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…
A four-disc Charles Mingus set is a highlight of our seasonal shopping guide for music fanatics.
(Photo: Joseph L. Johnson)If you’re shopping for gifts this holiday season, DownBeat has got you covered with our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide.
Check out features on a new live set of Charles Mingus performances, a handful of Charlie Parker gifts to mark his centennial, vibraphonist Warren Wolf’s first holiday album, books by critic Kevin Whitehead on jazz cinema and academic Tammy L. Kernodle on the life of Mary Lou Williams. Plus, our Yuletide Music Roundup highlights the best holiday albums of 2020.
Don’t forget, DownBeat makes the perfect gift for anyone who loves jazz. We’ve got great deals on subscriptions, whether you want to read DownBeat in print, online or on your tablet. And don’t miss out on our weekly newsletter.
To read the Holiday Gift Guide from our December issue, click here.
To read the Yuletide Music Roundup for 2020, click here.
To order a subscription to DownBeat, or to buy a DownBeat book, hat or T-shirt, click here. DB
These stories originally were published in the December 2020 issue of DownBeat.
“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…
