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.

Film Review

Bill Evans: Time Remembered (The Life and Music of Bill Evans)

by Troy Dostert
March 7, 2017

Bill Evans: Time Remembered (The Life and Music of Bill Evans) A Film by Bruce Spiegel 2016 In the opening segment of Bruce Spiegel's splendid Bill Evans documentary, Time Remembered, Evans explains in an early interview: “Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that all I must do is take care of the music. Even if I do it in a closet. And if I really do that, somebody's going to come and open the ...

Opinion

New York Times Downsizes Jazz Coverage: A Response

by Victor L. Schermer
March 7, 2017

The February 23rd report from the Salon website that the The New York Times has downsized its coverage of live and recorded jazz is quite a shock, and, in my opinion, a poor decision on their part which I hope they will seriously reconsider. Their iconic and highly competent reviewers, Ben Ratliff and Nate Chinen, have left the newspaper, although their reasons for departure aren't clear. Salon cites the reason for the downsizing to be a decline in the number ...

Album Review

Josephine Davies: Satori

by Roger Farbey
March 7, 2017

An alumnus of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Josephine Davies's follow-up to her 2010 Trio Records album Perspective. She is a member of the excellent London Jazz Orchestra which habitually stuns audiences with its collective virtuosity; she also composes for this big band too. She appeared on fellow LJO member Pete Hurt's landmark 2016 release A New Start. Between them, bassist Dave Whitford and drummer Paul Clarvis have large enough CVs to fill a couple of hefty articles. ...

Album Review

Olie Brice / Achim Kaufmann: Of Tides

by John Eyles
March 7, 2017

Recorded live at The Vortex in December 2014, Of Tides combines London double bassist Olie Brice and German pianist Achim Kaufmann in a duo. Bass and piano is an uncommon combination for a twosome, this one having arisen after the pair initially combined in a trio that also included Roger Turner on percussion. Potential obstacles to Brice and Kaufmann collaborating include an age gap of nearly two decades, and the fact that the pianist rarely plays in London. Despite such ...

Album Review

Darden Purcell: Where the Blue Begins

Read "Where the Blue Begins" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 7, 2017

Dr. Darden Purcell waited eight years to record Where the Blue Begins as a follow up to her debut recording Easy Living (Armored Records, 2009). The Dr. part? Yes, well Dr. Darden is the Director of Jazz Studies, Jazz Voice at George Mason University, and holds a doctorate of Musical Arts in Jazz. Her bona fides aside, Darden, is as much a vocalist as an educator and each role feeds the other in a most convenient relationship. Easy Living is ...

Album Review

Analog Son: Black Diamond

Read "Black Diamond" reviewed by Joe Gatto

by Joe Gatto
March 7, 2017

Jordan Linit and Josh Fairman created Analog Son around a studio project involving the Shady Horns, Ryan Zoidis and Eric Bloom (Lettuce/Soulive), and Joe Tatton (New Mastersounds). Since conception the band has now recorded three records with 30 amazing musicians--their 2014 debut, Analog Son, and one of the best albums of 2015, Stomp & Shout. And now, the duo's latest album, Black Diamond takes their funky flavor sky high! In their short existence, Analog Son has been playing ...

Multiple Reviews

Lee Morgan On Music Matters

by Greg Simmons
March 6, 2017

Somewhere up in the sky there's a pantheon of jazz legends. Lee Morgan rightfully has a seat in the top tier, and the jam must be extraordinary. Morgan hit the scene in 1956, an obvious prodigy who'd scored two triumphs at the tender age of eighteen: a standing gig in Dizzy Gillespie's big band and the commencement of a prolific recording career as a leader for Blue Note Records. Following his first LP, Indeed, he went on to ...

Out and About: The Super Fans

Meet Richard Berger

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
March 6, 2017

A regular on the New York jazz and avant jazz scenes, Richard Berger is frequently seen about town in the company of his wife, our December Super Fan, Roberta DeNicola. Music has long been Richard's “positive addiction," giving him the best of times and helping him through the worst of times. “Jazz is very much a part of my life," says the avid supporter of live jazz. “I keep it alive and it keeps me alive." Richard's devotion to music ...

Album Review

Billy Mintz: Ugly Beautiful

Read "Ugly Beautiful" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 6, 2017

Drummer/composer Billy Mintz has a long career of enhancing the music of others with his percussive artistry, everyone from saxophonist Lee Konitz to pianist Hal Galper, to clarinet master Perry Robinson. His own discography as a leader is small, with frequent revisitations of a handful of original compositions that are as distinctive and as worthy of the multiple version approach as the music of Thelonious Monk. He writes small masterpieces and turns his ensembles loose on them, resulting in a ...

Album Review

Kadi Vija and Lucas Dann: Ugly Beauty

Read "Ugly Beauty" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
March 6, 2017

It's hard to imagine anything more daunting for an up-and-coming vocalist than to tackle a vocal album of Thelonious Monk material--wordless, no less--with nothing more than piano accompaniment. Yet that's exactly what Finnish singer Kadi Vija has done here, along with Canadian pianist Lucas Dann. Hitting those crazy intervals and capturing the unique logic of Monk's compositions is a herculean task, and it's to Vija's credit that she does so fearlessly on these ten challenging tracks. Along the way, she ...