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.

Extended Analysis

Hans Zimmer: Interstellar OST

by Nenad Georgievski
May 10, 2015

With audacity and style, director Christopher Nolan has created another visual masterpiece that defines the science fiction genre. The epic Interstellar definitely was one of the most interesting and moving films that came out in 2014. The film itself gave a grim glimpse of the future of mankind and the inevitable cataclysm. The food has run out, the armies are all disbanded and there wasn't much use of technology Because of that NASA has built a sort of a “space ...

Album Review

Philip Glass: Glassworks

Read "Glassworks" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
April 25, 2015

In composer Philip Glass' storied career, Glassworks ranks among his best known and most beloved releases. Published at the start of the '80s it also signaled the more refined style characterized by a more refined intensity than the rough dynamic rush of his swirling melodies executed at breakneck speed. The decade before was characterized by long and loud pieces augmented by the bright edged sounds achieved on keyboards that in turn gave that fierce energy for which his early ensembles ...

Extended Analysis

Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix

by Nenad Georgievski
April 18, 2015

Several decades after his tragic and premature death, Jimi Hendrix looms even more larger and deeper than ever. An intrepid risk taker and untamed musical force that he was, this pre-eminent guitarist of the 20th century achieved his position by treating his guitar rather differently than the others. Fueled by a boundless musical imagination, Hendrix used device he could find in order to amplify the multicolored sounds he heard in his imagination. His premature death at the age of 27, ...

Album Review

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

Read "Kind of Blue" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
March 17, 2015

In any kind of art form, music including, there are pathfinders who probe new territory and establish new trails, and this breed of people is indeed of a rare kind than the many who follow behind and eventually benefit from their trailblazing. One such pathfinder in the 20th century music was the great Miles Davis.Throughout his entire career, Miles was propelled in strange new musical ways which in turn galvanized not only jazz, but contemporary music as well. Unlike some ...

Album Review

Daniel Lanois: For the Beauty of Wynona

Read "For the Beauty of Wynona" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
February 28, 2015

While Daniel Lanois spent most of the '80s and the first years of the '90s honing his craft as a producer, he cautiously emerged as a songwriter and recording artist with Acadie. (Red Floor Records, 1989) A mere four years after this beautiful debut he returned with another intriguing and haunting collection of songs titled For the Beauty of Wynona. Recorded during a period when Lanois was producing landmark records with U2 and Peter Gabriel created a record with startling ...

Album Review

Leonard Cohen: Live in London

Read "Live in London" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
January 11, 2015

The Live in London LP could have easily been Leonard Cohen's last record and the tour that followed it could have easily been a low key farewell tour. Already at the twilight of his career or at an age when most acts go into retirement, Cohen slowly was secluding himself from recordings, performances or public appearances and instead he lived the life of a monk at a Zen monastery. Due to misfortune concerning his former manager, who bled his bank ...

Album Review

Philip Glass: Low Symphony

Read "Low Symphony" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
January 1, 2015

Back in 1977 singer David Bowie released two groundbreaking records, Low (EMI, 1977) and Heroes, (EMI, 1977) which together with Lodger constitute (EMI, 1979) a famous triptych of records or the iconic Berlin Trilogy. It was during this period that he created some of the critically most acclaimed and forward looking music (but commercially less successful) of his entire career. Inspired and excited by the new electronic music coming from Germany (like Neu, Kraftwerk, CAN, Cluster to name but a ...

Extended Analysis

Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers Vol I & II

by Nenad Georgievski
March 22, 2014

Without a doubt, when it comes to blues music and its legacy,guitarist Robert Johnson is its preeminent performer and a key figure. For many, he is the greatest blues man of all time, certainly the most well regarded by modern popular culture. As such, his place in the vanguard of that pantheon has been secured. But his influence involves more than that and was never limited exclusively to blues, but touched all popular music, more so than any other blues ...

Extended Analysis

Philip Glass: The Photographer

by Nenad Georgievski
February 22, 2014

Apart from the recognizable repetitive patterns and melodies that adorn composer Philip Glass' music, there is also one recurring theme that reappears throughout his rich and illustrious career regardless if it is opera, symphony, theatre piece or soundtrack. That is the lives of luminaries, revolutionaries, discoverers, erudite scholars whose lives, words and actions have made a difference in the world and have inspired his music. In a range that includes Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Pharaoh Ankhnaten, Walt Disney, Galileo Galilei, ...

Extended Analysis

John Coltrane: Live at Birdland

by Nenad Georgievski
December 6, 2013

Historically important recordings by artists that are still celebrated today in most cases are those that have transcended the times they were made in. In those cases are seen more as milestones that mark their progress and advancement as artists. Such is the case with saxophonist John Coltrane where each record in his cannon indicates his progress, insatiable curiosity, zealous dedication and appetite for music. Consequently, this semi live recording Live at Birdland is another stop for him and his ...