Put Sunshine In It

Altoist Arthur Blythe’s free jazz bona fides are undeniable: he roars like a strafing comet across Horace Tapscott’s 1969 debut album The Giant Is Awakened, Julius Hemphill’s ‘Coon Bid’ness, and his own albums on India Navigation. Even jumping to Columbia in the early ‘80s did little to tamp down his loft jazz stylings. But 1984’s Put Sunshine In It is one smooth curveball, throwing fans and critics alike. Weirder still, his producer and accompanist is none other than Todd Cochran, whose thorny compositions were featured Bobby Hutcherson’s Head On and whose own albums as Bayeté remain avant-funk touchstones. Together, they make for some prickly smooth, from a tune taken from stylish French ‘80s film Diva to the prancing gait of “Uptown Strut.”