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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Live Review

Lance Canales & The Flood At Biscuits & Blues

by Walter Atkins
June 27, 2017

Lance Canales & The Flood Biscuits & Blues San Francisco CA May 28, 2017 Lance Canales & The Flood rolled into Biscuits & Blues on a Sunday evening with their authentic foot stompin' blues and intimate life stories. Canales, a proud son of the Central California farm region, called Fresno home. His stand up bassist Stan Lum also hailed Fresno. For some reason, Canales' drummer did not show up for the gig and ...

Profile

Ronnie Foster: Emotion, Excitement, Energy, and Passion

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 26, 2017

When it comes to jazz history, few would argue that the years between 1950 and 1970 were a golden era filled with exciting music crossing many stylistic genres. From the concert stage to the Chitlin' Circuit, the era was ripe with talented musicians of all persuasions, many of whom have since faded from memory. Rarely is this due to talent or lack thereof, but more likely a result of many factors including substance abuse, changing trends, and the fickle nature ...

Live Review

Chris Oatts Quintet at Chris’ Jazz Cafe

by Victor L. Schermer
June 26, 2017

Chris Oatts Quintet Chris's Jazz Cafe Philadelphia, PA June 23, 2017 Philadelphia keeps churning out great musicians, and one of those who is beginning to generate considerable interest is Chris Oatts. A graduate of Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance, he is the nephew of legendary saxophonist Dick Oatts, but make no mistake about it: Chris Oatts is a force to be reckoned with in his own right, forging his own style and ...

Live Review

William Parker, Anais Maviel, and Leonid Galaganov at New Revolution Arts Series

by Alandra Markman
June 26, 2017

William Parker, Anais Maviel, and Leonid Galaganov New Revolution Arts Series Brooklyn, New York April 8, 2017 Sometimes, the underground is also the above-ground. Such is the case on the free improvisation scene in New York City, where one is more likely to see well-known players at a house show or pop-up venue than in a club. In this spirit, Pratt Institute Professor Cisco Bradley has maintained a blog and performance series ...

Album Review

Alan Broadbent: Developing Story

Read "Developing Story" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 26, 2017

During the late '70s, now multi-Grammy Award-winning pianist Alan Broadbent, birthed the idea of merging the music of a jazz trio with a full orchestra and strings ..."in a complete phrase for woodwind soli, counterpoint..." in telling a musical story that is still unfolding today. This ongoing musical journey begins with Developing Story as Broadbent and his world-class trio of drummer Peter Erskine and bassist Harvie S, collaborates with the multimedia Hollywood industry London Metropolitan Orchestra (LMO) in presenting one ...

Album Review

Dwight Trible: Inspirations (featuring Matthew Halsall)

Read "Inspirations (featuring Matthew Halsall)" reviewed by Phil Barnes

by Phil Barnes
June 26, 2017

Having worked with the likes of the Pharoah Sanders Quartet and Kamasi Washington the musical fit between Los Angeles native Dwight Trible and Manchester's Gondwana records should be self- evident. This album was conceived as a combination of joint favourites and spiritual jazz classics chosen by Trible and Gondwana label boss Matthew Halsall, after a couple of chance festival encounters and live guest spots. The band includes not only Halsall's own beautiful trumpet playing, but also several of Halsall's trusted ...

Album Review

Greg Duncan & The Individuation Quintet: Unification

Read "Unification" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
June 26, 2017

Jazz musicians derive inspiration from all kinds of sources--but there probably aren't many who are inclined to build an entire series of songs around concepts connected to Jungian psychology. Trumpeter and composer Greg Duncan is quite earnest in this endeavor, however, and on this release he gives musical expression to a number of aspects of Carl Jung's theory of “individuation": the process by which human beings must unify the conscious and subconscious aspects of the self (hence the title of ...

Album Review

Oregon: Lantern

by John Kelman
June 26, 2017

Despite having to replace percussionists a couple of times since its inception in 1970, Oregon's otherwise consistent lineup of reed/woodwind multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless, guitarist/pianist/primary composer Ralph Towner and double bassist Glen Moore remained unchanged for forty-five years--surely some kind of record in the jazz world. And with current drummer/percussionist Mark Walker joining the group for 1997's Northwest Passage (Intuition), Oregon has, over the last two decades, enjoyed its longest-standing lineup. Until 2015, that is, when it was announced, ...

Album Review

Simon Sammut: Crossing

Read "Crossing" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
June 25, 2017

'Crossing' is one of those versatile terms that can be taken many different ways--among other things, it can signify the traversing of a place or boundary, a meeting spot where roads pass each other, or perhaps the act of combining individual things together into a new whole. Simon Sammut means the word in all those senses on his second album. Crossing offers meditative instrumental pieces based on a dozen different concepts, also accompanying each one with a thoughtful background description ...

Album Review

Alexander Hawkins: Unit[e]

Read "Unit[e]" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 25, 2017

With each subsequent release, pianist-composer Alexander Hawkins further cements his place in the top tier of modern, forward-thinking artists. The Oxford, UK native has worked as a leader in nonet, ensemble, quartet, trio and solo formats and is a member of the Convergence Quartet featuring cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, drummer Harris Eisenstadt, and bassist Dominic Lash. Increasingly in-demand, Hawkins has recently recorded with Evan Parker on the duo release Leaps in Leicester (Clean Feed, 2016) and with Rob Mazurek on ...