Articles by Frank Housh
John Scofield & Dave Holland: Memories Of Home
by Frank Housh
John Scofield and Dave Holland have about a century of combined experience making jazz. They have played with everybody and created deep bodies of work that span bebop to today. “Memories of Home" sounds like an intimate reflection on two musical lives. Scofield and Holland each spent time with Miles Davis' band. They played together with Herbie Hancock and others, but Memories of Home is their first duo album. Scofield said, “I honestly don't recall when or how ...
Continue ReadingRIP Jack DeJohnette
by Frank Housh
The great Jack DeJohnette passed away on October 26, 2025. His epic career is matched only by Miles Davis, whom DeJohnette began playing with in 1969 and later introduced to fusion in 1999's Bitches Brew (Sony Records, 1970). He played with everybody, from Miles to Pat Metheny. One of my favorites was his work with Bill Evans and Eddie Gomez on Some Other Time: The Lost Session From The Black Forest (Resonance Records, 2016). It was recorded in ...
Continue ReadingFranck Amsallem: A Jazz Life From New York To Paris
by Frank Housh
Franck Amsallem is a Paris-based pianist, singer, and composer educated in the United States. His debut recording, Out A Day (OMD, 1992) with Gary Peacock and Bill Stewart was recently reissued and remastered (streaming only), and his most recent album The Summer Knows (Un été 42) was released May 10, 2025. The Summer Knows (David Wong, bass and Kush Abadey, drums) includes song the theme song from the 1971 movie “The Summer of '42" composed by French composer ...
Continue ReadingCecile McLorin Salvant: Oh Snap
by Frank Housh
It feels like Cecile McLorin Salvant is just showing off. The 2020 MacArthur Genius Grant Award Winner follows up Ghost Song (Nonesuch, 2022) and Mélusine (Nonesuch, 2023) with Oh Snap, a post-genre effort with deeply personal lyrics that sound like they were lifted from the diaries of a rediscovered poet. McLorin recorded Oh Snap alone, learning GarageBand and AutoTune as she went. She said, “I felt I had lost a connection to music because it was something that ...
Continue ReadingLinda May Han Oh: Music In The Moment
by Frank Housh
Linda May Han Oh is one of jazz music's most innovative artists. I first encountered her in 2015 when she played The Art of Jazz with the Dave Douglas Quintet at Buffalo's Albright Knox Art Gallery. In the decade following she has released four albums for Biophilia Records and worked with luminaries such as art hirahara, Vijay Iyer, and Pat Metheny. Strange Heavens features Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) from Akinmusire's Honey From A Winter Stone ...
Continue ReadingBrad Mehldau: Ride into the Sun
by Frank Housh
Elliott Smith (1969-2003) recorded six solo studio albums and was acclaimed for poignant, sophisticated songwriting and reedy, melodious voice. Tragically, he suffered from mental health issues and substance abuse throughout his life. On October 1, 2003 Smith died of two stab wounds to his chest. While initial media reports said the fatal wounds were self-inflicted, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner refused to endorse suicide as a cause of death. Toxicology tests found no illegal or controlled substances in his ...
Continue ReadingMeet Frank Housh
by Frank Housh
I currently live in: Buffalo, New York I joined All About Jazz in: February 2025 Why did you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? Because it's the best damn jazz publication on the internet. How do you contribute to All About Jazz? I do interviews, review concerts and albums, and write the occasional essay. What is your musical background? I began college studying classical guitar but eventually ended up in law ...
Continue ReadingKokoroko: Tuff Times Never Last
by Frank Housh
Kokoroko's sophomore album is cool. Cool as the other side of the pillow, cool like floating on top of the deep blue ocean, cool like the Fonz. Kokoroko may be properly classified within the “Afrobeat" jazz subgenre which mixes West African rhythms with jazz harmony. Its sound also includes a heavy dose of “highlife," traditional Ghanaian music that adopted instruments from colonial military bands. It was brought to America by jazz great Randy Weston in his 1963 album ...
Continue ReadingFred Hersch: A Lifetime Of Meditation At The Piano
by Frank Housh
Fred Hersch has spent nearly seven decades mediating at the piano. In his candid memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In And Out Of Jazz (Crown Archetype Press, 2017), Hersch described how he creates music. He wrote: I sit down, settle onto the piano stool, and see what kind of mood I'm in. Sometimes when playing with my trio I will ask them what they feel like starting with--a nice surprise for me, as ...
Continue Reading2025 Rochester International Jazz Festival
by Frank Housh
Now in its 22nd year, the Rochester International Jazz Festival is one of North America's finest jazz festivals. On Monday, June 23 I made the one hour from Buffalo and parked adjacent to the street hosting a makeshift food court. June 23 was one of the hottest days of the year in the Genesee River Valley, so music lovers were licking ice cream cones and holding cold, aluminum cans against their necks. I walked past the ...
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