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
Sick Boss: Businessless
by Chris May
This bracing sophomore album from Vancouver's improvising sextet Sick Boss resonates with the beyond-genre territory of the late Jaimie Branch's Fly Or Die quartet. At a surface level there is the shared use of trumpet and cello, but deeper than that, Businessless embraces the riot grrrl abandon so beloved of Branch. Echoes of Fly Or Die often crop up: the brief melodic motif of opener “Useless Genius 1" is something Branch might have written, as are episodes on other tracks, ...
read moreThe Ratchet Orchestra: Hemlock
by Ted Harms
Wikipedia defines a ratchet as a mechanical device that allows for motion in only one direction; it also could be a piss-take or deliberate mispronunciation of “rat shit." Certainly the former is more appropriate for The Ratchet Orchestra's Hemlock, from a very large ensemble led by bassist/composer Nicolas Caloia. This group of 30 players is primarily drawn from the huge pool of improvisers based in Montreal, Canada, and the sound, thankfully, isn't just everybody playing all at once-- though there ...
read moreThe Peggy Lee Band: Invitation
by Ted Harms
This is the fifth album, and second on Drip Audio, of Vancouver-based cellist Peggy Lee's ensemble. The Peggy Lee Band members are all solid players, and each has their turn taking the lead through this 11-song recording. The strong tunes occasionally evoke the feel and vibe of guitarist Bill Frisell's early '90s sextet classics This Land (Nonesuch, 1994) and Have a Little Faith (Nonesuch, 1993).The songs range from the vaudeville-esque “Why Are You Yelling," with its spiky yet ...
read moreThe Peggy Lee Band: Invitation
by Troy Collins
Based in Vancouver, Canada since the early 1990s, Canadian cellist Peggy Lee has been steadily building an impressive discography. Invitation is the fifth album by her self-titled band, and the group's second release for Drip Audio. The record encompasses a broad stylistic range, revealing influences as disparate as folksy Americana and exotic Afro-pop--though Lee's harmonically sophisticated arrangements expertly balance composed and improvised elements, yielding a cohesive sum greater than its parts.The Peggy Lee Band features a young Canadian ...
read moreButcher / Muller / van der Schyff: Way Out Northwest
by Sean Patrick Fitzell
British saxophonist John Butcher is a longtime practitioner of spontaneous performances, game for playing with unfamiliar musicians in concert. For the 2007 Vancouver Jazz Festival, he took the stage with local musicians that shared his sensibilities: adventurous bassist Torsten Muller and increasingly ubiquitous drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Way Out Northwest documents the trio's initial outing, a nearly 50-minute performance of six improvisational exercises. Butcher and van der Schyff had previously played as a duo at the ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 5
