It took Allen Toussaint to make it clear to us that there’s music in the streets, there’s music everywhere. Gottschalk took this to heart in that he finds inspiration everywhere from forbidden tunes to Zappa—and rolls it all into his own. An award winner all over the globe, this cat that can go from whimsical to serious within a measure of short measure enchants the ear mightily. While he has been called prickly, that’s one of the descriptors you should look at in terms of lopping it off the end of the bell curve because it doesn’t count. If you know who Raymond Scott is, you have to look into this collection of duets that takes it to the limit. Well done by an obvious pro.
