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
Cedric Caillaud Trio & Harry Allen: Emma's Groove
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
What if bassist Cedric Caillaud's sophomore effort had been recorded at Rudy van Gelder's fabled Englewood Cliffs studio and released on Blue Note Records in 1959, rather than France in 2009? The sound of Patrick Cabon's piano might have been slightly less warm (succumbing to engineer van Gelder's tendency to render pianos with a metallic tinge). Probably a bit of the players phrasing might have struck some listeners as vaguely futuristic--but not too much, really.Overall, though, qualities appreciated ...
read moreJean-Paul Elysee: Pourtant...
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Pourtant..., from Parisian vocalist Jean-Paul Elysee would not likely have popped up on AAJ's radar had it not been released on Aphrodite Records, a solidly all-jazz label. While decidedly jazz-accented, this record is another animal altogether, a contemporary heir of the French chanson tradition of Georges Brassens and Boris Vian.As such, this music is small-combo stuff, relying heavily on barely-audible but always evident guitar strumming; sophisticated yet immediately catchy melodies, like Elysee's historical models. There is a mix ...
read moreWilliam Chabbey: At Home
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
On At Home, guitarist William Chabbey and his group turn in a performance with all the buoyant self-assurance of an early-'60s Blue Note date. Of course, what distinguished the Blue Note records of that period from those of other labels was that the company paid for a day of rehearsal in addition to the recording date: the records consequently sounded both fresh and well prepared. These days so many new records sound exceedingly well-rehearsed: strangely enough, the difficult bit is ...
read moreSylvain Del Campo: Eclipsis
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Saxophonist Sylvain del Campo's quartet is the sort of group favored by Aphrodite Records label boss Jean-Jacques Grabowski: earnest journeymen who, in the midst of uniformly good performances, manage from time to time to pull off remarkable moments.For del Campo, the remarkable moments begin early on Eclipsis, with a frenetic sax-plus-drums passage midway through the opening track, “Epicentre"; though Del Campo's instrument is the alto saxophone, here he places himself squarely and athletically in the lineage of both ...
read moreStephane Morilla 5tet: Facon Puzzle
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
These are boom times indeed for fans of the Fender Rhodes in jazz. You have Craig Taborn in Chris Potter's Underground and Uri Caine in Dave Douglas's Quintet. Not so far back, we were even treated to six newly issued hours of Keith Jarrett's gloriously mind-bending early experiments with the instrument with Miles Davis on The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Sony BMG Legacy, 2005).Between the Jarrett era and the more recent innovations of Taborn and Caine (among others), ...
read moreOlivier Robin / Sebastien Jarrousse Quintet: Dream Time
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Since Van Halen II (1979), if not before, the sophomore curse has beset bands' second albums. After a lifetime of collecting material for the first record, the short calendar for the follow-up imposes a harsh discipline that is not always friendly to the artist. Well, that might have been Van Halen's excuse, anyway; in jazz, the same logic doesn't necessarily apply.
This sophomore effort from the quintet led by drummer Olivier Robin and saxophonist Sébastien Jarrousse ...
read moreBruno Thieblemont Group: Septieme couleur
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Bruno Thieblemont is a classically trained musician, having studied the oboe and percussion, and played with various chamber music and orchestral ensembles in France. He's led a double musical life, though, playing jazz vibes and forming his own quintet in 2006. The quintet's début is Septième couleur.On balance, the album hews a middle path between rigorous intellectualism--the kind of music you admire more than you dig--and warm soulfulness, although the balance is ultimately skewed toward the brainier side.
read moreAlex Terrier Quintet: Stop Requested
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Saxophonist George Garzone has high praise for his protégé Alex Terrier, and indeed the young saxophonist exhibits many of the same qualities associated with his one-time teacher: a compelling logic in the construction of his long solos accompanied by a ready recourse to the outer reaches of the vocabulary that both players have inherited from John Coltrane. That Garzone himself is part of the quintet on five of the nine tracks of Terrier's début is welcome news, even ...
read moreLudovic de Preissac Septet: Retrouvailles
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Pianist Ludovic de Preissac's new record reminds me why I fell in love with jazz in the first place; in both a very general and specific sense.Generally, in the sense that Retrouvailles evinces, from beginning to end, that paradoxical mixture of solidarity in the pursuit of a collective goal, together with competitive individual excellence that makes jazz great. There is unstinting excellence and unflagging attention to detail; all the while knowing that no one is likely ...
read moreCedric Caillaud Trio: June 26
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Jean-Michel Reisser, in his thoughtful liner notes to bassist Cédric Caillaud's trio début, argues that French jazz has excelled in producing top-flight bassists. The late Pierre Michelot, a veteran of Miles Davis's L'ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Fontana, 1957), would be the granddaddy of that confrérie. Reisser reminds us of others: Patrice Caratini, Henri Texier, and Pierre Boussaguet, who was the young Caillaud's mentor.Another bassist is mentioned a couple of times by Caillaud in his remarks in the liner notes, ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 7
