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

Trombone Shorty: Parking Lot Symphony

Read "Parking Lot Symphony" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
May 3, 2017

Troy “Trombone Shorty" Andrews is the kind of player that's taken Duke Ellington's philosophy of genres truly to heart--the outlook that “there are two kinds of music, good music and the other kind." His jazz and New Orleans roots run throughout most everything he does, though they often share equal space with modern rhythm and/or blues, pop, hip-hop and anything else that gets hips shaking. Guests from the rock and roll world (Lenny Kravitz, Warren Haynes, Jeff Beck or Kid ...

Album Review

Jan Garbarek: Popofoni

Read "Popofoni" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
May 3, 2017

Popofoni was originally issued as a double LP in the early seventies. It was both a reaction and a response by a number of Norwegian composers to a spurious debate that had taken place on Norwegian television in 1969. The debate pitted proponents of popular culture against spokespeople for European Art Music. Popofoni was intended an “artpolitical" manifesto that aimed to “show how 'art for the masses' could be created" that both considered “the needs of a growing mass culture ...

Album Review

Black String: Mask Dance

Read "Mask Dance" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 3, 2017

The geomungo--the Korean six-stringed fretted zither--is one of the oldest string instruments in the world, the combination of paulownia and chestnut wood body and twisted silk strings dating to the fourth century. The geomungo is at the heart of Black String, an exciting quartet led by Yoon Jeong Heo, in whose hands this most traditional of instruments spans the centuries, embracing ancient rhythms and textures and aesthetics more akin to rock music. Aram Lee on daegeum, danso (bamboo flutes) and ...

Live Review

Karuna at LaFontsee Gallery

by John Ephland
May 2, 2017

Karuna LaFontsee Gallery Grand Rapids, Michigan April 23, 2017 Flute loops were the first sounds heard. Part of a music arsenal, the inconspicuous electronics served to heighten what was a vast array of traditional percussion instruments on hand. The duet Karuna was ending their spring 2017 Midwest tour before a modestly sized but full house at Grand Rapids' LaFontsee Galleries, the surrounding weather the kind of sunny afternoon that might beckon one to linger and ...

Live Review

John Hart at The Turning Point Cafe

by David A. Orthmann
May 2, 2017

John Hart The Turning Point Cafe Jazz at The Turning Point Cafe Piermont, NY April 24, 2017 In the midst of a second week of suffering from a particularly virulent strain of the flu, John Richmond should be taking it easy. Moving in a sluggish manner, avoiding close contact with musicians and patrons alike, offering arm bumps instead of handshakes, and acting uncharacteristically subdued, he's nonetheless determined to host and play tenor saxophone throughout ...

Live Review

Wayne Shorter Quartet at SFJAZZ

by Harry S. Pariser
May 2, 2017

Wayne Shorter Quartet SFJAZZSpring Season San Francisco, California April 27, 2017 To jazz fans Wayne Shorter needs no introduction. That evening, the first of a three-night stand at SFJAZZ, Director Randall Kline referred to him as “possibly the greatest composer in jazz" which is not an overstatement. For Shorter, who was lured from Art Blakey's group by Miles Davis, earned his reputation by burnishing gems such as “E.S.P.," “Footprints," “Sanctuary," “Nefertiti and “Prince ...

Extended Analysis

The Musician

by John Kelman
May 2, 2017

As people age, it's not uncommon to commemorate birthday milestones--specifically, those marking the passing of decades--with special celebrations, ranging from parties to vacations. In most cases, however, these festivities are private events, restricted to family and friends. Not Chick Corea. When this renowned pianist/keyboardist, composer, bandleader and guest participant in countless projects since emerging on the scene in the early '60s--Cab Calloway was his first professional hire, but was quickly eclipsed by gigging and recording with ...

Album Review

Chad Lefkowitz-Brown: Onward

Read "Onward" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 2, 2017

Hot jazz saxophonists sharing the stage and/or recording booth with pop artists: Wayne Shorter collaborating with Joni Mitchell; Donny McCaslin breathing fire with David Bowie; and now, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown touring the world with Taylor Swift. Onward, Lefkowitz-Brown's sophomore CD release as a leader, touches on pop music with a robust reading of Stevie Wonder's “Isn't She Lovely," showing that he, like McCaslin, can torch a pop song melody. But about half of the music of comes from the gold mine ...

Album Review

Jason Rigby Detroit-Cleveland Trio: One

by Hrayr Attarian
May 2, 2017

The stimulating One is saxophonist Jason Rigby's third release as a leader and the most accomplished addition to Rigby's discography. The sparse trio setting and the intimate ambience allow Rigby to showcase his multifaceted compositions and his superb improvisational skills. They also demonstrate the sublime synergy among the band members as well as Rigby's command of his instrument.The tense “Dorian Gray," for instance, opens with bassist Cameron Brown's nimble and swinging refrains. Drummer Gerald Cleaver brings a funky ...

Album Review

Jenny Scheinman: Here on Earth

Read "Here on Earth" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
May 2, 2017

Originally commissioned as music to accompany the film Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait, but actually dating back to sources of inspiration from the artist's childhood, the music on violinist/composer Jenny Scheinman's Here On Earth stands on its own terms as an unconventional work of string music. Fifteen tracks pass in quick succession from “A Kid Name Lily," all of which, in some proportion or another, echo the combination of melancholy and fortitude permeating the arrangement of that opener. Scheinman ...