When announcing his final season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa Pekka Salonen was about his taste in pop music, which has been well documented during his time on the podium though remains relatively unchanged. His taste has led to numerous bookings involving alternative rock bands and the L.A Phil, most recently Grizzly Bear.
"My knowledge of pop music is not very deep," he said, more as fact than apology. "The greatest, the freshest, are the ones we don't know about yet, those under the radar. The pop artists I can relate to -- Bjork, Radiohead, Sigur Ros - are not the leading innovators today.
"It would be biologically wrong to be an innovator (at this age. We start gravitating toward preserving."
It was interesting that he didn't necessarily specify if that was how he felt as an artist or a fan, whether the taste of a professional or an amateur differ or even if the way one feels about pop music translates to other realms as well.
Salonen has been  a programming innovator during his 16 season in L.A. and his compositions are nearly all extraordinarily affecting. So I'm not truly ready to put him strictly in the collector category - he still shows signs of being a hunter.
But in a varied week for myself - listening to Salonen speak, hearing Bill Cosby defend Herbie Hancock's significant Grammy win at the Playboy Jazz Fest announcement, seeing Bette Midler perform in Las Vegas, and watching Kasper Collin's insightful documentary on the free jazz   giant Albert Ayler - I started to realize how we all fall into a role of collector and defender.  Missy Higgins gave a wonderful performance last week that cast a fine light on her impressive songwriting, but I have faith that there's enough of a machine behind her to cultivate an audience.
Ayler, known for dramatic honks and squeaks on the tenor saxophone in the 1960s, is revealed as an artist of the highest degree, the rare musician whose playing reflected his soul. "My Name is Albert Ayler" reveals the unique manner with which he expressed himself and the humanity that went into his improvisations. It's a gorgeous portrait; as a fan, it's heartwarming to know a powerful document like this exists.
Ayler, obviously, is a preservation act, but at the same time there is tremendous room for increased exposure, and proselytizing for a man who has been dead for more than 37 years feels as natural as trying to promote a young musician early in their carer, like Nik Bartsch, Freddie Stevenson, Jens Lekman and Ben Allison.
Took in two shows last week (Higgins and Midler) to get the year's total to 16 (84 show and 263 acts to go to meet my goal).
On the stereo:
Home: Lizz Wright "The Orchard"; Joe Ely & Joel Guzman "Live Cactus" (advance); 
DeVotchKa "A Mad and Faithful Telling"
Car: Ray Davies "Workingman's Cafe"; John Lennon "Rock 'n' Roll"; Kathleen Edwards "Asking for Flowers"; Gary Louris "Vagabonds"; Grateful Dead "Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 2"