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…
In last year’s Readers Poll, pianist Chick Corea was voted the Jazz Artist of the Year. Will he repeat this year? Only our readers can decide.
(Photo: Courtesy of the artist)Votes are pouring in for the 81st Annual DownBeat Readers Poll, which opened on July 1. Readers will vote in 34 categories, and the results will be published in DownBeat’s December issue.
In last year’s Readers Poll, pianist Chick Corea was voted the Jazz Artist of the Year, and his trio album Trilogy (Stretch/Concord) took the honor for Jazz Album of the Year.
Who will win this year? That will be determined by tens of thousands of voters from around the world. (The 2015 Readers Poll had a total of 28,496 voters.)
In addition to voting in diverse categories such as Big Band, Historical Album, Baritone Saxophone, Drums, Composer and Blues Album, readers will cast ballots to induct musicians into the DownBeat Hall of Fame.
In recent years, DownBeat readers have voted to induct Tony Bennett (2015), B.B. King (2014), Pat Metheny (2013) and Ron Carter (2012).
Besides the world-famous Readers Poll, DownBeat also publishes an annual Critics Poll. The complete results of the DownBeat Critics Poll are published in the August issue, which arrives on the newsstand on July 19. To see the winners of this year’s Critics Poll, click here.
Now it’s time for the readers to weigh in with their opinions on the top musicians and albums of the year. To vote in this year’s Readers Poll, please click here.
“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…
