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 Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

Album Review

Mark McGrain: Love + Time + Divination

Read "Love + Time + Divination" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 22, 2018

When Crescent City trombonist Mark McGrain first conceived of this album, it was a way to honor his parents by visiting some of their favorite songs from the '30s and '40s. In the end, he remained faithful to his core mission while broadening the repertoire to include far more than familiar glimpses of the past. Love + Time + Divination, a drummer-less trio date enhanced with a few appearances from New Orleans vocal treasure John Boutté, contains ...

Album Review

Plunge: In For The Out

Read "In For The Out" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
March 12, 2016

Trombonist Mark McGrain is one of those guys who follows his own muse. Though he's not particularly prolific, each of his albums as a leader feature some truly profound music-making. In for the Out is no exception. On his fourth album as a leader, McGrain has re-invented himself, playing with an expanded New Orleans-based group and with a completely revamped sound. Tin Fish Tango (Immersion Media, 2011) and Dancing on Thin Ice (Immersion Media, 2009), also recorded in New Orleans ...

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Album Review

Plunge: Tin Fish Tango

Read "Tin Fish Tango" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 17, 2011

Plunge is a drummer-less trio, featuring leader/trombonist Mark McGrain teamed with bassist James Singleton. The “no drums" approach allows flexibility in the music's time element, and a fluidity of the flow of notes, while horns and bass make room for space as a major component of the sound.The slippery tango of the title track to Plunge's third CD, Tin Fish Tango, opens the disc, featuring brief, concise soloing, entwined with jaunty bass lines. McGrain and saxophonist Tim Green ...

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Album Review

Plunge: Dancing on Thin Ice

Read "Dancing on Thin Ice" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
December 4, 2009

There is a plangorous significance to Dancing on Thin Ice. Built on the symbolic thin ice of New Orleans' ecology, it depicts a city that has bounced back from Katrina but only just. It also tells a broader allegorical tale about the planet's teeter-tottering cultural ecology--hence the cover silhouettes of a mastodon and hammerhead shark, representing the strength of all that lives on earth and in the depths of the ocean, and all that makes jazz strong, pliant and enduring. ...