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.

Take Five With...

Take Five with Maurice Brown

by AAJ Staff
March 16, 2017

About Maurice Brown Maurice “Mobetta" Brown's talent orbits him simultaneously through three worlds: contemporary jazz, blues-rock and cutting edge hip hop. He's a mastermind as a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and producer. When Maurice picks up his horn, his soulful melodies soar into a rarefied space that uniquely marries be-bop to hip-hop and rock, producing his own distinctive sound.Constant evolution drives him. His intuitive vision lights a fire under traditional jazz, adds sonic brass to rock n' roll and ...

Album Review

Michael Pisaro: Resting in a Fold of the Fog

Read "Resting in a Fold of the Fog" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 16, 2017

The popularity of Michael Pisaro is ongoing; the composer and guitarist now averages an impressive four releases a year, not all on Editions Wandelweiser, as was once the case, but across a variety of labels including his own Gravity Wave, and Erstwhile. Potlatch is a recent addition to the fold; this release is the second on the label to feature music composed by Michel Pisaro, following 2015's Melody, Silence (For Solo Guitar) by Chilean guitarist Cristián Alvear. ...

Album Review

The MUH Trio: Prague After Dark

Read "Prague After Dark" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 16, 2017

If experience really is the best teacher, meet three of Europe's most well-schooled jazz musicians who together make up the recently formed MUH Trio. The “M" is Italian pianist Roberto Magris (age fifty-eight), the “U" the sixty-seven-year-old Czech bassist Frantisek Uhlir, the “H" Czech drummer Jaromir Helesic, the trio's elder statesman at age seventy. On Prague After Dark, their debut recording as a unit, these seasoned pros prove time and again that there's precious little they don't ...

Album Review

Reflections in Cosmo: Reflections in Cosmo

Read "Reflections in Cosmo" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 16, 2017

Comparisons to Bill Laswell's Last Exit band with guitarist Sonny Sharrock are noted on the record label's website along with the quartet billed as purveyors of Skronk and free jazz. Add a few semblances of experimental prog-metal and jazz rock into the mix and you should have a good reference point for what this Norwegian band is all about. Moreover, saxophonist Kjetil Moster has gained prominence as a leader while his band-mates emanate from various well-known prog rock outfits and ...

Album Review

Brownout: Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath II

Read "Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath II" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
March 16, 2017

Brownout bandleader and guitarist Adrian Quesada listened to a lot of different music, including blood-curdling heavy metal monsters Black Sabbath, while growing up in South Texas. Even while creating original music more reflective of their Mexican and American funk, blues and rock roots, he and his bandmates never lost their taste for Britain's Sabbath. Their first album of Sabbath covers, Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath (2014, Ubiquity) was acclaimed by both NPR, who named it one of that year's fifty best ...

Album Review

Bruno Raberg: Triloka: Music for Strings and Soloists

Read "Triloka: Music for Strings and Soloists" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 16, 2017

Sweden boasts a long tradition of producing notable double bassists--Georg Riedel, Palle Danielsson, Anders Jormin, Lars Danielsson, Dan Berglund and Petter Eldh all spring to mind. Bruno Råberg is another whose virtuosity and lyricism have propelled him to international renown, as a collaborator with some of jazz's most eminent names, and, since 1986, as a Professor at Berklee College of Music. As a leader on his Orbis Music label, Råberg has shifted from quartet (Ascensio 2003) and nonet settings (Chrysalis, ...

Getting Into Jazz

The Essential Vic Dickenson

by Mark Barnett
March 15, 2017

Getting Started If you're new to jazz, go to our Getting Into Jazz primer for some hints on how to listen. CD Capsule Timeless, straight-ahead 1950's jazz, played with passion and elegance by seasoned musicians at the top of their game. Don't look for bebop or coolness here. These guys weren't interested in revolutions. Background Although the 1950's are generally viewed as a period of Father-Knows-Best comfort and conformity, that ...

Album Review

Elliott Sharp: Port Bou

Read "Port Bou" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
March 15, 2017

Composer/multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp chose a dramatic subject for Port Bou: the last minutes in the life of philosopher Walter Benjamin at Port-Bou (a town in Catalonia, Spain) as he was fleeing Nazi-occupied France. This is a man preparing to commit suicide, so the music is appropriately intense. I'm reminded of Laurie Anderson's performance piece about Difficult Music. Some will find this music hard to listen to, not because of the noisy avant-garde content (there's only a little), but due to ...

Album Review

Rich Halley/Carson Halley: The Wild

Read "The Wild" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
March 15, 2017

Duet sessions are, at their best, something special, a one-to-one musical conversation that relies on a near-telepathic connection between the two players. You'd really expect that connection between tenor saxophonist Rich Halley and drummer Carson Halley since they are father and son and they deliver on this powerful disc.All the pieces on the CD are improvised. Rich Halley plays wood flute on one short interlude, “The Old Ways." On the rest he plays tenor with impressive skill. Several ...

Album Review

Hyunil Lee: Living Water

Read "Living Water" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 15, 2017

Making his recording debut in impressive style, South Korean guitarist Hyunil Lee presents Living Water, a collection of original tunes performed in the straight-ahead tradition with glimpses of bebop, ballads, vocals and a touch of fusion to keep it interesting and varied. Based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Lee attended the Berklee College of Music and has performed in various venues throughout Boston, New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles as well as being a fixture in the Dallas jazz scene. ...