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

Verneri Pohjola: Pekka

by Karl Ackermann
May 20, 2017

Finnish multi-instrumentalist Pekka Pohjola was a classically trained pianist and violinist but known best as a bassist in his native country. The proponent of a unique fusion of jazz, progressive rock and classical music, his work had elements of Frank Zappa, King Crimson and Antonín Dvořák, sometimes all within a single composition. Pohjola died while only in his fifties, somewhat distanced from his family by a life on the road. His son, trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, has been building his own ...

Album Review

Urbanity: Urban Soul

Read "Urban Soul" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
May 20, 2017

Urbanity, an Australian duo comprising keyboardist Phil Turcio and guitarist Albare (Albert Dadon) started collaborating 27 years ago and Urban Soul follows hot on the heels of Turcio's Signals and Albare's Dreamtime. It's a fairly undemanding set but undemanding doesn't automatically equate to unattractive. Indeed the album clearly demonstrates what can be produced by just two musicians to create a full and effective band sound. George Benson has been producing fine albums of this ilk since his transfer to Warner, ...

Extended Analysis

Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Deluxe Edition

by Doug Collette
May 20, 2017

Close on the heels of Pearl Jam's explosive induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it's obviously no coincidence an expanded twenty-fifth anniversary edition appears of the soundtrack to Singles, the (third) film by Cameron Crowe, focused on the ascendant grunge scene of the early 1990s in Seattle. Available in super deluxe format of two LP's and a bonus CD-actually the second of two discs in the expanded form of that medium-the new edition contains the ...

Album Review

Bill Frisell / Thomas Morgan: Small Town

Read "Small Town" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
May 19, 2017

In Emma Franz's revelatory documentary, Bill Frisell: A Portrait, the guitarist talks about the many guitars he owns, and how he rarely gets to plays them--the consequence, amongst other things, of the plight musicians face when traveling by air these days. Not three months after the film's premiere at South By Southwest this past March, comes Small Town--a live recording from New York's heralded Village Vanguard that represents a number of firsts for the veteran guitarist. It's Frisell's ...

Interview

David Finck: The Bass, Scatting Offenses, and the Back Hoe

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
May 19, 2017

David Finck is not only a first-call bassist with a long resume of high-profile recordings and gigs, but he's one of the most versatile musicians on any instrument. Finck has been in the studio, touring, and/or sharing the world's greatest stages with everyone from Andre Previn to Ivan Lins, Woody Herman to Natalie Cole and Kenny Rankin, and Elton John and George Michael. He's on all four of Rod Stewart's platinum albums. In recent years Finck has expanded ...

Album Review

Hyeseon Hong Jazz Orchestra: EE-YA-GI (Stories)

Read "EE-YA-GI (Stories)" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 19, 2017

What a delightful surprise. Korean-born composer / arranger HyeSeon Hong, a graduate of NYU who now lives in New Jersey, enfolds the best of two worlds --east and west --on her superlative debut album, EE-YA-GI (Stories), introducing Hong's eighteen-piece Jazz Orchestra and some heavy-hitting soloists including trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and tenor saxophonist Rich Perry. While Hong salutes her heritage at various points along the way, she proves on every number her conclusive grasp of traditional western jazz, ...

Album Review

Hanging Hearts: Into A Myth

Read "Into A Myth" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
May 19, 2017

Hanging Hearts pack quite a punch for a trio, a bass-less trio at that. Saxophonist Chris Weller takes the lead on “Return Of Saturn" with guttural tenor, after which an anthemic ensemble melody is established. There's a real sense of jazz rock here, but undoubtedly erring on the side of jazz. Cole DeGenova establishes a keyboard riff on the exuberant “Pilsen" before the band joins in accompanied by Dave King from the Bad Plus on tambourine. Notably, King also produced ...

Album Review

Thinking Plague: Hoping Against Hope

Read "Hoping Against Hope" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 19, 2017

Thinking Plague has been an enigmatic genre defying progressive rock ensemble for 35-years. They span the gamut of a simmering stew, consisting of art-rock, anti-pop, progressive rock, free jazz and segments when acting like doomsday soothsayers led by vocalist Elaine di Falco's whispery but at times, imposing musical presence. Mike Johnson is the primary composer, lyricist and longtime group leader, as the ensemble's Rock in Opposition persona is intact, tinted by its anarchistic viewpoints and methodologies. There are ...

Interview

SFJAZZ Collective: Remembering Miles

by R.J. DeLuke
May 18, 2017

The SFJAZZ Collective has been operating since 2004. In the beginning, it may have seemed to some as just another all-star collection of musicians who strut their stuff for a while, then go about their own business. It has shown over time it is much different. The format--eight outstanding musicians banding together to play the music of jazz icons, works hard at what the band was designed for: a leaderless, democratic group where musicians write arrangements that re-imagine ...

My Playlist

Caroline Davis

by Vincenzo Roggero
May 18, 2017

After honing her skills on the Chicago scene, Caroline Davis has rapidly established herself as an in-demand musician and educator in New York, where she moved in 2013, and internationally. Her debut album, Live Work & Play, was featured on All About Jazz's best releases. The leader or co-leader of several interesting projects, ranging from her quintet to the duos Maitri and Alula, with Matt Mitchell, Caroline's voracious music interests, which go well beyond jazz, made her the perfect candidate ...