Jazz Articles
Our daily articles are 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.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Aram Shelton & Håkon Berre: Dormancy
by Glenn Astarita
San Francisco Bay Area resident, alto saxophonist Aram Shelton and Norwegian drummer/percussionist Håkon Berre recorded this dynamic session in a studio outside of Copenhagen. Each musician is highly respected in their home turf and beyond, although Shelton has led bands and collaborated with the crème de la crème of fearless improvising risk-takers in the US since the 1990s. On this venture, the duo conveys a synchronous relationship as they challenge, mimic and push each other throughout these largely jolting improvisations. ...
read moreShelton / Lonberg-Holm / Rosaly: Resounder
by Mark Corroto
There is no connection whatsoever between the improvised electro-acoustic music of Resounder and Carl Stalling's musical accompaniment and his adaptations of music composed by Raymond Scott for Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoon. Except that, the music of Aram Shelton, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Frank Rosaly evokes a sort of theatre of the mind. The soundtrack to a virtual cinema of cartoons. Saxophonist and organizer Aram Shelton cut his teeth in the Chicago scene playing in Dragons ...
read moreKyle Bruckmann's Wrack: ...Awaits Silent Tristero's Empire
by Troy Collins
...Awaits Silent Tristero's Empire is an epic four-part suite based on the fictitious songs found scattered throughout celebrated author Thomas Pynchon's early novels V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity's Rainbow. Oboist Kyle Bruckmann conceived this post-modern “musical phantasmagoria" as the first long-form composition written for Wrack, his experimental chamber jazz ensemble, employing an expanded version of the long-standing unit to realize the project's pan-stylistic scope.A former Chicago resident, Bruckmann relocated to San Francisco after the turn ...
read moreTon Trio II: On And On
by Glenn Astarita
Oakland, CA, based jazz and improvisation protagonist, alto saxophonist Aram Shelton could hold his own with most anyone in a cutting-contest. But there's more than a whole lot of technical acumen taking place with Ton Trio II. One of the principle selling points so to speak, is how the musicians impeccably integrate the modern jazz vernacular with invocative avant-garde campaigns, heaving with impact and intensifying discourses. The trio's spry and spunky demeanor is led by Shelton's burly tone ...
read moreCory Wright Outfit: Apples + Oranges
by Glenn Astarita
Oakland, California based reedman Cory Wright (Anthony Braxton, Vinny Golia & Yusef Lateef delivers a manifold and juxtaposing ensemble date on Apples + Oranges. It doesn't take too long to determine that the album poses a surfeit of diagonally opposed viewpoints. Other than the highly emphatic and synergistic group-centric output, Wright's compositions hit the mark, and this is one of those very special endeavors that excites, entertains and sustains interest. Wright's involvement with visionary composer and improviser, Anthony ...
read moreCory Wright Unit: Apples + Oranges
by Mark Corroto
In jazz, there are composers and there are soloists and, as they say, “never the twain shall meet." Okay, not impossible, but it is rare in modern jazz for a musician to be both an outstanding soloist and a talented arranger. Listening to Apples + Oranges by West Coast saxophonist Cory Wright, the challenge is to determine which of the two talents makes this a thriving and effective recording. But then again, requiring one to choose will result ...
read moreAram Shelton: Everything for Somebody
by Troy Collins
Currently based in Oakland, California, alto saxophonist Aram Shelton initially rose to prominence as a member of the fertile Chicago jazz scene, where he resided from 1999-2005. His tenure in the Windy City resulted in a number of lasting relationships; one of the most notable is his Quartet with tenor saxophonist Keefe Jackson, bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Tim Daisy. Featuring some of Chicago's finest young improvisers, Everything for Somebody is the group's sophomore release, following These Times, its 2010 ...
read moreAram Shelton: Everything For Somebody
by Mark Corroto
Alto saxophonist Aram Shelton cannot break his Chicago habit. We're not talking that monkey woman Joe Williams used to sing about, back in the day. Shelton, who left Chicago a few years back for the Bay area of California, returns to the windy city often, both physically and for its sound.His second quartet recording, like These Times (Singlespeed Music, 2010) lands smack-dab on the Midwestern map. The saxophonist recruited three Chicagoans--saxophonist Keefe Jackson (Jason Stein Quartet, Josh Berman, ...
read moreKjell Nordeson / Aram Shelton: Incline
by Glenn Astarita
The avant-garde schema is sort of an open-world platform where almost anything goes. But Incline is an album that sheds a radiant light on the sax-drums duo format, featuring an inordinate degree of textural components and a seamless integration of two like-minded artists, performing on similar planes. Here, Swedish drummer Kjell Nordeson and American alto saxophonist Aram Shelton opt for a reclusive setting, tucked away in the mountains at a cabin in Lake Tahoe, NV. Perhaps all or most distractions ...
read moreAram Shelton Quartet: These Times
by Mark Corroto
It is easy to admire the audacity of Aram Shelton's quartet. Not that the reedman writes insolent and defiant music; but given the attention-grab improvisers are facing today, he is so very loyal to the melody. This group is quartet subset of his Fast Citizens sextet, minus trumpet and cello, here, pairing things down to tenor saxophonist Keefe Jackson, bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Marc Riordan. While melody plays a large part in his other projects--like Dragons 1976, ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 11
