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.
The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician's Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White
by Richard J Salvucci
The Rhythm of Unity Mike and Dorothy Longo 237 Pages ISBN: 978-1956470741 Redwood 2023 Mike Longo was a distinguished pianist in spite of himself. He was a musicians' musician. He had little interest in celebrity. However much he needed to make a living, Mike spurned opportunities, like becoming Tony Bennett's pianist, that would have brought him to the attention of a wider audience. Longo was arguably one of Dizzy Gillespie's most dedicated students ...
read moreRhythms Meet Algorithms: Sparks Fly When Jazz Musician Oded Tzur Partners With Engineer Vansh Makh
by David Bruggink
Jazz and mobile apps may not be typically mentioned in the same breath, but saxophonist Oded Tzur, celebrated by All About Jazz for a string of albums merging jazz with Indian classical music, is changing that perception. Vansh Makh, a Bay area-based engineer, joined forces with Tzur to create Timeseer, described as “the first and only HiFi Indian classical music app." Timeseer offers a distinctly visual approach to rhythm, portraying complex musical patterns through accessible geometric designs. Devotees ...
read moreIzangoMa: Ngo Ma
by Chris May
The first thing that needs to be said is: this is not a jazz album. Jazz is only one of many musical traditions, most of them South African, that coalesce to form IzangoMa's debut. The percussion-rich, horn-embellished, multi-layered blend weaves together kwaito, mbaqanga, township jazz, marabi, pantsula, mbube, Jamaican nyabhingi drumming, electronica and a whole lot more. But jazz is an honoured tradition in the mix. The penultimate track, “Tribute To Johnny Dyani" (check the YouTube below), is a salute ...
read moreBuselli / Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite
by Dan McClenaghan
This is where music for mass consumption--recorded music--started, in Richmond, Indiana, in the 1920s, in a piano factory by the railroad tracks in a glacier-carved gorge. Established in 1887, in the beginning Starr Pianos' bread and butter was pianos, but they branched out to selling other instruments and eventually photographs and records--their own records, recorded in the piano factory, taking breaks in the process when a train came by. At first, they called their recording side of the business Starr ...
read moreKala Jula, Gangbé Brass Band, Rudy Royston, Samuele Strufaldi & More
by Ludovico Granvassu
From projects inspired by African traditions to jazz spiked with hard-rock, passing through some fascinating chamber influences, this episode showcases the creativity, breadth and depth of today's international jazz scene.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Kala Jula, Gangbé Brass Band “Asro" Asro (Buda Musique) 0:16 Host talks 8:44 Peter Somuah feat. Stevo Atambire “The Sky" Letter to the Universe (ACT) 10:22 Host talks 14:30 Samuele Strufaldi “Davorio" Davorio ...
read moreThe Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra: The Stage Door Still Swings (And Movies Too)
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Since around 2001, noted trumpeter Mike Vax has periodically assembled an extraordinarily talented group of former members of the Stan Kenton's, Maynard Ferguson's and other elite bands and led that crew on short performance tours (and clinics) around various sections of the United States. While an alum group and not a “ghost band," their repertoire is heavily dominated by material made famous by the Kenton Orchestra. This 15 selection compilation is sourced from highlight performances during that near quarter century ...
read moreDarren Johnston, Rossi / Hess / Moran & Theo Jorgensmann
by Maurice Hogue
This episode of One Man's Jazz is a very mixed bag. There's a preview of an upcoming box set of Charles Mingus' 1970 releases for Atlantic Records, some Jimi Hendrix on tuba from Germany's Pinguin Moschner, electronica from keyboardist Elias Stemeseder and drummer Christian Lillinger, the Polish duo of saxophonist Maciej Sikala and drummer Tomek Sowinsk}, a pair from Diskonife Records (Darren Johnston & the trio of Mick Rossi, Peter Hess and Matt Moran), and much more, including a look ...
read moreI Heart The Jazz With Strings Genre + Porgy & Bess
by David Brown
I heart the jazz with strings genre. Tonight, the most bizarre of these records, the great Johnny Hodges with Lawrence Welk's Orchestra. We then check our coats at the famed Chicago supper club Mr. Kelly's for some vocals from Sarah Vaughan and Anita O'Day. Then, after a set of new releases including Chicago's Natural Information Society and South Africa's Ahser Gamedze, we will check out a set of jazz interpretations of songs from “Porgy and Bess." Enjoy. Playlist ...
read moreStephan Thelen: Of Sonar, Fractals And Interactive Complexity
by Mike Jacobs
If you have been at all aware of the two-decade-old movement known as Swiss Minimalism, you've likely seen Stephan Thelen's name crop up. Lately, it would be fairly difficult not to. From 2018 to 2023 alone, his work as a leader in groups like Sonar and Fractal Sextet along with his Fractal Guitar series and other collaborations have produced no less than 12 albums--with at least two more pending releases at the time of this interview. Even more noticeable is ...
read moreGlenn Zaleski: Summer Song
by Geno Thackara
Glenn Zaleski's playing style is a little swing, a little more contemplation, and a lot of jny:New York City class. Those key elements are all there in this tricky-flowing turn on a Dave Brubeck classic--not really the tune for a sunny-day barbecue, as one might almost guess from the title, but rather one for winding down after sunset sipping a chilled beverage and watching the fireflies. ...
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