"Undisputed"? Says who? By what criteria? As you point out, they have totally different styles. It’s like comparing Charlie Parker to John Coltrane. Two undiputed giants from entirely different evolutionary periods in the music. Who is better, Bird or Trane? Has no answer and is kind of a pointless question. Just as Bird would have sounded a little absurd trying to play "Giant Steps", Milt Jackson, as wonderful as he was, would sound out of place in a musical setting like that which was home for Hutcherson. Much more extended harmonic vocabulary and a move away from the very "swingy" feeling in the music. However, playing a slow blues, Milt Jackson couldn’t be touched, imo. So.....
There’s a problem with the comparison clips. The Jackson clip is beautiful musically and sonically. The Hutcherson clip, to me, sounds a bit like a mess. Harold Land should have stuck to the saxophone; imo, his flute sounds terrible. I like his tenor playing, but he sounds like he picked up the flute a couple of weeks previously. Considering how often the flute plays, it practically ruins the entire performance. And it’s not as simple or isolated as the flute player being horribly out of tune. In a recording situation all the players are reacting to the "performance problem". It becomes a major problem in being able to relax and focus on the music, instead of having to deal with the tension and distraction of compensating for the problem. The end result is usually an inferior performance. This, imo, is a better showcase of Hutcherson’s strengths (and he was an infinitely better compiser than Jackson):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLE4B0BF2407AEE1F5¶ms=OAFIAVgD&v=vbWiIf-kk98&mode=N...The alto player is someone who deserves more attention here, James Spaulding.
