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…
Charles Lloyd and the Marvels perform April 28, 2018, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana.
(Photo: Adam McCullough)If there’s a spiritual force in jazz that fans and musicians can look to for kōan-like erudition, it’s Charles Lloyd.
Despite the multi-reedist’s relative remove from the spotlight, even during his most prolific periods, Lloyd—who’s been resigned to sheltering-in-place for more than a month—decided to post a few videos to YouTube recently. In the first, he’s donning a wide-brimmed hat and brown poncho while playing, as the video cuts from Lloyd to a view of the coast along Santa Barbara, California. A more explicitly spiritual rumination—replete with the sounds of water and chirping birds accompanying Lloyd as he plays the Hungarian tárogató—was posted April 12.
“In my lifetime I have faced many dilemmas: racism, poverty, flood, fire, 9/11 ... . [E]ach of these had a direct impact on my life and the lives of many others—but not everyone,” Lloyd wrote in an email to DownBeat. “There are no lines of demarcation for the coronavirus—it is universally threatening all of us. We are all coping with the unseen, the isolation and the economic fallout this has created. I have said many times, music has always been my inspiration and consolation. As I agonized over this global condition, I felt compelled to offer some sounds in hopes of lifting up someone’s spirit. Master Billy Higgins always said, ‘We are in service.’ These offerings are part of my service. All life is one.”
Lloyd, who remains one of the most creatively engaged performers of his generation, recently issued 8: Kindred Spirits (Live From The Lobero), a recording from March 15, 2018, that marked the saxophonist’s 80th birthday. That release and the recent videos seem to indicate that Lloyd’s still drawing from a creative well that many of us only can aspire to. DB
Updated April 27.
“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…
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…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
Sep 3, 2025 12:03 PM
Trio aRT, a working unit since 1988, shockingly released its very first studio recording this summer. Recorded in…
