I am a little late to the LP fandom. Readers may rightly argue that my interests lie squarely with Artists who earned their stripes in the late 60s or early 70’s. My argument is always that quality transcends genre, gender, time period, et al. lP is quality.
Most songwriters write from the first person as if they’re opening their diaries—confessional, autobiographical, inviting you into their emotional truth. Randy Newman writes from the first person like Flannery O’Connor or Raymond Carver: his “I” is a construct, a character who reveals himself through what he says and, more devastatingly, through what he casually omits.
In 1964, just four months before his sudden death in Berlin at the age of 36, Eric Dolphy recorded Out to Lunch!—an album that continues to rattle the walls of jazz orthodoxy. Released by Blue Note Records, it is the only album Dolphy made for the label, but it stands as one of the most important and uncompromising statements of the avant-garde jazz movement.