Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Blindfold Test: Buster Williams
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Verve/UMe’s Acoustic Sounds Series continues to deliver with a trio of great new albums and plenty more to come.
In February, the label reissued the Oscar Peterson Trio’s Night Train, a romp through the American Songbook from the title track to “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good.” It also presents Peterson’s “Hymn To Freedom,” which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Add Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums and you’ve got pure magic.
In March, the label released the grooving Alice Coltrane album Journey In Satchidananda, featuring saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. First released in 1971, the music sounds as fresh as today.
And, in April, the label unleashes Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio’s 1965 live recording Smokin’ At The Half Note, a blistering affair released, in part, to celebrate the centennial of Montgomery’s birth on March 6. All releases in the series have been mastered in stereo from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl. DB
(shop.ververecords.com)
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
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The organizers of Lisbon, Portugal’s Jazz em Agosto Festival assume its audience is thoughtful and independent. Over…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
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