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.

Album Review

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Loafer's Hollow

Read "Loafer's Hollow" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
March 4, 2017

The expanded, septet version of Mostly Other People Do The Killing takes on more pre-bebop era jazz. The previous septet outing Red Hot (Hot Cup, 2013) had focused on jazz and blues recordings of the 1920s -30s; this one adds the music of the swing era to the mix. One of the defining changes in the swing era was the banjo giving way to guitar in the rhythm section--with banjoist Brandon Seabrook in the band, the earlier sound is maintained, ...

Album Review

Phil France: The Swimmer

Read "The Swimmer" reviewed by Phil Barnes

by Phil Barnes
March 4, 2017

When did the future get postponed? Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s it felt as if innovations that might change and improve our lives beyond recognition were tantalisingly just around the corner. Surely the science fiction utopia of a life set free from drudgery, where our preferred mode of transport would either be a teleport or a jet pack, should have arrived by now? Yet well into the second decade of the 21st century our children face a world ...

Extended Analysis

Wingfield Reuter Stavi Sirkis: The Stone House

by John Kelman
March 4, 2017

At a 2009 ECM @ 40 celebration in Mannheim, Germany that was part of the ongoing Enjoy Jazz Festival, Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava spoke, in a public interview, about how free jazz, back in the day, wasn't really free. There were rules: no time and/or no changes, for example; with memorable melodies not impossible, but not encouraged. Rava continued on to enthuse that now, in the 21st Century, free jazz really is free: if you want to play time, you ...

Live Review

Thundercat at the Bluebird Theater

by Geoff Anderson
March 3, 2017

Thundercat Bluebird Theater Denver, CO February 22, 2017 Thundercat brought the thunder. Bassist Stephen Bruner, also known as Thundercat, went low at the Bluebird Theater Wednesday night. We're talking bass that was deep and powerful enough to revive a heart attack victim. But Bruner and his band weren't simply about boisterous bass. There was much more. Bruner brought his trio to Denver for a song-oriented two hour set. Playing a 6-string electric bass ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Paul Chambers: Paul Chambers Quintet - 1957

by Marc Davis
March 3, 2017

From 1955 to 1965, Paul Chambers was probably the most prolific jazz bassist in the world. He appeared on scores of albums, including some of the best and most famous of all time. So it was not a huge surprise when, in 1957, he turned out a classic of the genre. Bass on Top literally turned jazz on its head, transforming the bass into the lead melody instrument. It was a novel idea, but difficult for some fans to digest. ...

Album Review

Microscopic Septet: Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues

Read "Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
March 3, 2017

Since its inception, the Microscopic Septet has endeavored to uphold co-founder Phillip Johnston's motto to “break all the rules and respect all the saints." Coming out of New York's internecine jazz wars of the early 1980s, with avant-gardists and traditionalists each denying the other side's legitimacy, the Micros tried to bridge the divide: showing that respect for the jazz tradition could be combined with a healthy spirit of irreverence and risk-taking. That approach thankfully remains in effect today, as the ...

Album Review

Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr: Landed in Brooklyn

Read "Landed in Brooklyn" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 3, 2017

German brothers Julian and Roman Wasserfuhr have been highly regarded talents in their home country since they were teenagers. Signed to the ACT label in 2006, their debut album that year, Remember Chet (for Chet Baker), showed remarkable maturity. By their sophomore outing Upgraded in Gothenburg (2009), the brothers had sufficient brand equity to draw bassist Lars Danielsson and trombonist Nils Landgren to their group. Landed in Brooklyn is the brothers fifth album and derives its name simply from their ...

Album Review

Marilyn Scott: Standard Blue

Read "Standard Blue" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 3, 2017

Vocalist Marilyn Scott is not a new name in music. She has released 14 recording since the late 1980s, including the present Standard Blue. It is odd, then, that she has had so little coverage in these pages. George Harris wrote a revealing piece on her 2006 release, Handpicked (Prana Entertainment), but that is about it. A versatile artist, Scott has been able to exist, multidimensionally, across multiple genre, which has proven to be her charm. She does something very ...

Album Review

Dr. Mint: Voices in the Void

Read "Voices in the Void" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 3, 2017

Dr. Mint includes prominent affiliates of the West Coast progressive jazz and improvisational scenes, Daniel Rosenboom (trumpet), Gavin Templeton (saxophones) and Alexander Noice (electric guitar) with like-minded East Coast members, Sam Minaie (bass) and Caleb Dolister (drums). Here, the quartet presents a wow factor on its fifth release. No doubt, they're armed and dangerous via these hyper-mode jazz rock works, spiced with Noice's killer fuzoid riffs and the hornists' no holds-barred soloing ventures. “Kingdom In The Middle" ...

Extended Analysis

Jazz Is Phsh: He Never Spoke A Word

by Doug Collette
March 3, 2017

Phish prefer not to be compared to the Grateful Dead in any respect, which is understandable up to a point, yet it's fair to say each band's respective legacy has its own momentum including twists and turns of evolution that inevitably result in parallels and intersections illuminating the process(es). So it is that Jazz Is Phsh follows in the footsteps of Jazz Is Dead as the former group interprets the Vermont band's material. Yet, in a subtle nod ...