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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Ariane Racicot: Danser avec le feu
by Neil Duggan
In 2013, Montreal-based pianist Ariane Racicot's performance of Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody" was captured on YouTube and went viral. This has been viewed over 18 million times, additionally garnering her a sizeable following on other social media platforms where she remains an active participant. Her musical education followed a formal path with training in classical piano from the age of six, before switching to jazz ten years later. Her studies were completed at the University of Montreal and McGill. ...
Continue ReadingGet Happy: The Music of Harold Arlen’s Great American Songbook
by David Brown
Harold Arlen was a singer, pianist, arranger, and, most importantly, a composer of iconic popular songs in the 20th century. A highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook, Arlen wrote over 500 songs, with his most famous being “Over the Rainbow." Born 120 years ago in 1905, Arlen's music--primarily composed for Broadway shows and films--has evolved into jazz standards still performed today. His influence is all over my record collection, and tonight, we'll focus on his work and the ...
Continue ReadingMark Wingfield: The Gathering
by Glenn Astarita
Mark Wingfield's The Gathering is not for the faint of heart or those who prefer their music neatly categorized. This is not background music--it is a sonic assault course demanding your full attention. Wingfield, a British guitar hero who clearly enjoys pushing boundaries, has assembled a supergroup of instrumentalists who seem to be having as much fun defying expectations as creating them. Gary Husband, a musical chameleon who switches from delicate piano to thunderous drums in the blink of an ...
Continue ReadingEleonora Strino: Matilde
by Brian Morton
There isn't much training around for young arts interviewers, but one bit of advice that is usually thrown out is never to ask “Where do you get your ideas?" It's a seemingly banal question that can only attract banal--and sometimes very sarcastic--answers. And yet sometimes, in context, it's exactly the right question to ask. More often than one might expect, novelists, poets, and musicians are more than happy to say that the new body of work being considered began in ...
Continue ReadingDikeman / Hong / Lumley / Warelis: Old Adam On Turtle Island
by Mark Corroto
The creative community centered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, can be seen as the modern-day equivalent of a city once known as New Amsterdam--a 17th-century Dutch settlement that would eventually become New York City. Just as modern jazz flourished in mid-20th-century New York, some might argue that today's hotbed of creative music resides in old Amsterdam. Evidence for this can be found in Old Adam on Turtle Island, a stunning musical creation by a multicultural quartet. Led by American saxophonist ...
Continue ReadingJon Irabagon, Frank Carlberg & Dennis Egberth
by Maurice Hogue
Artificial Intelligence. Is it good, is it bad? It's a key component of allaboutjazz.com we know that. Saxophonist and composer Jon Irabagon and an amazing tentet put AI under their musical microscope and the results of their examination are now available on the new “Server Farm." There are similar exploratory approaches on new albums by pianist Frank Carlberg with a very strong quintet, tackling music formed form Carlberg's life experiences, the duo Dream Brigade (drummer Lesley Mok and keyboardist Phillip ...
Continue ReadingThe Len Pierro Jazz Orchestra: As I Was Saying
by Jack Bowers
Remember the good old days before high-tech hardware and software seized control and the country's leading big bands were recorded in a studio or in concert employing a wide dynamic range with no overdubs or splices to enhance the performance? Composer and arranger Len Pierro does, which is why he planned As I Was Saying, the second album with his Philadelphia-based Jazz Orchestra, to mirror those classic recordings by the likes of Woody Herman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich ...
Continue ReadingBirthday Shoutouts To Foremothers Jutta Hipp, Blanche Calloway Plus Carole King & More
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast includes new releases from Nicole Zuraitis, Dave Potter and Monique Chao, with birthday shoutouts to foremothers Jutta Hipp (100!) Blanche Calloway (older sister of Cab Calloway) plus Carole King and Carmen Staaf. Happy listening and please support the station and the artists you hear. See them live, purchase their music so they can continue to distract, comfort, provoke, inspire and remind the world that A Woman's Place Is In the Groove.Playlist Jutta Hipp “Horacio" from Live ...
Continue ReadingHindsight: Enrico Pieranunzi, Marc Johnson and Joey Baron
by Brian Morton
Sometimes we're reduced to throwing down old bones and seeing what messages they deliver back. Maybe noticed at the time, but the recording of Hindsight, by the trio of maestro Enrico Pieranunzi, master bassist Marc Johnson and time-lord Joey Baron took place almost exactly sixty years after one of the most famous jazz piano sessions of all. When most admirers think of Bill Evans, their minds go first to the famous Village Vanguard sessions of June 1961, with Scott LaFaro ...
Continue ReadingJazz: Cultural Diplomacy, Art or Show Business?
by Anastasia Bogomolets
There is a firm belief among scholars that jazz and the American Jazz Ambassadors programme played an important role during the Cold War era. Extensive literature explores the significance of jazz in shaping global post-war relationships. The world has changed dramatically since then. On one hand, music, including jazz, has become increasingly commercialized; on the other, unlimited access to free streaming platforms has significantly reduced governments' ability to influence musical preferences. Do you think we are entering another historical period ...
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