiett-dies-at-78.html). Recorded at the WGXC Hudson Studio on Mon., Oct. 22, 2018.