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.

Interview

Dave Holland: Consummate Bassist

by Lazaro Vega
April 21, 2017

This interview was first published at All About Jazz in May 1999 and is part of our ongoing effort to archive pre-database material.Bassist Dave Holland brings the flexible structures and varied instrumental colors of his Grammy nominated Quintet to several Michigan locations in the second week of April. On the 7th the group presents an afternoon masterclass at the University of Michigan followed by an evening performance at the Bird of Paradise Jazz Club in Ann Arbor. On ...

Album Review

Chris Potter: The Dreamer Is the Dream

Read "The Dreamer Is the Dream" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 21, 2017

Multi-reedist and composer Chris Potter has been an in-demand artist since his late teen years when he began playing the New York clubs. With a diverse catalog that runs from Steely Dan to regular collaborations with Dave Holland, Potter has picked up a number of Grammy nominations and wins. His versatile abilities have made him equally at home touring with the lyrical Jim Hall or recording in the angular style of Steve Swallow's Damaged in Transit (WATT/ECM, 2003). The Dreamer ...

Album Review

Vivian Buczek: Ella Lives

Read "Ella Lives" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
April 21, 2017

Sweden's Vivian Buczek, fast approaching her 40th birthday, comes across more as a schoolgirl with a crush on her teacher on this, her seventh solo album, which pays tribute to The First Lady Of Song. Ella Fitzgerald--had she not died in 1996--would be 100 this year. “Ella Fitzgerald has always been my greatest inspiration and the main reason that I have become a jazz singer," Buczek explains in the sleeve note. Her father Bruno, who played trombone, ...

Album Review

Eddie Palmieri: Sabiduria/Wisdom

Read "Sabiduria/Wisdom" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
April 21, 2017

In celebration of his eightieth birthday, and sixty years as a professional musician, pianist Eddie Palmieri presents Sabiduria/Wisdom, a prodigious testament to his avowed spirit of investigation, and amazing zest for life. Throughout his illustrious recording career, Palmieri has expanded upon the complexities of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, combining them with the serious elements in the melodic and harmonic structures of jazz, to come up with what he refers to as dance music. With his renowned trademark percussive attack on the piano, ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Hybrido - From Rio to Wayne Shorter

Read "Hybrido - From Rio to Wayne Shorter" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 21, 2017

Pianist/composer Antonio Adolfo has been a golden musical fixture in his native Brazil. He did not cross my radar until 2010 with his recording La e Ca: Here and There (AAM), which he recorded with jazz singer (and daughter) Carol Saboya. This revelation gave me two artists for the efforts of covering one. From that recording, followed Finas Misturas (Fine Mixtures) (AAM, 2013); Rio, Choro, Jazz (AAM, 2014); and Tropical Infinito (AAM, 2016) Adolfo is always happy to ...

Album Review

Billy Jones: 3's a Crowd

Read "3's a Crowd" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
April 21, 2017

Duo records involving drummers aren't that common in the world of straight-ahead jazz. While it's never been an infrequent option for avant-gardists (and there are some truly legendary examples, not the least of which are John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's Interstellar Space, Max Roach and Cecil Taylor's Historic Concerts, and Peter Brötzmann and Hamid Drake's Dried Rat Dog), commercial limitations or simply a lack of adventurousness have made this kind of pairing rare outside the realm of musicians most well-known ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Julian Hartwell

by AAJ Staff
April 20, 2017

About Julian Hartwell Julian Hartwell is a sought-after pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator based in Philadelphia, PA. He is inspired by many styles of music which all contribute to his distinctive sound, both solo and in a group setting. For the past 12 years he has performed throughout a wide swath of the Delaware Valley and Philly area--from jazz clubs to rock venues, music ministry to cocktail hours, weddings to jam sessions and everything in between, and now ...

Album Review

Sidney Jacobs: First Man

Read "First Man" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 20, 2017

Call this R&B-inflected jazz, jazz-informed soul, or soul-soaked singer-songwriter fare with a chaser of standards and surprises. You can take your pick, as all of those descriptors are basically on the money. But it doesn't really matter how you tag this. It's fine music by any name. Sidney Jacobs' second album, following the under-the-radar Been So Long (Self Produced, 2013), puts this vocalist's fantastically fervent pipes in the proper light. His sound evokes shades of his earliest ...

Album Review

Duo Baars Henneman & Dave Burrell: Trandans

Read "Trandans" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 20, 2017

Dutch multi-reedist Ab Baars has been active, mostly in Europe, since the 1970s, recording for several labels on the continent and touring in both rock and jazz capacities. His unique style had been dubbed “Ab Music" by the late Misha Mengelberg with whom he had recorded Circus (Instant Composers Pool, 2006) along with Han Bennick. More recently he teamed with Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey and violist Ig Henneman on Perch Hen Brock & Rain (Relative Pitch Records/Wig, 2016).

Album Review

Alexi Tuomarila: Kingdom

by Roger Farbey
April 20, 2017

Piano-led power trios have proliferated over the last twenty years or more thanks to the likes of the Esbjörn SvenssonTrio and The Bad Plus whose respective approach was undeniably a more consciously dynamic one than the reflective approach of say Bill Evans or the redoubtable Keith Jarrett. There was also, inevitably, a move away from the old style of swinging piano trios such as those led by Erroll Garner or Oscar Peterson. Often, contemporary piano-led trios have embraced a more ...