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.

Live Review

Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince, 2017 - Part 2

by Mark Sullivan
March 23, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 4-11, 2017 In celebration of International Women's Day, Wednesday's concert featured all bands led by women, a first for the festival. Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana kicked off the show. Although not literally--she explained that she was not feeling well, and would be seated while performing. She certainly sounded fine to me, with a warm tenor sound reminiscent ...

Extended Analysis

Alex Cline's Flower Garland Orchestra: Oceans of Vows

by John Kelman
March 23, 2017

Despite being a key participant in the “Left Coast" scene of more avant-leaning music from the American west coast--in particular, part of the Cryptogramophone imprint that, while less active than in its “glory days" during the first years of the new millennium--Alex Cline releases so infrequently as a leader that any new music from the percussionist/composer is worthy of attention. That he has flown so far under the radar, in recent years, that his last Cryptogramophone release, 2013's For People ...

Album Review

1982: Chromola

by John Eyles
March 23, 2017

Remarkably, given that Chromola is only 1982's fifth album release, it also marks the tenth anniversary of the trio's formation. In 2007, drummer Øyvind Skarbø asked fiddler Nils Økland if the two could form a duo to play a concert series Skarbø ran. Økland agreed if they could be joined by keyboardist Sigbjørn Apeland a collaborator of Økland's for over twenty years. The trio's debut performance was on Valentine's Day 2007. The rest is history... Despite the sparsity ...

Album Review

Peter Madsen: Satin Doll – A Tribute to Billy Strayhorn

Read "Satin Doll – A Tribute to Billy Strayhorn" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 23, 2017

The true beauty and utility of the Great American Songbook is the durability of the music in response to interpretation, often jarring and drastic. French pianist Martial Solal made a master's class of demonstrating the music's vitality on his uniformly excellent Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love (CAM Jazz, 2009). On that recording, Solal so deliberately and completely deconstructed Tin Pan Alley, that he created a new lens through which to pass these old ...

Album Review

LABtrio: Nature City

Read "Nature City" reviewed by Henning Bolte

by Henning Bolte
March 23, 2017

When you consider the ages of the musicians of this trio from Belgium (26, 28 and 30 years) you notice it is a young group. When you take into account the decade these three musicians, bassist Anneleen Boehme, drummer Lander Gyselinck and pianist Bram de Looze, have been working together, you can only come to the conclusion that it is a thoroughly matured unit. On its appearance at the 2014 edition of the European 12 Points Festival in Umeå, Sweden, ...

Album Review

Jason Anick & Jason Yeager: United

by Mark Sullivan
March 23, 2017

Violinist Jason Anick and pianist Jason Yeager share an open-minded approach to jazz. Anick is best known as a member of the neo-Gypsy Jazz ensemble Rhythm Future Quartet , while Yeager performs post-bop and third stream music. But this album presents a mostly original, eclectic collection of music where both of them frequently step out of character. Even the cover choices are eclectic: two compositions from the Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert; George Harrison's “Something;" and Miles Davis' “All Blues."

Album Review

Beninghove's Hangmen: Beninghove's Hangmen Plays Led Zeppelin

Read "Beninghove's Hangmen Plays Led Zeppelin" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
March 23, 2017

Super Hi-Fi founder and bassist Ezra Gale established his cassette-and download-only label Very Special Recordings to give his compatriots and their fans the chance to take a chance. “The fact that cassettes are cheap to manufacture and to buy is huge, because we can take chances and just put out things we love, which we wouldn't be able to do if they cost as much as records," he explains. “And people who see something that's only five or six bucks ...

Album Review

Ensemble Pamplemousse: This Is The Uplifting Part

Read "This Is The Uplifting Part" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 22, 2017

This Is The Uplifting Part by Ensemble Pamplemousse, is an unusual album not just in content, but also in format. Offered only as a video release, it is available on a limited USB stick (encased in a replication of a cassette) or as a video download. A non-conventional collection, the album incorporates acoustics and electronics, extended technique and an assortment of non-musical sounds. Presented as it is, in the video format, it is as much performance art as music, though ...

Album Review

Vlatko Stefanovski: The Big Band Orchestra of the Slovenian Armed Forces feat. Vlatko Stefanovski

Read "The Big Band Orchestra of the Slovenian Armed Forces feat. Vlatko Stefanovski" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
March 22, 2017

During the course of guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski's illustrious career, he has constantly sought fresh ways to express himself or to reconfigure his music. Not a year would go by and he would either be seen fronting his own electric guitar trio, joining forces with other performers either the famous duo with Miroslav Tadic or the Kings of Strings trio (with guitarists Tommy Emmanuel and Stochelo Rosenberg) various film music projects. That frequently gets him in hot water with audiences that ...

Album Review

Miroslav Vitous: Ziljabu Nights - Live at Theater Gutersloh

Read "Ziljabu Nights - Live at Theater Gutersloh" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 22, 2017

This live album celebrates the 8th edition of the German record label's European Jazz Legends series, culminating in a book to be published in 2018. And each album is finalized with an interview track. So, it would make sense that eminent Czech bassist and co-founder of Weather Report, Miroslav Vitous would be included in the progression of this series. Other than drummer Roberto Gatto, the quintet comprises the same personnel who appeared on the successful Music of Weather Report (ECM, ...