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

Andrew McCormack: Graviton

Read "Graviton" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
June 8, 2017

Graviton's nearest comparison might well be Chick Corea's early albums Return To Forever and Light As A Feather with Flora Purim. But this is much more effusive and busier with stop/start melodies as heard on “Breathe" and the title track. Wordless vocals swoop over insistent piano runs and saxophone incursions courtesy of London-born singer Eska (Eska Mtungwazi). But it's not all wordless vocals as “The Waiting Game" reveals Eska's lustrous and mellow singing style, whereas “Kalamata" utilises her ...

My Playlist

Krystle Warren

by Vincenzo Roggero
June 8, 2017

Singer-songwriter Krystle Warren was born in Kansas City, and after spending several years in New York City, moved to Paris. In addition to important collaborations with the likes of Erykah Badu, Keziah Jones, Zap Mama, Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright, she has also released two EPs and two full-length albums with her long-time band, The Faculty. Her 2009 debut CD Circles, recorded with two-time Grammy-winning producer Russell Elevado at the Electric Lady Studios in NYC, showcased a ...

Anatomy of a Standard

"Close Your Eyes" by Bernice Petkere

by Tish Oney
June 7, 2017

One of the major challenges of writing this column remains how to choose one song among several by a given composer that I have decided to feature. When determining to include a song by the very talented Great American Songbook composer, Bernice Petkere (1901-2000), two of my favorite songs immediately came to mind: “Close Your Eyes" and “Lullaby of the Leaves." I also marveled that both happen to be among my favorite standards written in minor keys... However, for the ...

Live Review

PRISM Quartet with Joe Lovano at the Painted Bride

by Victor L. Schermer
June 7, 2017

PRISM Quartet with Joe Lovano Painted Bride Art Center Heritage/Evolution Philadelphia, PA June 3, 2017 An optical prism breaks down white light into the distinct colors of the spectrum. For the PRISM Quartet, this analogy applies in two ways 1) the expression of the music in the four registers of the saxophones: soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone; and 2) the use of a classical music format for a variety of genres: classical, modern, jazz, ...

Album Review

Flying Horse Big Band: Big Man on Campus

Read "Big Man on Campus" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 7, 2017

The Big Man on Campus on the fifth recording by the University of Central Florida's dexterous Flying Horse Big Band is composer / arranger / tenor saxophonist Harry Allen who wrote and arranged five of the album's eleven numbers and solos brightly on seven including Henry Mancini's amiable “Dreamsville," Billy Strayhorn's happy-go-lucky “Raincheck" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's amorous “Triste." The band's music director, Jeff Rupert, composed and arranged the shuffling “B.M.O.C." and picturesque “New Creole Love Call," ...

Album Review

Marie Kruttli Trio: Running After The Sun

Read "Running After The Sun" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 7, 2017

Swiss pianist Marie Kruttli returns on third album Running After The Sun to the trio format of her debut, Kartapousse (Konnex Records, 2015). This latest album, recorded in Berlin, highlights the strengths of Kruttli as a composer and the trio as musicians, with an impressive collection of original tunes. Hot on the heels of her debut, Kruttli spent a few months in New York and released a short second recording, What Do I Miss (QFTF, 2015), with a ...

Album Review

The Sons Of The Soul Revivers: Live! Rancho Nicasio

Read "Live! Rancho Nicasio" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
June 7, 2017

Founded in 1970, by Walter Morgan Jr., The Sons Of The Soul Revivers carry on the traditional gospel legacy started by their father Walter Sr., with the original Soul Revivers, in the 1960's.Walter Jr. is joined by his brothers James and Dwyane, supported by their regular backing band, taking the music to that sacred space where religion encounters rhythm. Produced under the auspice of Little Village Foundation, founded by keyboardist Jim Pugh as a commitment to discovering and recording original ...

Album Review

Sonny Rollins: Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 40 - Zurich 1959

Read "Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 40 - Zurich 1959" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 7, 2017

The quantity and quality of music released in 1959 have led many to call it a watershed year for modern jazz. Even just cursory research calls up such landmark titles as John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Atlantic), Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic), Dave Brubeck's Time Out (Columbia) and Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (Columbia). Recorded live at Radio Station Zurich that March, Sonny Rollins Trio & Horace Silver Quintet: Zurich 1959 hoists another pillar in 1959's monument ...

Out and About: The Super Fans

Meet Donna M.

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
June 6, 2017

Reader: Are you a jazz Super Fan? Do you know a jazz Super Fan? If so, be sure to see the call-to-action at the end of this column. But first, meet our Super Fan for June, Donna M.: Raised on soul music, Donna M. was a relative late-comer to jazz (Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts score notwithstanding!), but once she got the message, she jumped in as a full-fledged Super Fan. Her journey with jazz took her from tragic loss ...

Album Review

Giacomo Gates: What Time Is It?

Read "What Time Is It?" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 6, 2017

What is it that separates a “jazz singer" from the wannabes? While many people are known as or call themselves jazz singers, only a handful truly merit the name. Giacomo Gates, whose latest album What Time Is It? is his seventh (and fourth for Savant Records), is one of the chosen few. Why? Well, as the saying goes, if you have to ask . . . The fact is, Gates has a pleasant baritone voice but not ...