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…
On May 6, RCA Victor / Bluebird continued its blues reissue series, “When the Sun Goes Down,” with the release of Vol.5: Take This Hammer: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings Of Leadbelly and Vol.6: Poor Man’s Heaven: Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression.
“When the Sun Goes Down” started in August 2002 with a four volume set of digitally remastered music from America’s roots. With all the music recorded and released in or before 1940, volumes 5 and 6 continue the tradition.
Take This Hammer contains 26 tracks, three previously unissued, from Huddie Ledbetter, better know as Leadbelly. Recorded in 1940, the songs are split between solo performances and collaborations with the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet.
According to Colin Escott’s liner notes, the album spoke to middle-class liberals and progressives, which challenged the standard blues album marketed to rural and working-class African Americans. Escott calls it one of the first “blues concept albums.”
The stock market crash in 1929 and the depression that followed affected everything in America. Poor Man’s Heaven looks at the effects on music with 24 tracks, by as many different artists, all recorded between 1929 and 1940. Themes of hardship and hope are apparent.
Artists include Eddie Cantor, Sonny Boy Williamson, Blind Alfred Reed, and Fiddlin’ John Carson. The album contains original versions of Ry Cooder recordings “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times” and “Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All,” and a 1932 version of the classic “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” later covered by Brubeck and Pavarotti among others.
“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…
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The organizers of Lisbon, Portugal’s Jazz em Agosto Festival assume its audience is thoughtful and independent. Over…
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