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

Antoine Beuger: Ockeghem Octets

Read "Ockeghem Octets" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
July 14, 2017

Between “dedekind duos" (2003) and “ihwe tunings for twenty" (2005), Wandelweiser co-founder Antoine Beuger wrote a series of pieces for groupings of all sizes from two members up to twenty, the scores being published by Wandelweiser. In each piece, the musicians softly play long, sustained notes designated in the score, with the ebbing and flowing tones creating pleasing soundscapes that slowly evolve. Each of the series was dedicated to one of Beuger's heroes, with the name of any series being ...

Album Review

Charles Rumback: Threes

by Troy Dostert
July 14, 2017

In becoming an outlet for the Chicago scene and elsewhere during the last ten years, the ears&eyes label has recently done its share to highlight the work of drummer Charles Rumback. 2015 was a particularly productive year for him, in fact: he released a quartet record (In the New Year) with altoist Caroline Davis, guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist John Tate; a duo recording with Tate (Daylight Savings); and at the end of that year he was joined once again ...

Bailey's Bundles

Five Women (plus Two) – MJ Territo, Laura Campisi, Mari Nobre, Janet Lawson, Dominique Eade, Jocelyn Medina, Katie Thiroux

by C. Michael Bailey
July 13, 2017

MJ Territo Ladies Day Jolly Molly Records 2017 Vocalist Mj Territo celebrates all things women on her ambitious and overdue Ladies Day. Territo noted the number of compositions that she loved were written by women. So, taking that fact and assembling an all-women's band, Territo creates the trifecta of celebration. The singer's muse moved her and her colleagues to build a repertoire of some 50 songs, 14 of which are presented on Ladies Day. What ...

Album Review

Innocent When You Dream: Dirt In The Ground

Read "Dirt In The Ground" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 13, 2017

Everybody loves Tom Waits. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But a hell of a lot of musicians admire his work. There are far too many acts to list that have taken a stab at a single Waits song at one time or another--everybody from Diana Krall to The Ramones--and artists as dissimilar as Southside Johnny and Holly Cole have given over entire albums to his work. Covering Waits is so fashionable, in fact, that it's almost ...

Album Review

Dave Stryker: Strykin’ Ahead

Read "Strykin’ Ahead" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
July 13, 2017

Hot on the heels of his 2016 release, the soul and rock infused Eight Track II comes Dave Stryker's punningly titled Strykin' Ahead with a mix of standards and Stryker originals. Following the lively opener, “Shadowboxing," a Stryker original, comes a rather more sedate version of Wayne Shorter's “Footprints" followed by Stryker's “New You" in which both Steve Nelson and Jared Gold provide imaginative, swinging solos backed by McClenty Hunter's solid drumming. A dreamy interpretation of Billy Strayhorns “Passion Flower" ...

Album Review

The Master Musicians Of Jajouka & Material: Apocalypse Live

Read "Apocalypse Live" reviewed by Martin Longley

by Martin Longley
July 13, 2017

This is another entry for M.O.D.'s new download-only Digital Incunabula series, which concentrates on live recordings from the Bill Laswell vaults. Here's a Jajouka/Material set from 2015's Gent Jazz Festival in Belgium, a performance actually witnessed by your scribe. The five-piece Jajouka Sufi trance contingent (from the eponymous mountain village in Morocco) are led by Bachir Attar, a longtime collaborator with Western experimenters, mostly as a consequence of his work with producer and bassist Laswell. The Jajouka introduce ...

My Playlist

Mick Rossi

by Vincenzo Roggero
July 13, 2017

Pianist, drummer/percussionist, and composer Mick Rossi is known for his diverse, progressive work in the New York Downtown scene where he has collaborated with the likes of Steven Bernstein, Mark Dresser, Dave Douglas, Erik Friedlander, Gerry Hemingway, Ron Horton, Andy Laster, Michael Sarin and Cuong Vu. Despite the very busy and long-standing collaborations with Philip Glass and Paul Simon, he has established himself as one of the most courageous, gifted and charismatic musicians in the New York scene and beyond ...

Album Review

Per Gärdin/Pedro Lopes/Rodrigo Pinheiro: History Of The Lisbon Chaplaincy

Read "History Of The Lisbon Chaplaincy" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 13, 2017

It's interesting just how much place influences a recording. Was the session captured in a hermetically sealed studio or a noisy jazz club? Is the sound engineered or merely captured? And how does the architecture of the recording space effect the sound? Sound experimentalist Pauline Oliveros often recorded in an empty water cistern, timing notes against the ping-pong reverberations. The trio of Per Gärdin, Pedro Lopes, and Rodrigo Pinheiro recorded with what can only be described as their fourth member, ...

Live Review

Rigas Ritmi 2017

by Bruce Lindsay
July 12, 2017

Rigas Ritmi Festival Riga, Latvia 27 June-July 1 July 2017 Rigas Ritmi, held in Riga, the Latvian capital, for the past 17 years, always provides an intriguing mix of well-known and up and coming acts. The 2017 festival proved to be no exception to this rule, with pianist and MONK'estra leader John Beasley and blues singer/guitarist Ruthie Foster joining acts such as the Coco'nuts, the Riga Jazz Quartet and accordionist Simone Zanchini on the bill. The ...

Album Review

Charles Lloyd: Passin' Thru

Read "Passin' Thru" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 12, 2017

Admit it. You were wondering if Charles Lloyd's post-millennial quartet was no more. Am I right? We haven't really heard from that group in a while, so nobody could blame you for thinking it. When Lloyd made the jump to Blue Note Records in 2015, his opening salvo came in the form of a six-part suite that brought him into contact with a new crew that blended Greek mysticism and jazz currents in equal parts; then, when ...