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.

Profile

Malcolm Griffiths: A Man For All Seasons

by Duncan Heining
May 4, 2017

We talk often of the stars, like 'Trane and Miles. We remember the bandleaders, such as Basie and Duke. We even recall the composers and arrangers, Ellington again, Gil Evans and Monk. And we never forget those star soloists like Johnny Hodges or Lester Young. But the guys in the machine room, the guys who make their leaders' visions real time and again are all too often just an afterthought. Yet stop and think about what made those ...

Album Review

Thollem | Mazurek: Blind Curves and Box Canyons

Read "Blind Curves and Box Canyons" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
May 4, 2017

In a remote outpost of creativity, the little town of Marfa sits on less than two square miles, a one-hour drive from the Mexican border. With a population of about two-thousand, it may, nevertheless, be the Brooklyn of the West Texas desert plateau. From its beginnings as an artist colony (of sorts), Marfa has been developing as an arts destination since the early 1970s. The town now has a National Public Radio station, fine dining, an excellent museum and several ...

Album Review

Penguin Cafe: The Imperfect Sea

Read "The Imperfect Sea" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
May 4, 2017

Composer Arthur Jeffes started Penguin Cafe in 2009 to pay homage to his father Simon Jeffes' Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and to continue the concept. While the new band still plays some of the original repertoire, Arthur has composed new music all along. Like Simon Jeffes' music, Arthur's shows the influence of folk music and minimalism. There's less whimsy--a frequent element in Simon's work, and a difficult thing to pull off successfully unless you have the knack. The Imperfect ...

Album Review

Misha Mullov-Abbado: Cross-Platform Interchange

Read "Cross-Platform Interchange" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
May 4, 2017

As the son of the Italian classical conductor Claudio Abbado and Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova, music was inevitably in British bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado's blood. After graduating in music and composition from Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge he won a scholarship to study double bass at the Royal Academy of Music on its Masters jazz course tutored by virtuosos Jasper Høiby and Michael Janisch amongst others. Cross-Platform Interchange is the follow-up to Mullov- Abbado's 2015 debut album New Ansonia, ...

Album Review

Sex Mob: Cultural Capital

Read "Cultural Capital" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 4, 2017

Sex Mob celebrates 20-years in the business going back to their initial 1996 gigs at New York City's downtown music scene hub, The Knitting Factory. With its first album in four-years, the band jubilantly returns via its crisscrossing of jazz with pop, funk and other genres, complemented by witty dialogues, mischievous improv sequences and treks into the free zone. Unlike previous programs this album consists of all slide trumpeter, Steven Bernstein originals. To a certain degree, Sex Mob's distinct stylizations ...

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

Booze in the Night, CD or Not CD?, and Malodorous Microphone

by Mr. P.C.
May 3, 2017

Dear Mr. P.C.: What are you supposed to do with loud drunks? The kind that love to scream at each other when you're in the middle of a tender ballad. --Songus Interruptus Dear Songus: Here's my question for you: Which is a more authentic expression of human emotions in the moment--your practiced licks, or the cries of those anguished patrons drinking away their sorrows? I'm not surprised their emotional outpouring ...

Live Review

Monette Sudler Sextet: The Philadelphia Realbook Project

by Victor L. Schermer
May 3, 2017

Monnette Sudler Sextet Terra Hall, University of the Arts Jazz Bridge: The Philadelphia Real Book Project Philadelphia, PA April 28, 2017 Monnette Sudler is a lauded Philadelphia-based guitarist with all the technique and finesse you could ask for, but she also has a way of moving around the strings which is expressive and soulful, communicating a story beyond words, touching the heartstrings. Earlier in her career, beginning in the 1970s, she moved up ...

Multiple Reviews

Cassette Plus Download Labels

by John Eyles
May 3, 2017

In the era of digital downloads and streaming, much publicity has been given to the revival in sales of vinyl records, both of new releases and reissues. However, all the noise surrounding that phenomenon has diverted attention away from another one--the resurgence of cassette tapes. Cassettes had their heyday in the 80's, after the introduction of the Sony Walkman which gave listeners previously undreamt of freedom. For the seven years from 1983 to 1990 they outsold other formats ...

Album Review

Sam Kirmayer: Opening Statement

Read "Opening Statement" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 3, 2017

Whenever a group of young musicians (in this case a guitar-led quartet from Montreal) makes its recording debut, a number of questions quickly arise. First and foremost, can they play? Check. Do they swing? Check. Is the music bright and refreshing? Check. Are they sharp and enthusiastic? Check. Do they blend well as a team? Check and check again. Having checked all the boxes, guitarist Sam Kirmayer and his colleagues produce an Opening Statement that boldly announces their arrival and ...

Album Review

Fraser Hollins: Aerial

Read "Aerial" reviewed by Pascal-Denis Lussier

by Pascal-Denis Lussier
May 3, 2017

One word: Grand. A fitting description of bassist Fraser Hollins' 2010 album, Aerial, his first as composer and leader, because, vaguely, in many ways, this is a grand album. Before accusing anyone of hyperbole, please read on. Montreal-based, Ottawa-raised bassist Fraser Hollins' reputation as a well-schooled, gifted accompanist and fine, inventive soloist is set and highly praised. The focus here should be that he's revealed just how serious he is about making lofty music and being a grand ...