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

HoTS: Numbers

Read "Numbers" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
May 30, 2017

Poland's HoTS quintet makes its own mark on European modern jazz, led by composer/guitarist Mikołaj Poncyljusz. The band takes its name from the title of their first album, Harmony of The Spheres, and the Pythagorean mathematics referenced there continue in the numerical titles given to all but one of the tracks on Numbers. Opener “#26" shows a band in the Blue Note hard bop tradition, the twin horns of trumpeter Radosław Nowak and tenor saxophonist Bartosz Tkacz leading the way ...

Album Review

Jacob Duncan: The Busker

Read "The Busker" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 30, 2017

Hailing from Louisville, KY., saxophonist Jacob Duncan (Liberation Prophecy) plays his horn with vocal attributes on this trio endeavor that provides a storyline to his travels in the US and abroad. He was a busker (street entertainer) performing his craft near train stations, office complexes and so on, perhaps brightening the days and injecting a little joy into the life of a casual observer. Duncan's musical storyboard is augmented by a crystalline audio production--where you could probably hear ...

Album Review

Yoko Miwa Trio: Pathways

Read "Pathways" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
May 30, 2017

Yoko Miwa is a pianist operating in the Boston area whose stylistic reach touches on funky gospel, bluesy bebop and dramatic pomp. She and her long time trio jump out nicely from the first track, the surging gospel rhythms of Marc Johnson's “Log O'Rhythm," drummer Scott Goulding providing a solid shuffle foundation to Miwa's pounding. They also have fun cascading up and down on another Johnson tune, “After All" later on the disc.Miwa's original melodies on this disc ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler Quartet: Copenhagen Live 1964

Read "Copenhagen Live 1964" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 30, 2017

It's almost as if the phenomenon that was saxophonist Albert Ayler was just a dream. Nearly fifty years after his death, listeners (and musicians, for that matter) are still catching up to him, and realizing his gift. His life, like that of Charlie Parker, ended at age 34. But where Parker (an originator of bebop) developed in the musical world of Kansas City, Ayler seemingly stepped off a spaceship to deliver his provocative free jazz. Ayler's early career, ...

Live Review

Jazzkaar 2017

by Martin Longley
May 29, 2017

Jazzkaar 2017 Tallinn, Estonia April 21-30, 2017 Jazzkaar covers most territories. This exceptional 10-day festival presents the best players on the indigenous Estonian scene, imports big-name acts from the USA, and also invites some choice artists from around the rest of Europe. Some shows represent jazz in mainstream mode, whilst others twist towards the innovative. There is also a strong commitment to bands who skirt the edges of rock, pop and electronica, as well ...

Album Review

Toxic: Mat Walerian/Matthew Shipp/William Parker: This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People

Read "This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People" reviewed by Matthew Aquiline

by Matthew Aquiline
May 29, 2017

Polish multi-instrumentalist Mat Walerian is on the verge of reserving his seat in the pantheon of groundbreaking hornmen who recorded for the late Bernard Stollman's storied ESP-Disk' label. Not as frenetic as Frank Wright, nor as strident as Sonny Simmons, Walerian instead boasts a singular approach that binds Eastern influence and blues sensibility with fluent, legato phrasing, often reminiscent of Marion Brown's lyrical finesse. His first two live recordings for ESP--The Uppercut: Live at Okuden (2015) with Matthew Shipp and ...

Album Review

Samo Salamon Sextet: The Colours Suite

Read "The Colours Suite" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 29, 2017

Slovenian guitar ace Samo Salamon fronts a European ensemble akin to one of those legendary all-star jazz summits, but of course these colorific works veer off into an experimental wonderland of improvisation with split-second paradigm shifts amid the ensemble's synergistic discourses. Nonetheless, the respective musicians are at the top of their game here, as Salamon arranged for drummers Roberto Dani and Christian Lillinger to generate the seismic currents by staying in synch but not necessarily executing the same patterns.

Album Review

Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960

Read "Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 29, 2017

It's nearly impossible to underestimate the importance of the discovery of the tapes Thelonious Monk made for the French film Les Liasons Dangereuses 1960. Recorded in New York in July 1959, the session, although used in the film, was filed away for some 55 years. Recovered and remastered, we hear not only the soundtrack, but alternate takes and Monk rehearsing his band. Monk had never scored a soundtrack, but was convinced by the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter to ...

Album Review

Sonia Aimy: Nigerian Spirit

Read "Nigerian Spirit" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
May 29, 2017

Nigeria's ethnic and language diversity is directly reflected in their myriad musical traditions and styles. Sonia Aimy is a singer/songwriter from Benin City, in Nigeria's southern region; raised in a musical environment, she relocated to Italy for serious studies in theater and music, leading to jazz appreciation and performance, which influences her compositions. Wrapped in imaginative lyrics amidst layers of instrumentation, Nigerian Spirit is an incantation for hope, presented with a versatile afro-jazz attitude, blended with highlife, juju music, and ...

Philosophisticated Lady

Swinging with Sartre: Jazz Is Like Bananas

by Marithe Van der Aa
May 29, 2017

“Jazz is like bananas, it must be consumed on the spot." These immortal words were first brought to life by the famous French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in an article that appeared in the Saturday Review, November 29, 1947. The article, titled I Discovered Jazz in America, was written after a visit to New York City in the mid-forties, where Sartre had attended a jazz performance at Nick's Bar. “They play. You listen. No one dreams. Chopin ...