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 future articles page. Read our daily album reviews.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Cassie Kinoshi: Gratitude
by Chris May
Although she emerged on the British jazz scene as part of the cohort of saxophonists associated with London's post-2015 underground scene--among them Nubya Garcia, Binker Golding, Camilla George and Shabaka Hutchings--alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi has always stood somewhat apart. Her membership of the Afrobeat-inspired band Kokoroko placed her firmly in that underground scene, but her embrace of the Western classical tradition has given her aesthetic trajectory singularity. She has collaborated with London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra, and ...
read moreRuth Goller: Skyllumina
by Chris May
The Italian-born, British-based bassist and composer Ruth Goller has been rattling jazz's cage since 2007, the year she joined Acoustic Ladyland. The band was in the vanguard of what became known as “jazz punk," although its sound was closer to metal than classic punk, and the lineup included tenor saxophonist Pete Wareham and drummer Sebastian Rochford. Four years later, Acoustic Ladyland disbanded and Goller and Wareham morphed into Melt Yourself Down, where they were joined by tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings ...
read moreJaimie Branch: Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))
by Chris May
As the malign forces of Amerikkka gather for their 2024 assault on truth, justice and democracy, an assault from which, if it is successful, there may be no peaceable reversal available four years down the line, the American jazz world should hang its head in shame. Denunciations of and opposition to the rise of domestic neo-fascism have been mostly confined to rock and hip hop. In jazz, with some noble exceptions, it has been business as usual. Now, in autumn ...
read moreRob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Lightning Dreamers
by Mark Corroto
The similarities between Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra and Sun Ra's Arkestra are numerous. Both leaders travel the spaceways via the technologies available in their time, applied through dynamic rhythm and pulse. For Ra, his sound began when he was an apprentice in Fletcher Henderson's band in the 1940s, and Mazurek's 1990s work revolved around Isotope 217 and the various Chicago Underground (and later São Paulo Underground) ensembles. Both bandleaders were composers of their time, nonetheless they always create music ...
read moreCharles Stepney: Step By Step
by Chris May
Chicago born, bred and buttered, the composer, arranger and producer Charles Stepney (1931-76) lived and worked on the porous boundary between jazz and funk which has existed since James Brown first got on the good foot. As a staff producer for the Chess label in the 1960s, and later as an independent, Stepney worked on recordings by Rotary Connection, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Terry Callier, Ramsey Lewis and Earth, Wind & Fire, among many others. Prominent among ...
read moreDezron Douglas: Atalaya
by Chris May
Atalaya is Dezron Douglas' first full-length album leading a band in over four years. The bassist's recent sightings have whet the appetite rather than deliver the main course. Black Lion (Self Produced, 2018), made with a sextet, attracted good notices, but was an EP. His appearance on drummer Makaya McCraven's Universal Beings (International Anthem, 2018) was confined to one side of that double album. Force Majeure (International Anthem, 2020) was a collection of livestream duets made with his partner, harpist ...
read moreJeff Parker: Forfolks
by Karl Ackermann
Guitarist/composer Jeff Parker is closely associated with indie group Tortoise and Rob Mazurek's Chicago Underground and Exploding Star Orchestra projects, but the scope of his work is extensive. The Bridgeport, Connecticut native has worked in numerous genres and technologies, and with a varied range of artists including, Joshua Redman, Nicole Mitchell, Yo La Tengo, Matana Roberts, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Nels Cline, George Lewis and Fred Anderson. Parker has recorded eight albums as a leader but with the release of Suite ...
read moreCarlos Niño: More Energy Fields, Current
by Chris May
Los Angeles-based percussionist, producer and sometime radio DJ Carlos Niño is active in jazz and new age music. His new age work, though immaculately crafted, is of limited interest from an AAJ perspective. But his jazz projects repay close attention. An early landmark was Horace (Elephant, 2001), singer Dwight Trible's salute to pianist, bandleader and community activist Horace Tapscott, which Niño co-produced with Trible. More recently, Niño has worked with saxophonist Kamasi Washington, who guested on Carlos Niño & Friends' ...
read moreDamon Locks Black Monument Ensemble: Now
by Chris May
Chicago-based collective Black Monument Ensemble's sophomore album was recorded in September 2020 at the intersection of various existential crises, as seen from a US perspective: the threat of Trump winning the presidential election, by fair means or foul; the rising tide of fascist ideology; extrajudicial murders of, in particular but not exclusively, black Americans; a galloping pandemic; economic chaos; and social isolation. Given the circumstances, it is no surprise that Now sounds apocalyptic. But it is also ...
read moreIrreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You?
by Gareth Thompson
Irreversible Entanglements first came together to perform at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event in 2015, after the killing of Akai Gurley by the NYPD. Who Sent You? is their second album and was released in March 2020, two months before George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis. A five-piece collective, Irreversible Entanglements feature the voice and texts of Camae Ayewa, aka Moor Mother. An artist and activist from Philadelphia, her other works include the ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 11
