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…
Lou Rawls, who possessed an unmistakable baritone voice, died Jan. 6 after battling lung cancer. He was 72.
While Rawls’ is best known for his array of pop hits (“Love Is A Hurting Thing” and “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”), the Chicago-born singer also frequently delved into jazz and drew on the music’s improvisational spirit for his lengthy, and influential, spoken-word monologues.
The gospel-trained Rawls recorded his first solo album, Stormy Monday, with the Les McCann Trio in 1962. A few years later, the singer was the voice on many of producer David Axelrod’s early innovations in fusion. Two of those tracks were recently compiled on David Axelrod – The Edge: David Axelrod At Capitol Records 1966-1970 (Blue Note). In 2003, he paid tribute to a notable jazz singer on his disc Rawls Sings Sinatra (Savoy Jazz).
“I don’t put myself in any particular category,” Rawls once said. “Whatever the occasion calls for, I rise to the occasion. There are no limits to music, so why should I limit myself?”
Aaron Cohen
“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.
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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.
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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.
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The organizers of Lisbon, Portugal’s Jazz em Agosto Festival assume its audience is thoughtful and independent. Over…
