For those unaware, legendary bassist/composer Buster Williams celebrates 80 years (and counting) along a path to musical enlightenment on his stunning new album, UNALOME, featuring vocalist Jean Baylor, saxophonist Bruce Williams, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, pianist George Colligan, and drummer Lenny White.

For those unfamiliar with the title of the gorgeous new album from Buster Williams, UNALOME, or the lotus flower-topped symbol that graces its cover, Unalome is a Buddhist symbol representing individual transcendence and the path to enlightenment over the course of one’s life, a guiding concept that Williams, a long-practicing Buddhist himself, has been exploring throughout his life and career.

It seemed to express perfectly the mood or the collective spirit of the music on this particular project, Williams explains. I believe that your life should be a succession of steps and that those steps should be along an ascending path.

1. Stairways (5:26)
2. Estate (8:29)
3. Tayamisha (5:47)
4. In the Middle of a Rainbow (7:16)
5. The Wisdom of Silence (4:54)
6. 42nd Street (7:01)
7. I’ve Got the World on a String (6:18)
8. Here’s to Life (6:11)

This wholesomely heartwarming, sumptuous and organically-driven new album opens on my own personal favorite from the recording, the at times, twinkling, at others cinematic in its scope, but always grounded Stairways and that is followed by the luxurious, upright bass-led Estate, the joyful and upbeat Tayamisha and then we get the low slung blues-jazz shuffle of In the Middle of a Rainbow.

Up next is the veritably shimmering, at times almost hypnotic The Wisdom of Silence and that in turn is backed seamlessly by the smoothly smoldering 42nd Street, the album rounding out on the jam fervency of I’ve Got the World on a String, coming to a close on the Jean Baylor-vocalized, smoothly sultry, and just all-round ensconced in velvety undertones, Here’s to Life.

UNALOME is also just the latest step along what has certainly been a storied path. One of the most revered bassists of the last half century, the Grammy-winning Williams has played, recorded, and collaborated with such jazz giants as Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Chick Corea, Dexter Gordon, Jimmy Heath, Larry Coryell, Wynton, and Branford Marsalis, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Errol Garner, Freddie Hubbard, and countless others. He was a charter member of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi band and the all-star Thelonious Monk tribute ensemble Sphere.

At 80 years of age, Buster Williams shows no sign of slowing his climb along that ascending path. UNALOME brilliantly reflects how far he’s come while looking eagerly ahead to future chapters. As I get older, I discover that there’s more over the horizon than you think, he declares. The horizon may look like the end, but the closer you get the more you realize that you’ll never reach it. What you can see from where you are, seems to be limited, but with each step, you see more and more.

BUSTER WILLIAMS SOMETHING MORE SEXTET:
Jean Baylor - vocals
Bruce Williams - saxophone & flute
Stefon Harris - vibraphone
George Colligan - piano
Buster Williams - bass
Lenny White - drums

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