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

DAMANA: Rhizome

by Troy Dostert
April 24, 2026

Enterprising drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen has been a leading figure in the Norwegian improvised music scene since the 2010s. He has specialized in free encounters, such as those with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, heard most recently to fine effect on Kairos (Fundacja Sluchaj, 2024). But Narvesen also has a developing voice as a composer, and on Rhizome his octet, DAMANA, provides an expansive and colorful palette with which to explore this side of his muse. The album is ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Legacy of Billy Strayhorn, part III: Such Sweet Thunder and The Far East Suite

by Larry Slater
April 24, 2026

Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington recorded a number of musical suites in the 50s and 60s. The Shakespearean Suite “Such Suite Thunder" ranks up there with the greatest Ellington recordings. “The Far East Suite" was another important collaboration and highpoint in the Ellington discography. The band's famous reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, was all Strayhorn. Ellington's last commercial success, “Satin Doll," was written by Strayhorn.This is the third installment of Strayhorn interpretations with modern jazz takes on Strayhorn compositions. ...

Album Review

Sleeping Beast: Sleeping Beast

Read "Sleeping Beast" reviewed by Max Kutner

by Max Kutner
April 24, 2026

The self-titled debut album from Texas-based trio Sleeping Beast is a fascinating document showcasing an engaging, amorphous dialogue between three patient and well-journeyed improvisors. There is a unique, abstract chemistry between Danny Kamins, Thomas Helton, and Lisa Cameron that never ceases to engage and invent. Each player displays remarkable restraint and intense consideration when deciding what to express. The character of their collective is always evident throughout this session. Houston-based Kamins, here on alto saxophone and contra-alto clarinet, has ...

Radio & Podcasts

Stacy Dillard and Keigo Hirakawa

by Daniel Peck
April 24, 2026

A chance meeting with Wynton Marsalis in Dayton, Ohio led Stacy Dillard to New York where the saxophonist thrives fronting three of his own bands that cut across r&b/funk and hip hop and serves as an in-demand sideman. It's also where he met pianist Keigo Hirakawa with whom he partners for this performance. Keigo has spent the last 20 years touring the Midwest with his piano trio and has released three full length albums as a leader including ...

Album Review

Roberto Di Gioia: Web Web - Kover Kover

Read "Web Web - Kover Kover" reviewed by Andy Crowther

by Andy Crowther
April 24, 2026

Web Web are a “German supergroup" releasing mostly their own material on the Munich-based Compost Records. All are heavily influenced by the spiritual sounds of the legendary Black Jazz and Strata East labels, the grooves of ethio-jazz, and the more experimental kraut-rock leanings of bands like Embryo. But their 2025 album Plexus Plexus tellingly included a cover of Moondog's “Bird's Lament." April 2026 sees the release of Kover Kover, where the band cover 14 songs for a whole album in ...

Radio & Podcasts

Potpourri: Part 2

by Monk Rowe
April 24, 2026

We end Season 5 as we began, with a variety of jazz life stories. From piano nightmares to surviving on potatoes and onions, these cats have seen it all. See you on the flip side. ...

Interview

Raphaël Pannier & Khadim Niang: Sabar Jazz, An Historic Summit

by Ian Patterson
April 23, 2026

"Once you have made a decision," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “the universe conspires to make it happen." French drummer Raphaël Pannier may concur, though as a footnote he might also stress the amount of sweat sometimes required to realize one's biggest dreams. Live In Saint Louis, Senegal, a collaboration between Raphaël Pannier Quartet and Khadim Niang & Sabar Group--not only ranks as one of the best jazz albums of 2025, but it also stands out as a groundbreaking ...

Live Review

Marilyn Crispell at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem

by Paul Reynolds
April 23, 2026

Marilyn Crispell The National Jazz Museum in Harlem New York, NY April 16, 2026 What a time this is for Marilyn Crispell. Now 79, the stalwart of avant-garde piano was honored as a 2025 National Endowment of Arts Jazz Master and received a Jazz Legacies Fellowship from the Jazz Foundation of America this February. And her artistry is more than intact--it's evolving and diversifying, as her solo concert in New York last week ...

Album Review

Carlos Malta and Cliff Korman: Saudade do Paulo

Read "Saudade do Paulo" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
April 23, 2026

Like many mid-20th-century jazz albums, Saudade do Paulo was recorded live in the studio (Biscoito Fino studios in Rio de Janeiro), without the sort of overdubs and retakes more typical of 21st-century projects. The release is digital-only, but what it lacks in physicality it makes up for in substantial liner notes and a sound that is intimate and conversational. Independently, the Brazilian flutist and saxophonist Carlos Malta and the American-born Brazil-based pianist and scholar Cliff Korman each had ...

Album Review

Dana Hall/Clark Sommers/Chris Madsen: Threefold

Read "Threefold" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 23, 2026

Threefold, the second recording by the Chicago-based chordless trio of saxophonist Chris Madsen, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Dana Hall, might well be called three-of-a-mind, as that is how closely the threesome works together on this album of original music written especially for the ensemble by Madsen and Sommers. While Madsen's voice, on tenor or soprano sax, is inherently the more outspoken of the three, he is shadowed and supported every step of the way by Sommers' and ...