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.
From Chart to Reality: The Editorial Role of the Pianist in a Big Band
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, ...
read moreBen Wendel Group At Bop Stop
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 ...
read moreIsaiah J. Thompson: The Power of the Spirit
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 ...
read moreBonzo Squad: Pachyderm
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 ...
read moreMolly Ryan: Sweepin' the Blues Away
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 ...
read moreAruán Ortiz, Ferg Quill, Simon Lucaciu, Papanosh & More New Releases
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 ...
read moreCecil Taylor, Ellington Seattle Concert, Aretha Franklin
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 ...
read moreThe Producers
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." ...
read moreZvonimir Tot's Jazz Stringtet: Sarabande Blue
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 ...
read moreAre You A Reluctant Marketer?
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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