Jazz Articles

Daily articles including interviews, profiles, live reviews, film reviews and more... all 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.

Album Review

The Yellowjackets: Parallel Motion

by Peter Jones
November 6, 2022

Of the original 1977 members of the Yellowjackets, all but keyboards man Russell Ferrante departed long ago. But saxophonist Bob Mintzer, who joined in 1991, is still there and, to a large extent, the idea also lingers on: we hear echoes of it in the work of Snarky Puppy, for example. That idea was/is Californian jazz-funk. But how do you keep it sounding fresh after 45 years and 26 albums (27 if you count the one with Bobby ...

Album Review

Emmet Cohen: Uptown In Orbit

by Mike Jurkovic
October 12, 2022

Pianist/composer/educator/impresario Emmet Cohen has proven himself time and time again to be one of the guiding lights of 21st century jazz. And he may have/could have single-handedly saved our collective sanity and jazz's continued rise and relevance when, in the face of a world plague, he began streaming Live From Emmet's Place from his apartment in Harlem. First it was Cohen and his trusty trio mates, bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole. Then the sessions expanded to include such ...

Album Review

Connie Han: Secrets of Inanna

by Mike Jurkovic
September 18, 2022

If, when first pressing play on Connie Han's charismatic Secrets of Inanna, you think you have stumbled upon a previously unheard Chick Corea tune with Hubert Laws at its heart and soul, it is okay, calm down, relax. It is just pianist Han (with the help of soulful alto flute and piccolo by Katisse Buckingham ) setting the feisty vibe of drummer/producer collaborator Bill Wysaske's “Prima Materia," and getting her head primed for the meteor's tail to follow.

Album Review

Joey Alexander: Origin

by Peter Jones
July 5, 2022

Pianist Joey Alexander was never going to spend his life churning out standards. You could tell from his reimagined version of “Giant Steps," the first track on his 2015 debut album, which begins with a dazzling two-minute solo introduction. The same album also features an original tune, the prowling “Ma Blues." It was clearly only going to be a matter of time before he came up with an all-originals album, and so it is with this, his sixth outing. Meanwhile ...

Album Review

Cameron Graves: Live From the Seven Spheres

by Mike Jurkovic
April 27, 2022

Since bursting on to the scene full-birthed as part of the West Coast Get Down collective spotlighted on Kamasi Washington's truly epic debut, The Epic (Brainfeeder, 2015), fire-balling pianist Cameron Graves, even when entertaining his inner Chopin, comes at the listener with a force and fury that blows the doors in, windows out, senses to smithereens. Live From the Seven Spheres continues the onslaught Graves ignited on his flame-throwing debut, Planetary Prince (Mack Avenue, 2017) and the equally ...

Album Review

Christian McBride: Live at the Village Vanguard

by Edward Blanco
February 20, 2022

Bassist Christian McBride records his first live album with his highly-acclaimed quintet known as the Inside Straight, documenting an incredible evening of music on Live At The Village Vanguard. The album showcases outstanding performances from every member of the band. It is McBride's twelfth release on Mack Avenue and it was the Inside Straight quintet that began the bassist's collaboration with Mack Avenue in 2009. After a week-long sold-out debut appearance by the group at New York's jazz club in ...

Album Review

Kenny Garrett: Sounds From The Ancestors

by Ian Patterson
December 24, 2021

On Sounds from the Ancestors, Kenny Garrett's fifth album for Mack Avenue and his first since Do You Dance! (Mack Avenue 2016), the former saxophonist for both Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis, turns to the past for inspiration. From the Motown and gospel music he was weaned on as a youth growing up in Detroit, to the the hard bop of Blakey and post-bop of John Coltrane , Garrett wears his influences proudly on his sleeve on this ...