Jazz Articles

Daily articles including interviews, profiles, live reviews, film reviews and more... all 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 future articles page. Read our daily album reviews.

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Jazz in Long Form

From Chart to Reality: The Editorial Role of the Pianist in a Big Band

Read "From Chart to Reality: The Editorial Role of the Pianist in a Big Band" reviewed by Kurt Ellenberger


Note: This article was first published in the Jazz Education Journal in 2005, and was revised for All About Jazz. Preamble This article was written to address an issue that needed clarification, and indeed still needs clarification almost 20 years later, regarding the vagaries inherent in many of the published big band piano charts in use at hundreds of colleges and high schools. The professional jazz pianist will treat the written part with a great deal of freedom, ...

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Live Review

Ben Wendel Group At Bop Stop

Read "Ben Wendel Group At Bop Stop" reviewed by John Chacona


Ben Wendel Group Bop Stop Cleveland, OH March 22, 2023 For a long time, California has held a mythic place in the U.S. popular imagination as a fountainhead of new ideas in culture, technology, or in the case of the smartphone ("Designed by Apple in California") of both. So it makes a certain amount of sense that every musician in the Ben Wendel quartet that played jny: Cleveland's Bop Stop was either born in the ...

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Album Review

Isaiah J. Thompson: The Power of the Spirit

Read "The Power of the Spirit" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Isaiah J. Thompson is one of the leading pianists of his generation. In 2023, 25-year-old has a background that is already hugely impressive. This includes his debut album as a leader, Isaiah J. Thompson Plays the Music of Buddy Montgomery (WJ3), in 2020. His accolades have included earning the 2018 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, second place in the 2018 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition, and he has worked on the Golden Globe nominated soundtrack for Motherless ...

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Album Review

Bonzo Squad: Pachyderm

Read "Pachyderm" reviewed by Kyle Simpler


The Chicago-based quartet Bonzo Squad describes their music as “comfort in chaos." While this description might give an impression of free-form experimentation, it is not the case. The chaos aspect of their sound comes from a unique mixture of structure and improvisation, and for these guys, the comfort definitely outweighs the chaos. With Pachyderm, the group offers a perfect example of this description put into practice. Comfort implies an association with a memory, as is the case with ...

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Album Review

Molly Ryan: Sweepin' the Blues Away

Read "Sweepin' the Blues Away" reviewed by Jack Bowers


New York City-based vocalist Molly Ryan makes an auspicious impression from the outset on her latest album, leading her splendid back-up quartet through the charming song, “Get Yourself a New Broom (and Sweep the Blues Away)" a light-hearted but little- known treasure written in 1938 by Ted Koehler & Harold Arlen. Ryan seems to specialize in unearthing such overlooked gems, presenting several other prototypes in an anthology that spans the years 1909 to 1941. Even to someone ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Aruán Ortiz, Ferg Quill, Simon Lucaciu, Papanosh & More New Releases

Read "Aruán Ortiz, Ferg Quill, Simon Lucaciu, Papanosh & More New Releases" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


Organ grooves, a take on the Jackson Five opened by the merciless beat of an Ornette Coleman alumnus, a few compelling debut albums, the ongoing collaboration between Aruán Ortiz and James Brandon Lewis, the return of Joshua Abrams' meditations for large ensemble and more make this week's playlist worth your attention... Happy listening! PlaylistBen Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" Mondo Jazz Theme 0:00 Ari Joshua, Skerik feat. Delvon Lamarr, Grant Schroff ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Cecil Taylor, Ellington Seattle Concert, Aretha Franklin

Read "Cecil Taylor, Ellington Seattle Concert, Aretha Franklin" reviewed by David Brown


This week on the Jazz Continuum, we celebrate the birthday of Aretha Franklin with her music and Franklin covers by Philly organist Jimmy McGriff. We'll continue with a musical tribute to Cecil Taylor, one of the most uncompromisingly gifted pianists in jazz history who was born on this day in 1929. We'll be spinning from Taylor's discography, both early works and key, influential recordings. Then, we'll visit the Duke Ellington orchestra performing in Seattle, on this day in 1952, when ...

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Radio & Podcasts

The Producers

Read "The Producers" reviewed by Monk Rowe


Helen Dance, George Avakian, Orrin Keepnews and Joel Dorn do their best to describe the role of a jazz producer, the person “behind the glass." ...

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Liner Notes

Zvonimir Tot's Jazz Stringtet: Sarabande Blue

Read "Zvonimir Tot's Jazz Stringtet: Sarabande Blue" reviewed by Howard Mandel


"On this record I'm trying to fuse two things I know something about: classical composition and jazz," says Zvonimir Tot, the Serbian-born, jny: Chicago-based guitarist, composer, arranger, improviser and educator regarding Sarabande Blue, his sixth album as a leader. The debut of Tot's Stringtet, an ensemble several years in development, is a gift from a musical artist who has integrated his experiences and accomplishments in a most gratifying way--providing us passage to the state of mind where genre definitions fade ...

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The Reluctant Marketer

Are You A Reluctant Marketer?

Read "Are You A Reluctant Marketer?" reviewed by Michael Lake


I don't think I've ever met a musician who was not a reluctant marketer. A reluctant marketer is my term for someone who recognizes the need for self-promotion, but regrets and often resents that need. “Why do I need to convince people to buy from me? I just want to put my albums, performance dates, courses, books, and merchandise out there and let people decide to buy them. I hate the thought of having to convince people. It ...


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