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

David Janeway: David Janeway Trio/Live At Blue Llama

Read "David Janeway Trio/Live At Blue Llama" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
May 26, 2026

Live at Blue LLama by the David Janeway Trio was recorded in June 2024 at the Blue LLama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it is the kind of album that is unforced, deeply conversational, and grounded in a shared musical trust. Pianist Janeway has long valued rhythmic authority and melodic clarity over display and possesses a composer's sense of proportion. He is paired with Billy Hart, a drummer whose influence spans generations, and Robert Hurst, a bassist deeply ...

Album Review

David Janeway: Forward Motion

Read "Forward Motion" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 11, 2024

New York City-based pianist David Janeway began his music journey studying classical music at age five. The move to the Big Apple happened in 1978, and became a permanent move in 1986. He has been a busy presence there for four decades, in various ensemble configurations. Still, he gravitates--especially on recordings--toward the piano trio, with Distant Voices (Steeple Chase, 2021), Interchange (Steeplechase, 2024) and now with Forward Motion, where he is joined by bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Billy Hart. ...

Album Review

Gary Smulyan: Boss Baritones

Read "Boss Baritones" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
September 16, 2024

The once-popular pairings of such incisive hard-blowing saxophonists as Johnny Griffin with Eddie Lockjaw" Davis and Gene Ammons with Sonny Stitt constitute some of the inspiration behind the making of Boss Baritones. Incorporating material penned by Griffin, Davis, Illinois Jacquet, Don Byas and J.R. Monterose indicates a healthy respect for giants who may no longer be in vogue. We can dwell on the significance of these ties to the past if we like. However, they have little to do with ...

Album Review

Andrew Rathbun: The Speed Of Time

Read "The Speed Of Time" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 5, 2023

Not one to avoid concepts and ambitious outings, Andrew Rathbun's to-date masterpiece, The Atwood Suites (Origin Records, 2018), explored the poetry of his countrywoman, writer Margaret Atwood. In 2023, he tackles time. Time is a funny thing. Its perceived speed is malleable. It tends toward an increasing velocity as one moves into middle age and beyond. It can crawl at a snail's pace (during a root canal treatment, for example) and it can race ahead with wild abandon--that ...

Album Review

Burak Bedikyan: Introspection

Read "Introspection" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 14, 2022

Pianist Burak Bedikyan's sixth release on Steeplechase, the absorbing Introspection, took shape around a short, commissioned piece. The organizers of Turkey's oldest jazz festival, the Akbank, asked for the composition for its thirtieth anniversary in 2021. As Bedikyan started work on this, he improvised extensively on his home piano and recorded these experiments. The result is moving and contemplative music which is melancholic yet hopeful, simultaneously ethereal and earthy. The angular “Call for Peace" opens with sparse chimes ...

Album Review

David Janeway: Distant Voices

Read "Distant Voices" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 16, 2021

In 2017 pianist David Janeway offered his Secret Passages, a trio outing featuring bassist Frank Tate and drummer Chuck Zeuren. He proves, in 2021, that he can change partners without losing an ounce of swing or even a shot glass of verve. It is Cameron Brown on bass this time out, with Billy Hart sitting in the drum chair. Both are serious, elevate-the-music guys, while Janeway continues with his sprightly cerebralism and crystalline-touch way of making music. Distant ...

Album Review

Allegra Levy: Lose My Number

Read "Lose My Number" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
December 7, 2020

Allegra Levy is a young singer who has made a reputation for herself through her witty songwriting and performing. She has sung a lot of her own songs on previous releases but on this one, she changes things slightly by writing her own lyrics to the music of trumpet player John McNeil. McNeil was Levy's mentor at the New England Conservatory and she complements his slightly off-balance tunes with lyrics that range from the dark and sardonic to ...

Album Review

Noah Preminger: Contemptment

Read "Contemptment" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 14, 2020

If you followed saxophonist Noah Preminger's early career you might have read an interview where he revealed his fascination with boxing. The fact that he trained in the sweet science for nearly a decade while making music is evident in the pugilistic blues heard on self-released albums Pivot: Live At The 55 Bar (2015) and Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground (2016). On those two recordings and Genuinity (Criss Cross, 2018), he had a perfect sparring partner in ...

Album Review

Andy Fusco: Remembrance

Read "Remembrance" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
August 23, 2020

Since 2016 SteepleChase Records has released five discs by alto saxophonist Andy Fusco. This impressive, often stunning body of work goes a long way in raising the profile of a man who had seldom been given the opportunity to record under his own name. While Fusco leads the sessions, he's the antithesis of a star or domineering force. Aside from his prowess on the horn, he possesses an unusual talent for putting together bands of uniquely talented individuals and choosing ...

Album Review

John Hart: Act Three

Read "Act Three" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 5, 2020

Guitarist John Hart has long had an affinity for working with groups that feature the organ as a primary instrument. Having worked with Jimmy Smith and logged a 16-year tenure with organist Jack McDuff, the guitarist now presents Act Three, yet another project with another organ master, this time New York-based keyboardist Gary Versace on the Hammond B3 organ. Versace is one of the most in-demand musicians on the jazz scene today. Rounding out Hart's new band ...