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.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Smooth Elevator: Moving Target
by Doug Collette
With a band name that bespeaks fluid motion in the general direction of ascent, Smooth Elevator has set a high bar for itself. But the international trio of guitarist Will Bernard, bassist Danilo Gallo and drummer Gioele Pagliaccia wisely recorded Moving Target live in the studio, fresh from live dates, and, in so doing, captured the purity of their instrumental dynamic over the course of a baker's dozen selections. Taking into account such serendipity, it is thus little ...
Continue ReadingIngi Bjarni Skúlason: Hope
by Glenn Astarita
Ingi Bjarni Skúlason's seventh album, Hope, released on January 17, 2025, is a poignant exploration of grief and resilience, exquisitely woven into a Nordic jazz tapestry. This Icelandic pianist and composer, joined by truly estimable artists--Anders Jormin on double bass, Hilmar Jensson on guitar and Magnús Trygvason Eliassen on drums--crafts a soundscape that is both introspective and expansively beautiful. The quartet's synergy, finely honed at the Reykjavik Jazz Festival, shines across nine tracks, each a quiet meditation on loss and ...
Continue ReadingPericopes + 1: Good Morning World!
by Glenn Astarita
The press announcement accurately states: “Periscopes +1 is an Italian trio project with roots in European tradition, African American music, and improvisation, and an affinity for melody and compositional structure, mixed with other post-rock/prog/avant-garde/electronic influences." This is the band's fourth album, characterized by an ultramodern vibe. The group's fourth album, Good Morning World, proves these sonic alchemists have not lost their taste for musical mayhem. The trio--Emi Vernizzi on saxophone and electronics, Claudio Vignali on piano and Fender ...
Continue ReadingDario Miranda: La Dormiente
by Glenn Astarita
Jazz is not just music; it is a conversation and Dario Miranda is one smooth-talking storyteller. His latest album, La Dormiente, is not merely a collection of tracks; it is an auditory odyssey that pirouettes between the traditional and the avant-garde with the grace of a classically trained dancer wearing electric sneakers. From the moment “Dolce Rumore" whispers its first notes, Miranda's double bass becomes less of an instrument and more of a narrative voice. Joined by Giovanni ...
Continue ReadingPer Mathisen: Sounds of 3 Edition 3
by Geno Thackara
It was just a matter of time until Norwegian bassist Per Mathisen brought this series to its logical conclusion. Where the first Sounds of 3 (Losen, 2016) pounded the floor with hard-rocking grooves, and its followup Sounds of 3 Edition 2 (Losen, 2019) went a bit subtler and jazzier, Edition 3 drops the fusion blueprint entirely. With another new and versatile pair of fellow travelers on board, Mathisen takes a left turn into impressionistic territory and paints some aural pictures ...
Continue ReadingLorenzo De Finti Quartet: Mysterium Lunae
by Geno Thackara
Where so much music (like life itself) became permanently divided between the Covid-19 age and the world before, there were some creations here and there that bridged both sides of the gap. Lorenzo de Finti happened to have this set in progress when the first shutdowns hit, but suddenly ended up cut off from his home and studio for four months. The enforced isolation and contemplation inevitably seeped into the music once he could get back to work, then inevitably ...
Continue ReadingSverre Gjørvad: Time To Illuminate Earth
by Pat Youngspiel
Recorded in July 2021, mixed and mastered in September and released in October. Now that's what a tight release schedule looks like. Frisellian shimmer and sparsely percussive drumming return on Sverre Gjørvad's follow-up to the surprisingly resonant Elegy of Skies (Losen Records, 2020). The short period of time it took to produce Time To Illuminate Earth doesn't reflect the length of the music's effect. Gjørvad builds on the strengths of his earlier album--an eerie minimalism paired with pristine acoustics—and adds ...
Continue ReadingTrøen Arnesen Quartet: Tread Lightly
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The line that separates borrowing from stealing can be quite narrow in music, and even after judges rule on the matter, one may remain torn between the one and the other. It continues to be a very common issue in the mainstream pop world as the recent ruling against pop stars Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for ripping off Marvin Gaye's “Got to Give It Up" in their 2013 world-wide number 1 hit “Blurred Lines" shows. Although not nearly as ...
Continue ReadingArne Torvik: Northwestern Songs
by Friedrich Kunzmann
A vibrant modern jazz hub, Norway is famous for having introduced the likes of Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Jon Christensen and Arild Andersen to the international jazz landscape--all of whom had brought something fundamentally new to the jazz tradition in the '70s. As chance would have it, each of the mentioned heavyweights were also mainly at home with the Munich-based ECM label, whose head and main director Manfred Eicher knew then and continues to know today how to best sonically ...
Continue ReadingRubber Soul Quartet: Blackbird
by Geno Thackara
It's doubtless impossible for anyone to avoid some degree of cliché when tackling The Beatles yet again. Of course there have been covers beyond count, and even adapting the band's songs to other genres (jazz not least among them) is well-trodden ground. Still, this quartet does a solidly enjoyable job in going for playfulness more than pastiche. The success of any such tribute also depends on the sincerity of the performance, and on that count they deliver perfectly. The group's ...
Continue Reading
