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.

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Album Review

Steve Blanco / Jeremy Wilms: Semblance

Read "Semblance" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 17, 2008

Semblance, from the duo of pianist Steve Blanco and guitarist Jeremy Wilms, is an intriguing, multifaceted and ambitious work. Of the fourteen tracks, fully half are improvised, demonstrating lightning-sharp musical reflexes. Blanco and Wilms share the compositional credits on six tracks, with the remaining track being Marvin Gaye's “What's Goin' On." In any duo, regardless of instrumentation, the interaction between the players is especially critical to the success of the music. There is literally no place to ...

156

Album Review

Aafje van Summeren: Space Unknown

Read "Space Unknown" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
September 25, 2006

With a delicate and airy but accurate voice, Aafjie van Summeren weaves a musically seductive spell on Space Unknown. Of the eight tunes, five are originals co-written with Steve Blanco, whose trio recently released Contact. Summeren is accompanied by Blanco and Adam Roberts, the bassist who added so much to Contact. Roberts is so strong that the drums are not missed, and Blanko's piano playing is as much on display as Summeren's singing. The effect at times ...