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…
Fresh Sound Records has issues Breathing Room, the debut
recording as a leader by trumpeter David Weiss. Weiss came to the
attention of Fresh Sound Records as the co-leader of the critically
acclaimed New Jazz Composers Octet, who recently collaborated with
trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard for the album New Colors (Hip Bop
Records). In addition, Weiss recently won the Chamber Music America
Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project: Creation and Presentation grant for
his compositions.
For Breathing Room, Weiss called on his New Jazz Composers Octet co-leaders pianist Xavier Davis and bassist Dwayne Burno and introduces a pair of talented and young musicians, tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland and drummer E.J. Strickland. The music has its roots in the ’60s Blue Note sound with the inclusion of a few lesser-known Wayne Shorter compositions and a variation on the classic Joe Henderson composition “The Kicker.” While obviously influenced by Shorter, his compositions for sextet prove he has his own unique and distinct voice.
“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…
