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.

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Live Review

Miles From India at SFJAZZ

by Walter Atkins
April 14, 2017

Miles From India SFJAZZ, Miner Auditorium A Celebration of the Music of Miles Davis San Francisco, CA April 1, 2017 San Francisco's SFJAZZ supporters were treated to a special one time performance of Miles From India: A Celebration of the Music of Miles Davis based on the album of the same name. “Miles From India" (Times Square Records, 2008) reached number six on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart. The Miles From India ...

Album Review

Sarah Partridge: Bright Lights & Promises: Redefining Janis Ian

Read "Bright Lights & Promises: Redefining Janis Ian" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 14, 2017

How did nobody think to go here before? With a glut of fine Joni Mitchell tributes on the market and a couple of engrossing Laura Nyro nods out there, how is it that no creative spirits in the jazz or cabaret camps thought to make the full-on jump to Janis Ian before now? Hearing Sarah Partridge dig into Ian's body of work makes this concept seem like a no-brainer--an incredibly natural fit, in fact--but that may very well have more ...

Album Review

Viriditas: Viriditas

Read "Viriditas" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
April 14, 2017

Saxophonist Ben Cohen is currently based in Brooklyn, but it doesn't take long to figure out that he hails from elsewhere: rural Tennessee, to be exact. His rootsy, earthy tenor sound reveals a background as steeped in folk music and the blues as in avant-garde jazz, giving his voice an accessible edge that should serve him well as he gains wider recognition. He recently founded Eschatology Records as a vehicle for his music, and on Viriditas, the label's first release, ...

Album Review

Mark Lewandowski: Waller

by Roger Farbey
April 14, 2017

Thomas Wright 'Fats' Waller was born in New York on May 21, 1904 and died in Kansas from pneumonia on December 15, 1943 at the tragically young age of 39. During his relatively short life he became one of the most popular entertainers and composers in the USA and Europe. His stride piano style was greatly appealing and like his contemporary Louis Armstrong propagated jazz into the wider public domain. But it was this instrumental talent combined with his inimitable ...

Album Review

The Black Butterflies: Luisa

by Matt Marshall
April 14, 2017

On their two previous releases, 1 de Mayo (2010) and Rainbows for Ramon (2012), The Black Butterflies built soulful, searching jazz with dense, kinetic layers of Latin and African rhythms. Using both group improvisation and individual statements, they freely, yet unhurriedly, explored the boundaries of their music, often lingering in spots to let the tonal palette shift organically. With Luisa they've tightened their focus, strongly favoring tango and other Argentinian folk forms, while keeping solos brief and holding most tracks ...

Album Review

Linda May Han Oh: Walk Against Wind

Read "Walk Against Wind" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
April 14, 2017

On the exquisite Walk Against Wind bassist Linda May Han Oh showcases her unique compositional style that rivals, artistically, her mastery over her instrument and her improvisational prowess. These 11 originals express various motifs reflecting Oh's diverse influences yet a delightfully dark poetry imbues all of them, giving the album its thematic unity. The intensely cinematic “Speech Impediment," for instance, has a languid melody and shimmering refrains. Oh's Lilting, wordless vocals echo saxophonist Ben Wendel wistful lines. As ...

Album Review

Sam Newsome: Sopranoville: New Works for the Prepared and Non-Prepared Saxophone

Read "Sopranoville: New Works for the Prepared and Non-Prepared Saxophone" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 13, 2017

On his fifth solo soprano album, Sopranoville: New Works for the Prepared and Non-prepared Saxophone, Sam Newsome continues to explore and extend the utility of his instrument. This new release takes yet another new direction for Newsome whose previous solo outing The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation/Art of the Soprano, Vol. 2 (Self-produced, 2014) provided an aural link to Africa, evoking the soul and vitality of the continent. Here, as on Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1 ...

Album Review

Dialectical Imagination: The Angel and the Brute Sing Songs of Rapture

Read "The Angel and the Brute Sing Songs of Rapture" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
April 13, 2017

Dialectical Imagination is a duo comprised of pianist Eli Wallace and percussionist Rob Pumpelly, both of whom are dedicated to finding an approach to free improvisation that draws from their other interests in chamber music and composition. The six tracks included on this intriguingly-titled release do offer some provocative possibilities in that direction, providing idiosyncratic and compelling improvisations that retain vital thematic musical gestures. In addition to his prior experience as a guitarist with avant-rock ensembles like miRthkon ...

Album Review

Sue Rynhart: Signals

Read "Signals" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 13, 2017

Following her impressive debut, Crossings (Songs for Voice and Double Bass) (Self Produced, 2015), Dubliner Sue Rynhart returns with more finely crafted, beguiling songs. Once more, bassist Dan Bodwell lends hefty doses of jazz-inflection, his infectious ostinatos and roaming improvisations shadowing and shading the contours of Rynhart's artfully through-composed pieces. There are more timbral textures on Signals than its predecessor; Rynhart's deft use of mbira, recorders and zither, and Francesco Turrisi's lute and Medieval drum add specific colors that are, ...

Album Review

Loz Speyer's Inner Space: Life on the Edge

Read "Life on the Edge" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 13, 2017

Trumpeter Loz Speyer leads his British quintet through a multifaceted progressive jazz exposition during these eleven compact and concisely stated works. You won't detect any filler materials or over-extended improvisational jaunts on this superb outing, that effectively highlights the leader's jarring and perceptively constructed compositions. Leo Records proprietor Leo Feigin provides some insight into the band's chemistry stating that, “Ever since the end of the '60s and the timeless recordings by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, I have ...