If you have a chance to celebrate, take it. Drummer Fredy Studer, one of Switzerland’s top percussionists, has good reason to celebrate. This year he will be 70, he’s playing Willisau Jazz Festival for the 27th time (making him the musician who has played this festival the most) and is publishing his very first solo recordings! He has recorded these with a total absence of overdubs and electronic effects. “Now’s the Time – Solo Drums” is issued as a superb box set by Everest Records und Maniac Press. It contains two LPs and a 250-page book, with text by Beat Blaser, Pirmin Bossart, Meinrad Buholzer, Kurt Murpf, Peter Rüedi and Christine Weber.