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

Michaël Attias: Nerve Dance

Read "Nerve Dance" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 2, 2017

Methodical design, rough-and-tumble play, and thoughtful exchange are often viewed as mutually exclusive concepts in jazz. Saxophonist Michaël Attias' Nerve Dance, however, obliterates that line of thinking and any potential obstacles that could separate those realms. This is a work that's cultured, contumacious, and conversational in nature. It's principled art unbound. Nerve Dance introduces a new quartet that consistently exhibits certain traits while also presenting differently from angle to angle and piece to piece. In many places, ...

Album Review

David Wright: Morph

by Tyran Grillo
March 2, 2017

Anyone craving that warm roundedness of 1980s-era Pat Metheny will feel right at home stepping to the wheelhouse of guitarist David Wright, whose Phonograph Team Project has knocked one out right out of the park with Morph. And yet, as the apt title of this second album from Wright's simpatico quartet implies, the Metheny element is but one of many blending inseparably into its mixture. For while the strains of “Find A Place" set a tone that is indeed comforting ...

Album Review

Davy Mooney: Hope Of Home

Read "Hope Of Home" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
March 2, 2017

For many, if not most musicians, much time is spent on the road performing, with one's “home town" many times just a short stop on the endless tour. It is hard enough to maintain a steady relationship, much less than that with a spouse and possibly family for the “normal" person, than someone who must travel to earn a living.On a larger time scale, guitarist Davy Mooney's latest, very fine release Hope For Home is about the same ...

Live Review

Live From Old York: Paolo Angeli, Derek Gripper, Geoff Lakeman, John Warren & Iain Dixon

by Martin Longley
March 2, 2017

Paolo Angeli/Derek Gripper The National Centre For Early Music February 16, 2017 On this double-billed evening, acoustic guitars were found in their extreme opposites states, spreading from purity to perversion. From South Africa, Derek Gripper plays a natural axe, amplified only modestly, direct into a respectfully- distanced microphone. From Sardinia, Paolo Angeli plays an acoustic guitar that has been heavily modified, attaching parts that force it into the cello position, employing mechanical toe-controlled robot-fingers ...

Live Review

Gisela João and Acoustic Trio at Schimmel Center

by Ernest Barteldes
March 2, 2017

Gisela João and Acoustic Trio Schimmel Center at Pace University New York, NY February 25, 2017 The evening, which was part of the Fado Festival in New York (a multi-venue event dedicated to disseminate fado--Portugal's most traditional genre--in the United States) began with a set of traditional instrumental fados performed by the acoustic trio formed by Ricardo Parreira (12-string Portuguese guitar), Nelson Aleixo (classical guitar) and Francisco Gaspar (acoustic bass). The songs ...

Album Review

Myles Wright: Manhattan EP

Read "Manhattan EP" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
March 2, 2017

For evidence that the big-band tradition is alive and well, look no further than this release from composer and arranger Myles Wright. His second self-produced recording after 2015's LA EP, he's shifted his focus to the other coast this time, and with a top-flight crew of New York musicians to perform four ambitious, infectious charts, it's an enjoyable and promising outing. One noticeable change from Wright's earlier record is that the pieces here are a bit shorter, resulting ...

Top Ten List

Top Ten Jazz Tracks for Surf Music

by Alan Bryson
March 1, 2017

The notion of jazz as surf music seems absurd at first blush, but it can work surprisingly well. Some time ago I learned this by happenstance while listening to an album by fusion guitarist Alex Machacek as I watched surf videos on YouTube. It was a true “ah ha" moment. Compared to the original soundtrack, Alex's music was much better suited to the surfers' incredible aesthetics, athletics, and the resulting excitement. It struck me that it might be ...

Bailey's Bundles

A Mixed Bag - Joonsam, Petros Klampanis, O.R.K., Peter Erskine, David Ambrosio/Russ Meissner

by C. Michael Bailey
March 1, 2017

Joonsam A Door Origin Records 2016 South Korean bassist Joonsam Lee moved to New York City in 2007 and began composing...composing and meeting other like-minded musicians with whom to share ideas. For his debut recording, Lee has assembled these compositions, choosing those which reflect his many musical interests and experiences. With his sturdy rhythm featuring pianist Aaron Parks and drummer Nate Wood--Joonsam (who goes by this single name) adds trumpeter Ralph Alessi on trumpet on ...

Album Review

Rick Hirsch's Big Ol' Band: Pocono Git-Down

Read "Pocono Git-Down" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 1, 2017

A native of State College, PA and long-time fixture in the small cities, college towns and regional area jazz scene, saxophonist and educator Rick Hirsch sought to promote and celebrate this overlooked part of the musical community by drawing out twenty of his favorite small-town musician-friends and record in the Pocono Mountains. The result, the audacious and swinging Pocono Git-Down big band album of a gritty and powerful orchestral sound from a group of professional players that one may not ...

Album Review

Trio Mediaeval & Arve Henriksen: Rímur

by Henning Bolte
March 1, 2017

Rímur is a collection of seventeen chants, hymns, folk songs and improvisations based on ancient Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish sources, brought into our contemporary way of sensing by singer/violinist Anna Maria Friman, singers Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Berit Opheim, and eminent trumpeter Arve Henriksen. The music of this album is a clear example of the deep-rooted migrational nature of our local existence. It is music of a remote past, marked by radically different life conditions. It is music ...