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…
The National Endowment for the Arts announced the recipients of its 2009 NEA Jazz Masters Award, which honors six recipients with a $25,000 grant. The 2009 recipients are George Benson, Jimmy Cobb, Lee Konitz , Toots Thielemans and Snooky Young. Recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder will receive the 2009 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy.
The ceremony and concert will be held on Oct. 17 at Frederick P. Rose hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center and will feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in a program dedicated to the honorees’ works.
“Jazz is a vital part of our nation’s history and cultural heritage,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, “and I am delighted to announce the artists of the class of 2009, whose bodies of work have had, and continue to have, a decisive and enduring impact on the development of this art form.”
More info: arts.endow.gov
“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…
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