Back when there was some jazz in the Pazz and Jop poll

The Behearer nugget of the week comes from user WebsterHodges, who posted a summary of the 1990 Village Voice "Best of Decade Poll": I defer:

"The Jazz Critics’ Poll in the August 28, 1990 edition of the Village Voice was a wealth of information about jazz recordings of the 1980’s. Each of 33 critics was asked to name the ten best jazz albums recorded between 1/1/1980 and 12/31/1989.
It’s an indication of the diversity and richness of the jazz of the 80’s that only one recording appeared on as many as nine of the 33 lists: Revue by the World Saxophone Quartet."

read the rest here. It's a great post, and worthy of some more digging. Does some packrat still have a copy of the poll?

I know for me, in high school my bible for jazz was a list of the "great saxophonists" given by Steve Massey at a summer music camp. For that time (1991) it was remarkably thorough and diverse, including Bird, Ornette, Dolphy and Sanborn on alto, Bechet and Lacy on soprano, etc. (I'm pretty sure I would never have found the "Free Jazz" double quartet album otherwise.) In college I found a lot of "out" music through the Rochester Public Library, whose collection was nothing short of remarkable. The ways we find into our interests always fascinate me.