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

Soul Sugar: Chase The Light (Excursions in Soul, Reggae, Funk, and Dub)

Read "Chase The Light (Excursions in Soul, Reggae, Funk, and Dub)" reviewed by Joe Gatto

by Joe Gatto
June 24, 2017

Phenomenal French band, Soul Sugar, comes through with what could surely be the best reggae album of 2017--Chase The Light (Excursions in Soul, Reggae, Funk, and Dub). True to its name, this album is full of funky, soulful reggae tunes, and each one has a delightful dub version as well.Keyboard player Guillaume “Gee" Méténier, who specializes in vintage keyboards such as Clavinet, Fender Rhodes, and especially the B3 Hammond organ leads Soul Sugar. Méténier is a disciple of ...

Album Review

Dion DiMucci: Kickin' Child - The Lost Album 1965

Read "Kickin' Child - The Lost Album 1965" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
June 24, 2017

As much of a pleasure it is to hear Dion DiMucci's voice throughout Kickin' Child--and it is a great pleasure indeed even if you never traversed the path from “Runaround Sue" to “Abraham Martin & John"--there's no denying the all too obvious sources of the music. Even the cover photo hearkens to Bob Dylan's Freewheelin' (Columbia, 1963) career phase, wherein he first experimented with the accompaniment of an electric band. And the transparently imitative nature of the recordings ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Vincent Eury

by AAJ Staff
June 24, 2017

Meet Vincent Eury: This proud Salisbury, North Carolina native grew up singing in several local churches and as a soloist. Additionally, he became the premier wedding singer. Vincent has been and still is the most sought after vocalist of his hometown area. Upon enlisting in the United States Armed Forces, Vincent was lead vocalist for the prestigious Navy Band of Newport Rhode Island from 1993 to 1999. Although his reporting station was in Rhode Island, Vincent was showcased on band ...

Building a Jazz Library

15 Italian Jazz Musicians You Need To Know About

by AAJ Staff
June 23, 2017

It is not unusual for colleagues and promoters from across Europe and the United States to ask me: “Which Italian jazz musicians should I check out?" For decades, Italy has enjoyed an increasingly prominent place in the vast landscape of European Jazz. The names of some of its most famous players, like trumpeters Enrico Rava or Paolo Fresu or pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, just to name few, are well known all around the world. But even younger artists such ...

Opinion

Trumpet Miming in Film: Mostly Jive

by S.G Provizer
June 23, 2017

No surprise that filmmakers want to feature trumpet players in their films. After all, we are a complicated, sometimes volatile and, ahem, sexy cohort. I've written here about the odd character-illogical bent that movies show toward the species, but in this post, I'll restrict myself to analyzing how well filmmakers pull off the act of shooting a character playing the trumpet or cornet. Let me note that, technically, no one is actually playing for the soundtrack while scenes ...

Album Review

University of Northern Colorado Jazz Lab Band 1: The Romeo and Juliet Project

Read "The Romeo and Juliet Project" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 23, 2017

The University of Northern Colorado's Lab Band 1 has been a dominant force on the intercollegiate jazz scene for many years, first under director Gene Aitken and more recently Dana Landry whose latest enterprise with the band, The Romeo and Juliet Project, was of course inspired by William Shakespeare's incomparable paean to young love and its sometimes grievous consequences. While “searching for a way for UNC's Jazz Lab Band 1 to create an original large-scale work that ...

Album Review

Django Bates: Saluting Sgt. Pepper

Read "Saluting Sgt. Pepper" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
June 23, 2017

This was always going to be a tall order, even for the likes of the ever-resourceful Django Bates. But it had to be done. The Beatles masterwork passed its fiftieth birthday this year and is arguably the most influential album of popular music recorded to date. Some of the many anniversary celebrations revealed that Pepper should have included “Strawberry Fields Forever" and “Penny Lane" but due to the need for a hit single to tied the band over during the ...

Album Review

Tim Blake: Crystal Machine

Read "Crystal Machine" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 23, 2017

British synthesizer ace Tim Blake was the artist who created all those bizarre and textured synth sounds for prog rock acolytes, Gong from 1972-1975. He later joined legendary space rock band Hawkwind in 1979 for a spell, but connected with French lighting stylist Patrice Warrener to develop Crystal Machine, which of course, is the title of this album that includes two live works in tandem with the latter's light show and bonus tracks. Digitally remastered with original artwork and insightful ...

Album Review

Arve Henriksen: Towards Language

Read "Towards Language" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
June 23, 2017

Following hot on the heels of Rimur (ECM, 2017), Towards Language is Arve Henriksen's second album of 2017 and brings his tally of releases to ten in the past five years. One of the more remarkable things about Henriksen is that even though the quantity of releases increases, their quality remains as high as ever. All of the hallmarks that make his music distinctive are still in place, as good as ever--the haunting melodies, soaring falsetto vocals and exquisitely beautiful ...

Record Label Profile

ears&eyes Records: From Chicago to the World

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 22, 2017

Those who feel that jazz has run out of steam, that there is nothing new to say, should encounter bassist and renaissance man, Matthew Golombisky, who runs the Chicago-based label ears&eyes. The name says it all. Golombisky is interested in what is going on around him. He is not only curious about music, but also passionate when it comes to art, movies, design and so much more. However, music is where it all comes together and this year, 2017, marks ...