Jazz Articles
Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.
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Tropos: Outer Space Chamber Music
by Dean Nardi
Upon first listen to Switches (Endectomorph, 2024), the remarkable album from the group Tropos, one could imagine being caught in the traffic circle at the Arc de Triomphe. The clarinet blares, the violin evokes the squeal of rubber, the drums maintain the churning sound of the motors, while the piano searches for a safe exit. Is it madness or a loosely choreographed palette of sounds? Towards the end of the record, you listen to the beautiful violin and horn duet ...
Continue ReadingJoe Elefante's Wheel of Dharma: Return of the Light
by Jack Bowers
The second act of Joe Elefante's laudable jazz career was born in tragedy: the loss in 2024 of his wife of sixteen years to cancer. It was then that Elefante, who once led the world-class Joe Elefante Big Band, decided to leave his long-time position as a schoolteacher and return to his first love, jazz, and devote the time he had left to writing and performing again with his talented colleagues and friends. Return of the Light ...
Continue ReadingIntroducing Trumpeter Nathaniel Williford
by Sanford Josephson
Nathaniel Williford's jazz education began when he entered the sixth grade at Osceola County School for the Arts in Kissimmee, FL. “The magic started happening at our instrument trial day," he recalled, “selecting what we'd play in the band program. The trombone was what stood out to me. I could make some basic sounds on the trombone."Things began to change, however, when he heard Osceola's top high school jazz band play. “I heard the lead trumpet sitting on ...
Continue ReadingDave Kikoski: Weekend At Smalls
by Pierre Giroux
Few pianists capture the resilient spirit of the New York City jazz scene as convincingly as Dave Kikoski. With his release Weekend At Smalls, he affirms his reputation as one of post-bop's most energetic stylists. Recorded live at the renowned West Village club Smalls, the album features Kikoski engaging in lively conversation with bassist Joe Martin, veteran drummer Billy Hart and longtime friend and collaborator trumpeter Randy Brecker. The result is a vibrant record of straight-ahead fluency that both revisits ...
Continue ReadingJohn Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival Fourteenth Year
by La-Faithia White
A collection of photos from the John Coltrane International Jazz & Blues Festival in High Point, NC Saturday August 30th, 2025 featuring Snarky Puppy, Lizz Wright and Meshell Ndegeocello, The HeadHunters, Clint Holmes, Nnenna Freelon, Take 6, and the John Coltrane Youth Jazz Workshop. Labor Day weekend marked the kickoff of the fourteenth annual John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival in High Point, NC. The weather was picture perfect, with bright sunshine and comfortable temperatures. Returning to ...
Continue ReadingDom Salvador: Simplicity
by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
As the calendar pages turn on the year, Simplicity is positioned to be one the best jazz album released in 2025. The music was recorded back in March 1993, in NY, bringing together the huge talents of piano legend Dom Salvador, bass hero Bill Moring and wizard drummer Vanderlei Pereira. The level of energy, creativity and inventiveness is unbelievable, as well as the warm and bigger-than-life sound quality reminiscent of Rudy Van Gelder recording room, something impossible to be achieved ...
Continue ReadingMeet Carole Nelson
by Cheryl K.
In this hour, an interview with Ireland-based pianist, saxophonist, composer, lyricist, and educator Carole Nelson. Her upcoming album on Livia Records with bassist Cormac O'Brien and drummer Dominic Mullen is Through the Storm--their fourth trio album together. Also, selections from pianist Eva Novoa and her trio, the Baltimore Jazz Collective, and a bit of The Latin Tinge...Playlist Eva Novoa “Global" from Novoa/Carter/Mela Trio, Vol. 2 (577) 1:19 Ron Blake “Song for Maya" from Scratch Band (7tēn33 Productions) 4:54 ...
Continue ReadingHeather McKay, Ledisi's Dinah Washington Tribute, Lizzy & The Triggermen, Kat Ellis, Carmen Staaf & More
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast includes new releases from Heather McKay, Ledisi, Lizzy & The Triggermen, Kat Ellis and Carmen Staaf, with birthday shoutouts to feminist historian/producer Rosetta Reitz, Koko Taylor, Rebecca Kilgore, Norma Winstone and Janet Planet, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the world that A Woman's Place is in the Groove. Many thanks for tuning in.Playlist Lil Hardin ...
Continue ReadingApex Blues tackles legacies of Jimmie Noone and Jimmy Noone Jr.
by Jim Trageser
Apex Blues Cecile J. Picou 232 Pages ISBN: 979-8891552524 Self Published 2024 Quietly published in 2024 with little to no fanfare, Cecile Picou's dual biography of New Orleans' Jimmie Noone and his son, San Diego's Jimmy Noone Jr., offers some wonderful insights to San Diego's jazz, blues and soul scenes of the 1970s, '80s and '90s. For fans of the son--who starred with Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham's Sweet Baby Blues ...
Continue ReadingAidan Plank and Garrett Folger: DUO
by Troy Dostert
Having demonstrated his empathetic instincts on the self produced Horizon, his trio release with pianist Anthony Fuoco and drummer Carmen Castaldi in early 2025, Garrett Folger now applies his finely-honed skills on trumpet and flugelhorn to Duo, a freely-improvised date with a fellow Clevelander, bassist Aidan Plank. And although the format does differ from the carefully constructed pieces on the former disc, the results are no less stimulating, with a broad range of exploratory possibilities that reveal yet another dimension ...
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