Jazz Articles about One for All

One For All: Blueslike

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 13, 2024

As the timeworn adage goes, sometimes the best things come from situations where one is asked to function in less than ideal circumstances. When you have little time to analyze things and go with pure instincts, there's an air of veracity and spontaneity to the results that is seldom arrived at by any other means. Although the hard bop collective One For Allhas forged a shared identity through regular gigs and a growing catalog of recordings for several labels, including ...

One For All: Live at Smoke Vol.1

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 13, 2024

Aside from the musical fireworks that make the enclosed sides noteworthy, there are additional factors that mark Live at Smoke as a major event. For one thing, this “on location" recording is one of the rare live dates to grace the Criss Cross catalog. Furthermore, it serves as a perfect summation up to this point of One For All's musical fortunes as heard in the same venue that fostered the ensemble's very formation. Back in the mid-'80s, drummer Joe Farnsworth, ...

One for All: The Third Decade

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 16, 2016

Hard to believe it will be twenty years ago next year that the hard bop ensemble One For All debuted with Too Soon To Tell on the fledgling Sharp Nine label. Formed as a group that regularly played together at an uptown Broadway club called Augie's, each member was just at the start of their own budding careers. Even today, it continues to be a surprise that these gentlemen still find the time to assemble for the occasional record date ...

A Jazz Marriage: Smoke and One For All

by Nick Catalano
May 21, 2011

After 12 years of classic jazz bookings and extraordinary patron loyalty, Smoke deserves legendary status right next to Birdland (the old club of the 50's), Basin Street, The Village Vanguard, The Blue Note, and a couple of the old 52 St. clubs. In addition to having unique intimacy, a special staff who could give a seminar in how to run a jazz club and a sensible food and drink menu, Smoke has had the prescience to embrace the hottest hard ...

One for All: Incorrigible

by Sean Coughlin
May 28, 2010

One for All Incorrigible Jazz Legacy Productions 2010

One for All's Incorrigible showcases some of the best original writing the group has had in its 14 releases. It no longer sounds like a bunch of “young lions" thrown together in a recording studio. Cohesive and interdependent, these musicians bring out the best in one another, resulting in an album filled with thoughtful communication and high energy improvisation. “Bewitched, Bothered, ...

Two by One For All

by Ken Dryden
May 15, 2010

One For All Incorrigible Jazz Legacy 2010 One For All Return of the Lineup Sharp Nine 2009 One For All is a collective of hard bop/straight-ahead players who have busy careers as leaders and sidemen, yet enjoy the time they are able to spend together, whether working on a new CD or performing around ...

One for All: The Lineup

by Ken Kase
December 18, 2006

Time was when jazz history was measured in terms of linear progress as artists influenced each other to create new sounds. Jazz, it has been said, fed off of itself in a constant state of progression, pushing the music to its limits. But times have changed, and this construct has been revised several times over as legions of musicians found their inspiration in established jazz styles and stuck with them.The Lineup is the eleventh release by One for ...