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

Woodlander: Calvins Toboggan

Read "Calvins Toboggan" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
May 16, 2017

If the title Calvins Toboggan puts any images of a certain classic comic strip into your head, you're probably already thinking of something lighthearted, fun and adventurous. The cover should let you know, though, that this Swiss trio has its own quirky and post-modernist idea of what's fun. There's a definite sense of adventure, even a touch of whimsy in spots, of a kind that's easygoing rather than wild. The trio certainly isn't afraid of a little abstraction, but almost ...

Album Review

Frank Kohl: Rising Tide

Read "Rising Tide" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
May 16, 2017

Guitarist Frank Kohl releases his fourth album as a leader, entitled, Rising Tide. The Seattle-based guitarist is joined by bassist Steve LaSpina, pianist (and brother) Tom Kohl, and drummer Jon Doty. Kohl penned five of the eight tunes, with the balance pulling from the standards repertoire.Kohl's guitar sound is warm, clear and sounds as a “box" guitar should, lending to a delightful jazz guitar authenticity. The group has a tight interplay and a palpable joy in performing together. ...

Album Review

Joris Teepe & Don Braden: Conversations

Read "Conversations" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 15, 2017

In life we tend to make hard distinctions between the value of conversation and the worth of action, crystalizing such a dividing line with statements like “talk is cheap" and “actions speak louder than words." Jazz, however, has a way of relating the two. When musicians get together to play, the talk is the action. Every opportunity to play with others is a chance to open the lines of communication, and albums like this remind us that the deeper the ...

Album Review

Trio Mediaeval & Arve Henriksen: Rímur

by Mark Sullivan
May 15, 2017

Rímur are songs in the unique Icelandic tradition of rhyming narrative verse. Transmitted orally for centuries, in the twentieth century they were recorded and transcribed by ethnographers and folk song collectors. They form part of the inspiration for this music, along with chants, folk songs, religious hymns, and fiddle tunes. There's also an emphasis on improvisation, in collaboration with trumpeter Arve Henriksen. While the Norwegian singers and trumpeter have often performed together in live settings, their only previous recording was ...

Album Review

Lyn Stanley: The Moonlight Sessions, Volume 1

Read "The Moonlight Sessions, Volume 1" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 15, 2017

With release of her various audiophile editions (LP, CD, reel-to-reel) of The Moonlight Sessions, Volume 1, Lyn Stanley brings into clear focus the driving forces behind her previous three releases: Lost in Romance (A.T. Music, LLC, 2011); Potions: From the '50s (A.T. Music, LLC, 2014); and Interludes (A.T. Music, LLC, 2015). These forces include: one, reestablishing a measure of audio fidelity (analog) to recording and playback; two, reassert the Great American Songbook as the gateway to understanding the history of ...

Album Review

Sean Jones: Live From Jazz at the Bistro

Read "Live From Jazz at the Bistro" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
May 15, 2017

Trumpeter Sean Jones received his master's degree at Rutgers University, and then quickly began his rise into the upper echelon of the jazz world. Serving for six years as the first-chair trumpeter for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, he toured Europe with Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller and, with Wayne Shorter, in a Miles Davis project; he is also now in his fifth year as a member of the SFJAZZ Collective. Heavily involved in education, Jones has taught at Duquesne University, ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Ike Quebec: Blue & Sentimental - 1962

by Marc Davis
May 14, 2017

Everyone loves a good comeback--especially if the second act is better than the first. Think of Tina Turner, Marlon Brando and George Foreman. Or tenor saxman Ike Quebec. Quebec isn't exactly a household name, but his seven Blue Note records are uniformly terrific, and Blue & Sentimental is among the best ever produced by the label. That it came after Quebec had already achieved success (if not fame) among the big bands of the 1940s, and ...

Album Review

Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio: Smokin’ in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966)

Read "Smokin’ in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966)" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 14, 2017

In his superb contribution to Bloomsbury Press' 33 & 1/3 series, Bitches Brew (2015), George Grella notes (emphasis mine): “No style of art can remain static: irrelevance is just as much a risk as the inevitable decadence that comes from a style developing to its last measure. But fans, including critics, of particular movements of artists, tend to want what they love to stay the same, the regression is not to the mean but to an Edenic past ...

Album Review

The Charlie Bates Big Band: Silhouettes

Read "Silhouettes" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
May 14, 2017

Born in Essex in 1994, British jazz pianist Charlie Bates was introduced to jazz in his teens and later studied for a BMus Jazz degree at the Birmingham Conservatoire. In June 2016, Bates won the Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Composition prize with an arrangement of Cole Porter's “Everything I Love," adjudicated by Tim Garland. This forty-minute session opens with “Cyanopsia," which essentially means seeing everything with a blue tinge. A strong and memorable head played by the ensemble leads ...

Album Review

Oumou Sangaré: Mogoya

by James Nadal
May 14, 2017

After an eight-year recording hiatus, Malian superstar vocalist Oumou Sangaré returns to the international spotlight with a new record, on a new label, but with the same steadfast focus on African women's rights. Mogoya is her first release on the Paris-based No Format indie label, after releasing five albums over twenty years with World Circuit. Sangaré has always stayed true to her traditional music and instrumentation, so this record is a bit of a production departure, leaning towards a crossover ...