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

Confusion Project: IDENTITY

Read "IDENTITY" reviewed by Acacia Grace

by Acacia Grace
October 2, 2026

What does it sound like when a jazz trio looks to its own cultural roots to define where it is going next? For Polish trio Confusion Project, the answer is Identity-an expansive, cinematic project that brings contemporary jazz together with fusion, progressive elements, and the rhythmic character of the Polish mazurka. The trio consists of Michal Ciesielski on piano, Piotr Gierszewski on bass, and Adam Golicki on drums. They have spent more than a decade developing their musical language, and with ...

Album Review

Noa Levy & Paul Edis Trio: Portrait In Evans

Read "Portrait In Evans" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
April 26, 2026

Vocals and lyrics are often added to tracks that their composers intended as instrumentals. When those instrumentals form part of the legacy of pianist Bill Evans, the potential for something to go wrong is considerable. Fortunately, nearly everything goes right for singer Noa Levy and the Paul Edis Trio, as their shared devotion to Evans' music sparkles throughout Portrait In Evans. For many listeners, Evans' melodies and touch are so deeply ingrained that anything new may feel odd ...

Album Review

Red Norvo: The Secret Session

Read "The Secret Session" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
February 11, 2026

Red Norvo's The Secret Session arrives like a message in a bottle, its cork finally loosened after more than 80 years. Recorded in late 1942, in the dead of night and against the grain of wartime caution and a recording ban called by the American Federation of Musicians union, these sides capture a septet caught between eras. Besides Norvo, the band featured musicians who would go on to become stars in their own right, including trumpeter Shorty Rogers, trombonist Eddie ...

Album Review

Gil Evans Remembered: Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC)

Read "Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC)" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
November 26, 2024

Few people have a better right to remember Gil Evans than these musicians. The serrated wail of this band enraptured, touched and torched the listeners. It is easy to see why musicians from the Monday Night Band would want to play, creating under Evans' beatific musical vision. It must have been inspiring. Most of the musicians on the album played sometime over the years at Sweet Basil from 1983 to Evans' death and even beyond. He loved the way that ...

Album Review

Rachel Z: Sensual

Read "Sensual" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 28, 2024

Whatever her impetus--be it the loss of her parents or peans to a shared sense of hearth, home and heaven--pianist/composer Rachel Z's thirteenth full length album, Sensual, bares a sincere, hopeful humanity. Buoyed by a sense of survival, Sensual opens as if it were a letter, closing with the Foo Fighters' crotch-kick raise-the-roof-'n-rile-'em-up “These Days." Sensual pulls one in fast and fully with the keenly seductive opener, “Save My Soul." It dances. It stirs. Z, whose ...

Album Review

Harvie S, Roni Ben-Hur with Sylvia Cuenca: Wondering

Read "Wondering" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
April 4, 2023

One of the drawbacks of being a consummate sideman is that it can be hard to find time for one's own projects as a leader. That is certainly the case for bassist Harvie S who, in a long career, has distinguished himself with superb work in support of Sheila Jordan, Don Friedman, Alan Broadbent, and many others; however, the sheer quantity of those efforts can cause his own releases to fall through the cracks. Hopefully that will not be the ...

Album Review

Dave Liebman: Selflessness - The Music of John Coltrane

Read "Selflessness - The Music of John Coltrane" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 4, 2021

It is always nice to have a goal in life, something that urges you to arise in the morning and face the day ahead. For saxophonist Dave Liebman, that goal means catching the “Trane" he has been chasing for more than sixty years--ever since, as a teenager, he first saw the legendary John Coltrane at Birdland in New York City. It is an admirable goal, made even more tantalizing because it is one that Liebman is quite sure he has ...

Album Review

Dave Liebman's Expansions: Selflessness - The Music of John Coltrane

Read "Selflessness - The Music of John Coltrane" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
October 17, 2021

Finding one's inspiration in an iconic figure like John Coltrane presents a huge challenge for any musician. The sheer scope of the master's vision and the uniqueness of his instrumental voice can become overwhelming—particularly if the ultimate aim is to forge one's own path. But over a long and highly accomplished career, Dave Liebman has managed to do just that, even if it meant that for a time he had to break free of Coltrane's shadow by setting aside his ...

Album Review

Roni Ben-Hur: Stories

Read "Stories" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
June 11, 2021

Guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, originally from Israel, has absorbed a lot of different cultures and styles into his music. That is reflected on this CD in the variety of music played here: straight ahead jazz as well as Latin and Middle Eastern folk melodies. Mexican singer Magos Herrera brings a sense of husky passion to the songs “La Serena" and “A Redoblar" that sits nicely beside Ben-Hur's warm guitar chords, Ingrid Jensen's soaring trumpet and George Cables' crafty piano ...

Album Review

Roni Ben-Hur: Stories

by John Chacona
June 6, 2021

Guitarist Roni Ben-Hur is an old soul. Uninterested in ostentation, the Israeli-born guitarist has been content to release a series of warm-hearted recordings that favor partnership over pomposity. Half his 12 leader dates have been duets or are co-credited. Stories isn't one of them, but it might as well be. This is an ensemble recording, patient and glowing with wisdom. Ben-Hur is helped by the elder masters he often chooses to bring gravity and wisdom to his dates. ...