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…
Hall of Fame Kenny Barron has been a model of grace and elegance for more than six decades.
(Photo: Michael Jackson)The readers have spoken in the 87th annual DownBeat Readers Poll, handing a triple-crown victory to Jazz Artist, Bassist and Producer of the Year Christian McBride. The poll results appear in the December 2022 issue of DownBeat.
Pianist Kenny Barron, a model of grace and elegance for more than six decades, was elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame.
Guitarist of the Year Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye NYC (VI.IV) was voted Album of the Year, handing the perennial readers’ favorite a double win.
Snarky Puppy, the jazz-funk-rock-world juggernaut led by Michael League, was honored for the third time as Group of the Year.
Readers bade a fond farewell to the late Joey DeFrancesco by voting him Organist of the Year one final time.
In addition to those awards, readers bestowed the Historical Album of the Year award upon John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle. Buddy Guy won Blues Artist of the Year honors, and Keb Mo’s Good To Be … won Blues Album of the Year. Jon Batiste was named Beyond Artist of the Year, and Robert Glasper’s Black Radio III won Beyond Album of the Year.
Click HERE for the complete DownBeat 87th Annual Readers Poll listings. DB
“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…
