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.

Interview

Terri Hinte: Co-Creating the Image of Jazz

by Victor L. Schermer
June 13, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 [This is the second of an All About Jazz series of interviews and articles on “The Many Faces of Jazz Today: Critical Dialogues" in which we explore the current state of jazz around the world with musicians, journalists, and entrepreneurs who give us their own unique perspectives. In the first interview of the series, saxophonist Bobby Zankel provided the perspective of ...

Album Review

SFJAZZ Collective: Live: SFJAZZ Center 2016 - Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions

Read "Live: SFJAZZ Center 2016 - Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
June 13, 2017

In the thirteen years since the SFJAZZ Collective first came together in February 2004, this revolving door octet (septet, in 2009) of “cream of the crop" US-based jazz musicians has, most years, followed a consistent modus operandi: select a well-known jazz (and, in two cases, beyond jazz) musician and pay tribute through innovative arrangements of his/her music, alongside a set of new original compositions--in almost every case, one each contributed by every member of the Collective. In the ...

Album Review

John Yao Quintet: Presence

Read "Presence" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 13, 2017

As human beings we tend to take the very notion of presence for granted, be it the presence of a loved one in our lives, the presence manufactured by our own actions as we present ourselves to the world, or the presence of all that comes and goes in our daily existence. For some reason these things just rarely factor into the way we think from moment to moment. But they should. Those multiple dimensions of meaning ...

Album Review

Archer / Mwamba / Bennett / Fairclough: Sunshine! Quartet

Read "Sunshine! Quartet" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 13, 2017

You never know what path British reedman, multi-instrumentalist Martin Archer will traverse. Whether he's leading orchestral units, freely improvised trios, avant-rock and electronics tinged fare or his recordings with legendary rock and jazz vocalist Julie Tippetts, the artist underscores his experimental implementations with the element of surprise. On this quartet date with his fellow countrymen, Archer occasionally interweaves an abstract Birth of the Cool type vibe with forceful mini-motifs, sublime melodies and hearty improvisational sectors. Moreover, each musician contributes one ...

Album Review

Steve Coleman: Morphogenesis

Read "Morphogenesis" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 13, 2017

Steve Coleman's music has long sounded largely removed from the direct influence of his native Southside Chicago, not because those elements are missing, but because he creates a hybrid universe that owes as much to Africa and Europe, and to folk, funk, classical and jazz. His newest release, Morphogenesis, while furthering Coleman's musical development, displays features that were present as far back as his Drop Kick (BMG, 1995) and up to Harvesting Semblances and Affinities (Pi Recordings, 2010); the stripped ...

Album Review

Nat King Cole Trio: Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 43 - Zurich 1950

Read "Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 43 - Zurich 1950" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 12, 2017

Nat King Cole means two very different things to two different segments of the music-loving populace today. To those simply plugged into popular culture he's the golden-voiced baritone crooner, debonair and delightful as can be while travelling over the airwaves. But to those steeped in jazz history he's known as a mighty and true pianist, throwing down the gauntlet at Jazz at the Philharmonic shows, pushing a then-progressive agenda with fellow giants Buddy Rich and Lester Young, and walking a ...

Album Review

The Brett Gold New York Jazz Orchestra: Dreaming Big

Read "Dreaming Big" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 12, 2017

What's that you say? A New York-based Jazz Orchestra as admirable as this one whose recording debut was delayed for more than twenty-five years? There ought to be a law! Well, in this case it wasn't the law but a lawyer who sidetracked the orchestra's debut for so many years. His name is Brett Gold, and he set aside his trombone and dream of leading a band while in college, following instead his parents' wish that he pursue a more ...

Album Review

Greg Duncan & The Individuation Quintet: Unification

Read "Unification" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 12, 2017

Let's start at the dénouement. Trumpeter Greg Duncan and his Individuation Quintet close their premier release with “Say Hey," a composition Branford Marsalis wrote for director Spike Lee's 1990 film Mo' Better Blues. The conclusion is a fitting genesis for Duncan's declaration. Just like fellow trumpeter Nate Wooley's refashioning of brother Wynton Marsalis' music on (Dance To) The Early Music (Clean Feed, 2015), Duncan has chosen to launch from what was probably the career apex of a previous generation. Duncan's ...

Album Review

Steve Coleman's Natal Eclipse: Morphogenesis

Read "Morphogenesis" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
June 12, 2017

After his 2015 masterpiece, Synovial Joints, alto saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman left his listeners wondering how he could try to top that extraordinary project. With 21 musicians and an ambitious melding of classical and jazz instrumentation with intricate compositional decisions, Coleman used that record to reveal yet another dimension of his constantly-evolving musical concept--one that's been changing shape for over thirty years now. In some ways, Morphogenesis continues that project: although this is a smaller nine-piece ensemble, almost all of these ...

Album Review

João Pedro Viegas/Guy-Frank Pellerin/Silvia Corda/Adriano Orrù: For Massas

Read "For Massas" reviewed by Daniel Barbiero

by Daniel Barbiero
June 11, 2017

Those of us who work at the edges of the musical establishment--free improvisers, experimental musicians, unclassifiable sound artists of all types--inhabit a small community. Part of that community is our audience--an important part, no matter how small it might. I've heard more than one artist say that he or she would be happy to play for an audience of just one serious, engaged listener, if it ever came down to that. (And sometimes it has--I've seen it.) As ...