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

Beresford Hammond: Each Edge of the Field

Read "Each Edge of the Field" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
July 4, 2017

Each Edge of the Field is the third part of a very appealing trilogy of albums, following in the footsteps of The Science of Snow (The 52nd, 2015) and The Lightning Bell (The 52nd, 2016). Where the latter album added pianist Carolyn Hume and guest vocalist Judie Tzuke alongside the former's duo of guitarist & pianist Charlie Beresford and cellist Sonia Hammond, Each Edge of the Field reverts to the original duo alone again. Visually, the three albums are recognisably ...

Live Review

2017 Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 3, 2017

2017 Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland Playhouse Square Cleveland, Ohio June 22-22, 2017 Although the Newport and Reno festivals have had a longer track record, there are many intriguing connections between the Detroit and Tri-C jazz festivals, both of which are celebrating their 38th birthdays this season. Fostering a strong educational component, both concerns sponsor associated events throughout the year. Furthermore, Tri- C's current director Terri Pontremoli served many years as the artistic director for the Detroit ...

Album Review

Laszlo Gardony: Serious Play

Read "Serious Play" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 3, 2017

The beauty of personal expression may be the greatest and most effective balm to soothe our hearts in troubled times. That's the message that pianist Laszlo Gardony gifts us with Serious Play. Following the approach used on Clarity (Sunnyside, 2013), Gardony delves deep into his own subconscious in real time to create a statement that's both comforting and weighty in tone. The bulk of the material presented herein was spontaneously composed, giving Gardony a chance to allow ...

421

Live Review

The Stanley Clarke Band At Kuumbwa Jazz Center

by Walter Atkins
July 3, 2017

The Stanley Clarke Band Kuumbwa Jazz Center Santa Cruz, CA June 15, 2017 Preeminent bassist/composer Stanley Clarke and his talented band came to the welcoming and intimate environment of Santa Cruz's Kuumbwa Jazz Center for an enjoyable one night only date. The four time Grammy winner's band of young lions consisted of: pianist Beka Gochiashvili, drummer Mike Mitchell and keyboardist Caleb McCambell. Both sold out sessions were packed with appreciative and knowledgeable audiences.

Album Review

Theo Hill: Promethean

Read "Promethean" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
July 3, 2017

Promethean captures Theo Hill at a significant juncture in his development. The record is ample evidence that the thirty-something New York City-based artist is rapidly securing a place in the crowded field of noteworthy contemporary jazz pianists. On the one hand--particularly during medium and up-tempo cuts such as “This Here," “Hey, It's Me You're Talking To," “Litha," “Is That So," and “Citadel"--youthful exuberance and a cocky certainty imbue everything he plays. On the other, his improvisations are resourceful, well ordered, ...

Album Review

Dan Dean: Songs Without Words

Read "Songs Without Words" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 3, 2017

Bassist Dan Dean's original plan for this project was the hiring of sixteen string players to join him in the studio to record a set for solo bass with string orchestra: Vivaldi's Concerto For Lute and Orchestra in D Major, along with music from JS Bach, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Albononi. The cost for the project proved prohibitive, but the paucity of funds turned out to be the mother of innovation. Dean tackled the project alone, adapting his arrangements to his ...

Live Review

Ambrose Akinmusire at SFJAZZ

by Harry S. Pariser
July 3, 2017

Ambrose Akinmusire SFJAZZSan Francisco, California June 15, 2017 For trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, the band is everything: “When I'm playing with other people, it's hard to produce, because I don't have that relationship. But when I play with my band, it's endless," he told the New York Times in March 2011. Akinmusire has been playing with drummer Justin Brown since they were 14 or 15 years old; they grew up together in a rough-and-tumble ...

Album Review

Pete Malinverni: Heaven

Read "Heaven" reviewed by Fiona Ord-Shrimpton

by Fiona Ord-Shrimpton
July 3, 2017

Perhaps church would be fashionable again amongst lapsed Christians if every church had musicians at the spec of Pete Malinverni. We have, in part, much to admire of the LA based Newman family for their reach in music and its training, in which composer, Anthony Newman was an insightful mentor to Malinverni's dedication. It would seem that to get to Heaven you must start at the Bach. As a summons Malinverni's call to prayer is witness to some ...

Live From New York

Creative Music Studio Spring Workshop 2017

by Martin Longley
July 2, 2017

Creative Music Studio Spring Workshop 2017 Full Moon Resort Big Indian, NY June 12-15, 2017 There are multiple facets to the lengthy, imaginative musical journey of Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso. Together with Ornette Coleman, they founded the Creative Music Studio and Foundation in 1971. Their old Woodstock wilderness lodge soon attracted a rolling cast of significant artists, frequently performing in permutations that wouldn't be heard elsewhere. Over the decades, Berger (piano, ...

Album Review

John Lindberg: Western Edges

Read "Western Edges" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
July 2, 2017

Released simultaneously with Born In An Urban Ruin (Clean Feed, 2016), Western Edges reveals yet another facet of bassist John Lindberg's interest. The Raptor Trio reunites Lindberg with saxophonist Pablo Calogero, a comrade from NYC's loft jazz era, when both were 16 years old. Calogero, who was also involved in proto hiphop groups, has been little heard of on the jazz scene, apart from featuring on Lindberg's Trilogy Of Works For Eleven Instrumentalists (Black Saint, 1985). And on this showing ...