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

Wadada Leo Smith: Constellations and Hemispheres

Read "Constellations and Hemispheres" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 18, 2026

The listener is easily startled by Wadada Leo Smith. The man has an aura about him that emanates from some other place, some other time, when the rule of law was set in stone. A time not too long ago when collective aspiration held us all enthralled. And the man who carried that stone is none other than the trumpeter himself. Smith's presence also has a mythical essence that, in and of itself, is hardly breaking news. But ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane: At Iridium 2004

Read "At Iridium 2004" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
July 14, 2026

At Iridium 2004 is a vast work. Cecil Taylor also leaves behind similarly vast territories of sound: the 10-disc Feel Trio recordings 2 Ts For A Lovely T (Codanza Records, 1995) or the monumental In Berlin '88 box (FMP, 1989). Within jazz, his music stands like a monolith--challenging and imposing. Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane's At Iridium 2004 continues the tradition. Taylor's hallmark intensity remained undiminished at the Iridium residency. Contemporary accounts suggest that these performances functioned less as ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman/Nate Wooley: Polarity 4

Read "Polarity 4" reviewed by Don Phipps

by Don Phipps
January 19, 2026

On Polarity 4, their fourth album of collaborative improvisations, tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpeter Nate Wooley create a diverse array of soundscapes. The spontaneous compositions exhibit fluid, arcing energy that skips around like a hummingbird darting towards clusters of brightly colored rhododendron blooms. Both musicians demonstrate their trademark virtuosity: Perelman with his supreme embouchure control, and Wooley with his diverse and challenging mouthpiece manipulations. The album consists of nine improvisations--each consisting of unique twists and turns and ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Flashing Spirits

Read "Flashing Spirits" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
June 28, 2025

Jazz never did know how to deal with Cecil Taylor. Does it now? Here is a session from Burning Ambulance from the Outside In Festival in Crawley Sussex recorded on 3rd September 1988. Cecil Taylor was fresh from his sojourn in Berlin where he created an important series of recordings and started working with Tony Oxley, a relationship that proved to be pivotal for both men. The album is issued in conjunction with Leo Feigin who ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Flashing Spirits

Read "Flashing Spirits" reviewed by James Taylor

by James Taylor
June 11, 2025

There is a gift that keeps on giving nature to jazz music. Whether unearthing previously unknown archival recordings or niche labels getting long overdue vinyl re-pressings, fans of the genre have no shortage of new-to-us releases hitting the market every year. Such is the case with Flashing Spirits, the latest release documenting the prolific partnership of pianist Cecil Taylor and drummer Tony Oxley. Captured live at the 1988 Outside in Festival in Crawley, England, the performance consists of ...

Album Review

Anthony Braxton: Quartet (England) 1985

Read "Quartet (England) 1985" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
June 10, 2025

Though Leo Records has previously documented Quartet (London) 1985 (1988); Quartet (Birmingham) 1985 (1991); and Quartet (Coventry) 1985 (1993), Burning Ambulance Music is proud to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the tour with this set of previously unreleased recordings from Liverpool, Sheffield, Leicester, Bristol, Southampton, Leeds, and Huddersfield. Set to be digitally released exclusively on Bandcamp on what would have been Braxton's 80th birthday, (June 4, 2025), Quartet England (1985) is an unhinged glory from start to finish.

Album Review

Ivo Perelman and Nate Wooley: Polarity 3

Read "Polarity 3" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 31, 2025

The stimulating Polarity 3 is the third installment in a series of spontaneous duets between innovative saxophonist Ivo Perelman and equally creative trumpeter Nate Wooley. On these 10 tracks, the two improvisers use silent pauses to craft haunting atmospheres and contemplative melodies. The performances are akin to two complimentary yet independent introspective musings. Languid, wistful tones from both men start off the opener “One." The soft howls and undulating refrains are interspersed in the hypnotic quietude and thus ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman / Nate Wooley: Polarity 2

Read "Polarity 2" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 24, 2023

Polarity 2, the follow up to the first Polarity (Burning Ambulance, 2021) by saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpeter Nate Wooley, is the antithesis of its title. Never could it be said the musicians display opposite or contradictory tendencies with this recording. The best you can say is that the two musicians are the opposite sides of the same coin. To say the currency, they trade in is extended technique on their instruments does not do justice to just how revolutionary ...

Album Review

Matthew Shipp / Whit Dickey: Reels

by Karl Ackermann
August 4, 2021

Matthew Shipp has managed his way through the 2020-2021 pandemic nicely, thanks in part to a substantial cache of excellent material. Free-jazz drummer Whit Dickey has been working with Shipp for decades, beginning with David S. Ware's quartet. Since 2012 Shipp and Dickey have worked frequently with Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman. Dickey has been part of Shipp's trio and, in 2020, the pair teamed for a duo/trio release, Morph (ESP Disk). The duo debut was half of a double-disk set ...