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

Jack Mouse Group: Intimate Adversary

Read "Intimate Adversary" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
November 22, 2018

The great Spanish cellist Pablo Casals would sometimes refer to his instrument as his “intimate adversary." Illinois drummer/composer Jack Mouse has borrowed the term as title for a laid-back, carefully orchestrated piece, which he plans as the first movement of a two-part suite. It's the most ambitious number on this, the album of the same name, and some of the ensemble parts have an appropriately Spanish tinge to them. Mouse draws on a wide variety of sources ...

Album Review

Jack Mouse & Scott Robinson: Snakeheads & Ladybugs

Read "Snakeheads & Ladybugs" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 25, 2014

This may be a brand new release for 2015, but it's been thirty years in the making. Drummer Jack Mouse and man-of-many-horns Scott Robinson have been contemplating putting together an album of freely-improvised duets since the '80s, and now they've finally found the time and place to make it happen. Snakeheads & Ladybugs presents a dozen aural concoctions that mark these men as players with big ears and strong communicative skills. Mouse and Robinson relish the opportunity ...

Album Review

Jack Mouse & Scott Robinson: Snakeheads & Ladybugs

Read "Snakeheads & Ladybugs" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 14, 2014

Jack Mouse plays drums; Scott Robinson plays almost everything else. So even though the word “duets" is (properly) used to describe their two-part collaboration on Snakeheads & Ladybugs, the album's concept and resolution go far beyond that. For example, there are no written compositions here, simply perceptive and spontaneous improvisation between two inordinately accomplished musicians. Free jazz? That label would not be misused. There are, on the other hand, prescribed conventions and boundaries to which both participants adhere. Even in ...