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

PEK: Leap of Faith Orchestra - Possible Universes

Read "Leap of Faith Orchestra - Possible Universes" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 1, 2017

Possible Universes is the latest release from the multi-faceted Leap of Faith collective. In the orchestra formation, the group has released some half-dozen recordings but the “full" orchestra is a biannual occurrence where the normally fifteen-piece ensemble grows. On this album, the collaborative expands to twenty-four musicians and, as always, the long-time anchors are composer and reed player PEK (David Peck) and cellist Glynis Lomon. As is often the circumstance in Leap of Faith Orchestra recordings, the album ...

Album Review

Imelda May: Life. Love. Flesh. Blood.

Read "Life. Love. Flesh. Blood." reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
July 1, 2017

Collaborating with Jeff Beck, Imelda May's kitschy presence as preserved for posterity on the iconic guitar hero's Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul) (Atco, 2011)is in stark contrast to the sultry black and white portrait that adorns Life. Love. Flesh. Blood. Not surprisingly, then, the British chanteuse stakes out an equally sensuous, shadowy terrain on the record, beginning with the opening track “Call Me." The spacious depth of T Bone Burnett's production just about equals the glow ...

Book Review

Go Slow: The Life of Julie London

by Richard J Salvucci
June 30, 2017

Go Slow. The Life of Julie London Michael Owen 296 Pages ISBN: 9781613738573 Chicago Review Press 2017 “Vinyl Viagra" “Mainly I'm a lyric reader." “Mickey Mouse...she can even make that sexy." “I'm not a singer. If all her movie footage over the years were put together, “there still wouldn't be enough to add up to one presentable part."

Book Review

The Art of Conduction

by Riccardo Brazzale
June 30, 2017

The Art of Conduction. A conduction Workbook Lawrence “Butch" Morris (Daniela Veronesi -ed.) Karma 224 pages ISBN-13: 978-1942607427 Lawrence Douglas “Butch" Morris was undoubtedly one of the most unusual and, at the same time, influential figures on the “New Jazz" scene of the last decades. Born on 10 February 1947 in Long Beach, California, he was a cornetist but also, and especially, a composer and conductor. He gradually came into the ...

Album Review

Tomoko Omura: Post Bop Gypsies

Read "Post Bop Gypsies" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 30, 2017

Think about your favorite jazz violinist. Now think about what style or sub-category of jazz that person would most easily fall into. Was your answer bebop? Probably not, I would venture to guess. It's not that I know your answer. This isn't a magic trick. For all I know it could've been Stéphane Grappelli, Jenny Scheinman, Ray Nance, Zbigniew Seifert, Christian Howes, Jean-Luc Ponty, Sara Caswell, Stuff Smith, or any number of other fine artists from years past or times ...

Album Review

Rosario Bonaccorso: A Beautiful Story

Read "A Beautiful Story" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 30, 2017

What does Theodore Roosevelt have do do with jazz? The saying “speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far," is attributed to the American President (1901-1909). What isn't well known is that he borrowed the proverb from West Africa. Which brings us full circle to African Americans, and, of course, jazz. That same platitude could be applied to Italian bassist Rosario Bonaccorso's recording A Beautiful Story for Via Veneto Jazz and Jando Music, since the music is ...

Album Review

Jonah Parzen-Johnson: I Try To Remember Where I Come From

Read "I Try To Remember Where I Come From" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 30, 2017

Chicago native and Brooklyn resident Jonah Parzen-Johnson has strong links to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), having studied with that organization's Mwata Bowden. Parzen-Johnson--a co-leader of the Afro-beat ensemble, Zongo Junction--plays the baritone saxophone and analog synthesizers in each of his lofi solo outings, to date. His new album I Try To Remember Where I Come From furthers Parzen-Johnson's exploration of his genre-defying music.A creator of experimental music in a different vein, Parzen-Johnson had ...

Album Review

To Be Continued (Carol Liebowitz, Claire de Brunner, Daniel Carter, and Kevin Norton): Poetry from the Future

Read "Poetry from the Future" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
June 30, 2017

This leaderless improvising quartet utilises some unusual instruments on their recording. Bassoon is rarely heard outside of classical music and Claire de Brunner is an excellent exponent of the instrument. She studied jazz improvisation with Lee Konitz. She also studied with pianist Connie Crothers as did Carol Liebowitz, whose restrained yet vital contributions are nearly as essential as her listening skills, an attribute which is woefully undervalued in improvised music. All the pieces presented here are collective improvisations ...

Album Review

Røgsignal: Pletter På Solen

Read "Pletter På Solen" reviewed by Nick Davies

by Nick Davies
June 30, 2017

The Danish quartet Røgsignal (translated Smoke Signal) have explored the alluring borderland between traditional and modern musical genres since its inception in 2011. Having experimented with a more improvisational, punchy sound, which was documented on two digital live-EP's in 2014 and 2015, the band has settled on a more spacious vibe in this release, Pletter På Solen.The music is still driven by simple, dreamy guitar/rhodes-melodies, but also clearly expresses a joint band effort in a fusion of countless ...

Book Excerpts

Go Slow: The Life Of Julie London

by Michael Owen
June 30, 2017

The following is an excerpt is from “Chapter 12: For the Night People" of Go Slow: The Life of Julie London by Michael Owen (Chicago Review Press, 2017). All Rights Reserved. In 1965, after three years of largely recording pop tunes under Liberty Records' hit-making producer Snuff Garrett, Julie London was eager to return to the types of songs--and the style of singing--which had brought her fame and success a decade earlier with her debut album, Julie ...