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…
This month, jazz guitarist/composer Pat Metheny began his appointment as a Herb Alpert Visiting Professor at Berklee College of Music. Metheny, who was on the Berklee faculty in the mid 1970s and received an honorary doctorate of music from the college in 1996, is the third Herb Alpert Visiting Professor, following the previously appointed pianist/composer Alan Broadbent ‘69 and bassist Abe Laboriel Sr. ‘72, both Berklee alumni.
The Alpert Professorship was established in 2000 with the support of the Herb Alpert Foundation, the philanthropic organization launched by A&M Records cofounder and seven-time Grammy-winning recording artist Alpert. Alpert received an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee in 2000. The Alpert Visiting Professorship Program brings to Berklee a steady stream of world-class performance and music industry leaders. Each year, a person who has achieved major recognition as a performer or prominent figure in the music industry will be appointed Herb Alpert Visiting Professor, agreeing to a three-year commitment to Berklee, for two weeks each academic year.
As a member of Berklee’s board of overseers, Alpert has had an important advisory role with the college and was in a position to recognize the benefits of extending—and deepening—the communication between visiting artists and Berklee. The Alpert Professorship reflects Alpert’s view that students will benefit tremendously if given the opportunity to interact with the masters of the music industry.
“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…
