Buckner

On his 1994 debut album, Bloomed, Richard Buckner built a memorable song around the line "This is where things start goin' bad," but Buckner made that notion the overriding theme of his second full-length release, 1997's Devotion + Doubt. Written and recorded in the wake of the collapse of Buckner's first marriage, Devotion + Doubt abandons the largely acoustic, string band-influenced approach of Bloomed in favor of a stark, dusty sound that suggests a sleepless night in a motel room in the Arizona desert. J.D. Foster's production and the accompaniment from Calexico founders Joey Burns and John Convertino is often as spare as a whisper in the dark, but the production is a perfect match for the deep insinuations of Buckner's textured voice and the artful, impressionistic heartache of the lyrics, and this is a significantly more ambitious and accomplished effort than Bloomed, as fine as that album was.

When it was first released in 1994, Richard Buckner's debut album Bloomed seemed little short of miraculous, a beautifully spare but rich and compelling set of songs about the sweet and bitter sides of love, accompanied by a superb, primarily acoustic ensemble led by producer Lloyd Maines. In retrospect, Bloomed turned out to reveal just one of the many facets of Buckner's musical personality, but if his muse took him many places after this (and continued to guide him in fascinating ways), this still remains one of the most satisfying and engaging albums in his catalog. Buckner's songs on Bloomed dig deep, whether he's pondering the mysteries of love on "Blue and Wonder" and "Mud," or sketching an indelible portrait of a young man succumbing to despair and self-pity on "22," and his wordplay is at once artful and down to earth, and all the more effective for Buckner's strong, burnished voice and thoughtful phrasing; it's hard to imagine another voice putting so much effortless resonance behind lines like "This is where things start going bad," or "Christ, how this life, from mud to miracles, is just the prettiest little burden."

Milton Brent Buckner (10 July 1915 – 27 July 1977) was an American jazz pianist and organist, who in the early 1950s popularized the Hammond organ. He pioneered the parallel chords style that influenced Red Garland, George Shearing, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. Buckner's brother, Ted Buckner, was a jazz saxophonist…

Milt Buckner and Buddy Tate - Them Their Eyes (1967) {Black & Blue 233013 rel 1987}
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© 1967, 1987 Black & Blue | 233013
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Hammond B-3 Organ / Saxophone

Milt Buckner had a dual career. As a pianist he largely invented the "locked hands" style (parallel chords) that was adopted by many other players including George Shearing and Oscar Peterson. And as an organist he was one of the top pre-Jimmy Smith stylists, helping to popularize the instrument. The younger brother of altoist Ted Buckner (who played with Jimmie Lunceford), Milt Buckner grew up in Detroit and gigged locally in addition to arranging for McKinney's Cotton Pickers in 1934. He came to fame as pianist and arranger with Lionel Hampton (1941-48, 1950-52 and occasionally in later years) where he was a crowd pleaser. During 1948-50 Buckner led his own bands and after 1952 he generally played organ with trios or quartets. In later years he sometimes teamed up with Illinois Jacquet or Jo Jones. Buckner recorded many dates as a leader, particularly for Black & Blue in the 1970s.

Milt Buckner - Rockin' With Milt (2008) {2CD Set Fresh Sound FSR-CD 511 rec 1955-1957}
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© 1955-57, 2008 Capitol / Fresh Sound Records | FSR-CD 511
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Piano / Hammond Organ

Milton Milt Buckner (1915-1977), was an original and dynamic pianist, organist and arranger. He joined Lionel Hamptons orchestra in 1941 and became, not only one of its main attractions and arrangers, but also the first musician to use a piano technique called block chords / locked-hands. In 1952 he formed an excellent trio in which, besides using the piano, he also used a Hammond organ, and was one of the pioneers in the field of rhythm and blues. His powerful interpretations, always full of extraordinary swing, his fruitful imagination, and his tasty sense of humour, made him one of the greatest organists in jazz. These two CDs assemble, for the first time, all the tracks Milt Buckner recorded under his own name and released with Capitol between 1955 and 1957.

From 1966-77, organist Milt Buckner recorded often for European labels. This particular set (originally cut for the Black & Blue label) was one of the very few to be made available domestically. It came out on Inner City's Classic Jazz subsidiary, and it is a bit of an oddity…

Act of Finding: Bruce Arnold, Thomas Buckner, Tom Hamilton, Ratzo B. Harris - Act of Finding (1995) {OODiscs OO18}
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© 1995 OODiscs | OO18
Modern Classical / Avant-Garde / Experimental / Structured Improvisation

A collection of pieces by members of the group Act of Finding, "a collective quartet dedicated to group improvisation." Includes: Ratso B. Harris To Dick Dickson – a humorous narrative from comic books, e.mail, and other periodicals found while the composer was moving delivered rhythmically over bass patterns from a thesaurus of scales and patterns, Tom Hamilton "Another Family Resemblance" – a charming song with reminiscences-, Bruce Arnold "Quiet Is The Movement of the Moon" – a pointillistic-like and often funny-sweet study in rhythms derived from the title…