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

Daniel Toledo Trio & Pianohooligan: Atrium

by James Nadal
May 2, 2017

Jazz left the shores of America long ago, and has been embraced across the planet as the music of choice for personal expansion and emotional expression. Case in point is the Daniel Toledo Trio & Pianohooligan, a triumvirate of youthful and impressive musicians, from three different countries, who have bonded over jazz's democratic status that everyone is welcome, as long as you can play. Recorded in Poland, Atrium is an alluring presentation of tunes composed by bassist Daniel ...

Album Review

Chris Biscoe Allison Neale: Then and Now

Read "Then and Now" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
May 2, 2017

The idea here is a simple one. Pick a selection of tunes--five standards, two originals--and revisit them, in the style of the Gerry Mulligan/Paul Desmond Quartet. That group was a brief affair, making just two records together--Gerry Mulligan-Paul Desmond Quartet and Two of a Mind. Cleverly, Biscoe and Neale have only picked two tunes covered by Mulligan and Desmond -"Easy Living" and “The Way You Look Tonight," both from Two of a Mind. This, in effect, allows them a greater ...

Live Review

The Jazz Epistles featuring Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya at The Town Hall

by Dan Bilawsky
May 1, 2017

The Jazz Epistles featuring Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya The Town Hall New York, NY April 27, 2017 There are rare instances when a musical message for the times manages to transcend its place, evolving into a message for all time. Such is the case with The Jazz Epistles, the first black South African band to embrace and advance the sounds of modern jazz. Back in 1959, a collection of that country's ...

Out and About: The Super Fans

Meet James Busby

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
May 1, 2017

Our youngest Super Fan to date, and our first from the west coast, James Busby was weaned on the popular music of the '70s and '80s. His first jazz concert--Donald Brown at a local club in Knoxville, Tennesse for a $3 cover--was life-changing. He may not have discovered jazz until he was in college, but ever since then he's been in deep enough to go the extra mile--even when the extra mile means driving from Knoxville to Atlanta, or flying ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Jack Wilson: Something Personal – 1966

by Marc Davis
May 1, 2017

Maybe I'm imagining it, but pianist Jack Wilson owes a great big thank-you to John Coltrane on Something Personal. At least that's how I hear it on the opening track, “Most Unsoulful Woman," one of two highlights on this 1966 album. Coltrane, the legendary saxman, released his masterpiece A Love Supreme in 1965. It is as introspective and spiritual as any music ever recorded. That's the part you know. Here's the part you don't: A year ...

Album Review

Alexandre Coté, Gary Schwartz, Jim Doxas: 3rio

Read "3rio" reviewed by Pascal-Denis Lussier

by Pascal-Denis Lussier
May 1, 2017

3rio is a connected-jazz project uniting Montreal-based saxophonist Alexandre Coté, guitarist Gary Schwartz, and drummer Jim Doxas (brother of saxophonist Chet Doxas), three feverishly-engaged musicians with extensive training and local to international playing experience, and whose love and deep dedication to jazz, from its roots and connections, have been firmly established, though this aspect could be deduced from this album alone, their first together, whether or not one is familiar with their other collaborations, projects, and the numerous recordings on ...

Album Review

Trio Ciclos: Mobiles Vol. 1

Read "Mobiles Vol. 1" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
May 1, 2017

In a novel approach to free improvisation, Trio Ciclos, draws from the kinetic art of sculptor Alexander Calder, and composer Earle Brown's open form style of musical interpretation. Mobiles Vol. 1 , is an adventurous foray into jazz experimentation that allows the listener to float through the creative process as it was performed. Hailing from Brazil, Trio Ciclos is Alex Buck on drums and electronics, Bruno Migotto on acoustic bass, and Edson Santanna on piano. Using the concept ...

Album Review

Tom Challenger's Brass Mask: Brass Mask Live

Read "Brass Mask Live" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
May 1, 2017

You need a truly modern street band in your musical life. That's a statement. Period. No “buts," no “maybes." You might not know it but it's just what you've been lacking and here it is with Brass Mask's second CD, Live. I enjoyed their first record, Spy Boy a lot. Here was a band that were investigating the tradition, not just plundering for repertoire or for musical colour or as bricolage. These guys wanted to go back to ...

Album Review

Low Society: Sanctified

Read "Sanctified" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 1, 2017

Low Society's 2014 release You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down (2014, Ice House Records) was a revelation to me. I had long ago grown jaded believing that vibrant, genre-expanding blues and Americana had passed into extinction. Then I heard “Need Your Love," my ears stiffened and I sniffed the air... hmm, something special here. I previously described this most perfect of compositions as,“a most brilliant eutectoid of Texas Blues and pre-Weimar cabaret, with [Mandy] Lemons a Southern ...

Live Review

The Joey Alexander Trio At The Flynn Center For The Performing Arts

by Doug Collette
April 30, 2017

The Joey Alexander Trio Flynn Center for the Performing Arts Burlington, Vermont April 22, 2017Watching and listening to Joey Alexander perform with his two ultra-sympathetic band mates on the Flynn Center stage April 22nd, it was impossible not to be caught up in the spontaneity of the moment, the immediacy of which is the essence of the live jazz experience. That said, as the music flowed around and through the trio, it was ...