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

Geof Bradfield, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Dana Hall: Open Or Close

Read "Open Or Close" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 21, 2026

A quartet of notable jazz artists--two from Midwestern Illinois, the others imported from the West Coast--venture far out on a limb to spruce up Open or Close, recorded in November 2025 at Chicago's popular Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. The foursome obviously had a game plan, and the audience at the Green Mill seems to have been on board with that. But when said plan consists for the most part of drab and disorderly melodies and unwieldy ...

Album Review

Tommy Muellner: Solitary Moon

Read "Solitary Moon" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 4, 2026

Pianist Tommy Muellner, a fixture on the Chicago-area jazz scene for many years, has not recorded often--Solitary Moon is only his second album as leader, following 1998's (All) About Time. That is a 28-year span between visits to the studio, more than numerous careers, let alone recording sessions. This is by and large lovely music, and easy on the ear. Nearly half of the album's 15 refreshing numbers were taken from the Great American Songbook, and most of those ...

Album Review

Tommy Muellner: Solitary Moon

Read "Solitary Moon" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 15, 2026

Today's hipster jazz musicians do not play standards. Perhaps “poseur" is a better description for artists who deliberately eschew classic compositions. Yet standards and familiar songs serve an important purpose in jazz: they provide a shared musical language, a lingua franca through which musicians communicate and listeners can measure the quality of an interpretation. Maybe, just maybe, the poseurs avoid standards because they don't want to be found out. Chicago pianist Tommy Muellner is no poseur. In fact, ...

Album Review

Geof Bradfield / Myra Melford / Ben Goldberg / Dana Hall: Open Or Close

Read "Open Or Close" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 5, 2026

Ornette Coleman may come to mind at the beginning of the spin of Open Or Close. This is understandable. The title song, which opens the set, is from Coleman's pen. Additionally, the jazz collective at work here--reedmen Geof Bradfield and Ben Goldberg, pianist Myra Melford and drummer Dana Hall play loose and free, à la Ornette, with a lot of seat-of-the-pants energy. The sound has a common thread strung out between Coleman's 1968 Blue Note Records album New York Is ...

Album Review

Clark Sommers: WaBaSH

by Jack Bowers
August 7, 2026

Wabash is the name of a river in Indiana and Illinois, an avenue in Chicago and, what is most relevant to this recording, the name of the quartet that performs on the avenue, a respectable group led by bassist Clark Sommers. Sommers' WaBaSH ensemble varies from the quartet norm in that two of its members, John Wojciechowski and Geof Bradfield, are saxophonists (who double on flute and bass clarinet, respectively). The group's fourth member is drummer Dana Hall. ...

Album Review

Arman Sangalang: Waypoints

Read "Waypoints" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 7, 2026

Waypoints, the second recording by Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Arman Sangalang's quartet, continues on a path similar to his first, Arman Sangalang Quartet (Calligram, 2023), leaning on original compositions and closing with a perennially popular standard, Johnny Green's “Body & Soul." Sangalang is a splendid player, blending a strong and persuasive solo voice with precise technique and a bright and pleasing sound. His teammates are similarly adept, lending Sangalang solid and dependable support. The compositional highlight of the program ...

Album Review

Clark Sommers: WaBaSH

by Troy Dostert
July 30, 2026

An integral component of the Chicago-based jazz community, bassist Clark Sommers has honed his craft as a sideman with everyone from Kurt Elling to Jon Irabagon, with a multifaceted fluency that extends from mainstream jazz to more adventurous projects. And from time to time he also gets to flex as a leader, starting with his debut effort in 2013, Ba(SH) (Origin Records), a recording which documented his long-standing trio with fellow Chicago stalwarts Geof Bradfield on saxophone and Dana Hall ...

Album Review

Arman Sangalang: Waypoints

Read "Waypoints" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 29, 2026

Saxophonist Arman Sangalang released his debut record, Quartet (Calligram Records) in 2023. It was a smoldering sax-and-a-rhythm-section quartet outing that sounded surprisingly fresh for a first recording effort. His follow-up, Waypoints, employs the same format, switching out bassist Matt Ulery for Ethan Philion, while keeping guitarist Dave Miller and drummer Devin Drobka. The sophomore effort careens toward expanded freedom, boldly. “I wanted to give them [his quartet cohorts] the freedom to do what they wanted with the music," ...

Album Review

Paul Silbergleit Trio: The Stillness of July

Read "The Stillness of July" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
June 11, 2026

With four previous releases under his belt, guitarist Paul Silbergleit has been a steady presence in the Milwaukee jazz scene since his debut record, Silberglicity, appeared in 1996. But The Stillness of July is his first outing complemented by bassist Clay Schaub and drummer Devin Drobka. This fine trio provides a lithe treatment of several Silbergleit originals and a few well-chosen standards, giving Silbergleit his best opportunity yet to showcase his talents. With a commitment to technical precision ...

Album Review

Brian Citro: Keep Moving (Home)

Read "Keep Moving (Home)" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 2, 2026

The sound of Brian Citro's mellow guitar introduces “Stay Where You Feel," the first of his 14 original compositions on Keep Moving (Home), most of which began life as pieces for solo guitar and were revised by Citro to suit a quartet format. Citro's teammates on this generally pleasing yet largely anodyne session are alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Quin Kirchner. Mazzarella doubles on the seldom-heard Wurlitzer organ. About the only thing that could ...