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

Sonny Landreth: Recorded Live in Lafayette

Read "Recorded Live in Lafayette" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 8, 2017

Slide guitarist Sonny Landreth releases his third live recording after 2005's Grant Street (Sugar Hill Records) and 2007's Sonny Landreth -Live at 2007 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Munckmusic). Far from just another live release from a jam band, Recorded Live in Lafayette reveals some clever programming by Landreth. Disc one of this two-disc set is an acoustic collection featuring Landreth on his signature resophonic steel-body guitar. This is a departure from his previous live shows, which were typically ...

Catching Up With

Sebastian Schunke: Latin Jazz With a German Accent

by Mark Sullivan
July 8, 2017

German pianist/composer Sebastian Schunke began studying classical piano at age six. When he started learning jazz at age 12 he was quickly exposed to Latin jazz, and there was no turning back. He moved to New York City in 1996 (age 22) and divided his time between the Manhattan School of Music and immersion in the Latin jazz scene. There he was able to work on learning an authentic Latin feel while also integrating his European experiences. In ...

Album Review

Laura Campisi: Double Mirror

Read "Double Mirror" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
July 8, 2017

Contemporary jazz vocalists tend to fall into two camps, those who follow the jazz singer tradition of Ella, Billie, Sarah and the other icons and those who experiment with their sound and repertoire. The latter group includes people like Elizabeth Shepherd, Katie Bull and Rebecca Martin. Laura Campisi is another name you can add to that list.Campisi is originally from Palermo, Sicily but now makes her home in New York City. Her music draws from jazz, soul, hip ...

Live Review

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal 2017

by John Kelman
July 7, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2017 Montréal, Canada June 29-July 3, 2017 It's always a thrill to return to Le Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM). Deemed the biggest jazz festival in the world by the Guinness World Book of Records, it only takes one step out into the six square blocks closed off in the city's downtown core to believe it. Multiple outdoor stages make it ...

Book Review

Soul Jazz: Jazz In The Black Community, 1945-1975

by James Nadal
July 7, 2017

Soul Jazz: Jazz In The Black Community, 1945-1975 Bob Porter281 Pages ISBN: #978- 15245-4786-8 Xlibris 2016 With the end of World War II, in 1945, there was great rejoicing and celebrating a triumph over evil, as the United States ushered in a new era. But with segregation still the norm, in the shadows of Black America, things remained the same. The black communities had their own support groups, their own heroes, and they ...

Album Review

Craig Taborn/Ikue Mori: Highsmith

Read "Highsmith" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 7, 2017

Pianist Craig Taborn--who seems an artist unconcerned with striking a commercial chord--climbed into a higher profile with three terrific releases on ECM Records: Avenging Angel (2011); Chants (2013); and Daylight Ghosts (2017). Beyond those, his discography as a leader is slim--as opposed to his prodigious sideman contributions. He and his artistry have been described as “elusive." Go ahead and try to find the category for him. And if ECM Records has a place for his wide-ranging vision, so does John ...

Album Review

Momo Kodama: Point and Line

Read "Point and Line" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
July 7, 2017

Born in Japan, but educated in Europe, the internationally acclaimed classical pianist Momo Kodama is a formidable doyenne of the piano, someone who has built a career both on performing a wide repertoire from various Classical and Romantic periods and more contemporary works. It's a career that has been built on upending tradition as she pushed this instrument into fresh and varied music worlds. In an interesting way, the composers whose work she has recorded for this album, Claude Debussy, ...

Album Review

Shane Theriot: Still Motion

Read "Still Motion" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 7, 2017

Hailing from New Orleans, guitarist and producer Shane Theriot is a solo artist and upper-echelon session ace amid his stints with Hall & Oates, Ben Folds, and the Neville Brothers as the list goes on. Indeed, he has that soul-funk New Orleans vibe going on. But Theriot's far-ranging capabilities include jazz and blues, yet more importantly, he has that very special touch and feel that morphs into his musical persona, regardless of genre. On this outing, he assembles a formidable ...

Album Review

Bruce Jackson: Just Left of Center

Read "Just Left of Center" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 7, 2017

Drummer Bruce Jackson's second recording, Just Left of Center, is mainstream quartet recording pinging from the hard bop/post bop quadrant of the musical radar. The recording is made up of five pieces, the final one being the seemingly unlikely Jack Bruce song “Theme for an Imaginary Western." Written and recorded originally by Bruce for his recording, Songs for a Taylor (Atco, 1969) and made famous by Felix Pappalardi and Mountain on Climbing! (Windfall, 1970), “Imaginary Western" possesses a pretty, if ...

In Pictures

Ottawa Jazz Festival 2017

by John R. Fowler
July 7, 2017

I always look forward to my hometown festival and over the past 30 years I have photographed Canadian and international artists that have performed at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. I try to capture the personality, energy, emotion, dedication and skill these talented artists display while playing jazz. Many of my festival photos have been exhibited in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre, National Library and Archives of Canada, National Press Club and at the Ginn Gallery.Enjoy a sampling of this ...