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…
Mosaic Records has re-released two more albums under its Mosaic Select Series featuring the works of trombonist Bennie Green and pianist Randy Weston.
After becoming a popular jukebox artist in the forties and fifties leading his own band, Green signed with Blue Note in 1958. Mosaic Select: Bennie Green comprises Green and Babs Gonzales compositions from Blue Note albums Back On The Scene, Soul Stirrin’, and Walkin’ & Talkin’. The album also includes musical reprises of Soul Stirrin’ tunes from Ike Quebec’s Congo Lament, on which Green played two of his standards.
Gene Ammons, Stanley Turrentine, Art Blakey, Billy Root, Sonny Clark, Elvin Jones, Charlie Rouse, Eddy Williams and Louis Hayes, among others, support Green on the digitally remastered album.
Mosaic Select: Randy Weston spans Weston’s compositions between 1957 and 1963.
His earlier, more traditional jazz albums during this period include Piano-A-La-Mode for Jubilee and Little Niles and Live At The Five Spot for United Artists. In 1960, Weston began to fuse his jazz with African music on albums like Uhuru Afrika (Roulette, 1960) and Highlife (Colpix, 1963). The reissue also includes compositions from a previously unissued 1960 Roulette album.
Soloists and rhythm players Johnny Griffin, Coleman Hawkins, Kenny Dorham, Cecil Payne, Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, Clark Terry and Freddie Hubbard join Weston.
All recordings are available through Mosaic Records. For more information, go to www.mosaicrecords.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…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
Butcher Brown, clockwise from top left: Marcus Tenney, DJ Harrison, Morgan Burrs, Corey Fonville and Andrew Randazzo. (Keyboardist Harrison couldn’t make the gig, so special guest Jacob Mann sat in with the band at the Reno Jazz Festival.)
Aug 19, 2025 12:41 PM
The band known as Butcher Brown has enjoyed the last half-decade basking in the glow from the twin engines of critical…
This year’s Jazz em Agosto set by the Darius Jones Trio captured the titular alto saxophonist at his most ferocious.
Aug 26, 2025 1:31 PM
The organizers of Lisbon, Portugal’s Jazz em Agosto Festival assume its audience is thoughtful and independent. Over…