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

Mads Tolling Quartet: Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty

Read "Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 9, 2012

Mads Tolling spent nine prominent years with the Turtle Island Quartet; here, with his quartet, the Grammy Award-winning violinist hails Jean Luc-Ponty at Yoshi's jazz venue in Oakland, CA. Tolling contributes two original compositions to complement six Ponty-penned works, amid other pieces culled from the legendary French violinist's expansive discography. It's a bit sleeker, when directly contrasting Ponty's epic jazz-fusion Enigmatic Ocean (Atlantic, 1977). But Tolling turns up the heat via his intensely soaring unison choruses with ...

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Album Review

Mads Tolling: The Playmaker

Read "The Playmaker" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins

by Woodrow Wilkins
January 11, 2010

Former wide receiver Michael Irvin earned his nickname, “The Playmaker," for his leadership and performance with the Dallas Cowboys. Violinist Mads Tolling honors several others whose play-making proficiency has helped their teams, whether in the athletic arena or on the stage. A two-time Grammy Award-winner, Tolling is a native of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a member of the Turtle Island Quartet, but has also performed with Al Di Meola, Kenny Barron, Paquito D'Rivera and Leo Kottke. For The ...