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

Steve Noble / Kristoffer Berre Alberts: Coldest Second Yesterday

Read "Coldest Second Yesterday" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
February 25, 2017

Saxophone/drum duets tend to bring out the devil in people. Norwegian reedman Kristoffer Berre Alberts' approach might come as a surprise for those familiar with him only through his work with bands such as Snik and Cortex. Here he explores the edges to the exclusion of almost all else, with barely a conventional pitch among the false fingering and overblowing. But his companion Steve Noble is one of the most rhythmic of European free drummers and his presence ensures that ...

Album Review

Chicago: Chicago II

Read "Chicago II" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
February 25, 2017

Chicago II deserves its stereo remix and mastering by British audiophile extraordinaire Steven Wilson for any number of reasons, the most prominent of which is that, at this early juncture in the band's career, its creativity was at full flower, minus the pedantic tendencies or self-conscious pretension that would arise on later records. Everything was in balance on this sophomore effort, from the composing credits shared by guitarist/vocalist Terry Kath, keyboardist/vocalist Robert Lamm and bassist/vocalist Peter Cetera (who ...

Book Review

Nothing but Love in God's Water by Robert Darden

by C. Michael Bailey
February 25, 2017

Nothing but Love in God's Water--Volume 1: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement Robert Darden 224 Pages ISBN: # 978-0271050843 Penn State Press 2014 Critic Ed Ward's The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1: 1920-1965 (Flatiron Books, 2016) is a history written with a very even and broad horizon in mind. Bigger than the blues, country, and soul: rock & roll is an internationally large ...

Album Review

Ross Hammond: Follow Your Heart

Read "Follow Your Heart" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 25, 2017

Have you doubted the existence of God? Wondered if there is a place called heaven? You may react to those questions with an emphatic “no," or, if your answer is you have “no doubts," you posses a substance called faith, an article beyond reason and knowledge. Listening to Follow You Heart by guitarist Ross Hammond bolsters the argument for this thing called faith. Hammond's solo acoustic set, recorded in a Sacramento church, opens with “Sinner Man," and a ...

Interview

Jamil Sheriff: Helping shape a brave new jazz world

by Rokas Kucinskas
February 24, 2017

Jamil Sheriff is a jazz pianist, composer, and educator. About 20 years after finishing studies in Leeds College of Music, the pianist became the head of the jazz department in the same institution; today he is regarded as one of the top jazz educators in the UK. Among many things Sheriff teaches composition, aural awareness, and ensemble. Known for his composition skills, he worked with large ensembles and recorded with them in the past: Daydreams (2003) and Backchat (2008) with ...

Album Review

Chano Dominguez: Over the Rainbow

Read "Over the Rainbow" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
February 24, 2017

Jazz music is an interpretive art form, it is in fact, the quintessential American art form. This is an undeniable attribute to the genre, which over the past century has impacted musical culture internationally, sharing it's compositional and improvisational commonalities and absorbing the unique musical identities of neighboring musical movements. Certainly this is the case with the musical forms of Latin America, with notably strong contributions emanating from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and perhaps most prominently, the Afro-Cuban rhythms ...

Album Review

Albert Cirera: Before The Silence

Read "Before The Silence" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
February 24, 2017

On Before The Silence, four musicians from the Iberian Peninsula collectively birth one 53-minute improvisation, split into three tracks and a final short coda. Pianist Agusti Fernandez is likely the most recognizable name here, but the nominal leader reedman Albert Cirera has an enduring association with the pianist, first as a student, then appearing as part of his Liquid Trio. Completing the outfit are bassist Hernani Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini, known from the Portuguese RED Trio, and in the ...

Album Review

Emmet Cohen Featuring Jimmy Cobb: Masters Legacy Series, Volume 1

Read "Masters Legacy Series, Volume 1" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 24, 2017

Young pianist Emmet Cohen has a reverence for the history of jazz and a deep abiding yearning to preserve the music of the masters and to this end, Cohen developed the concept of a Masters Legacy Series intended to be a collection of recordings and interviews with various living jazz icons who began their careers fifty or sixty-years-ago. Volume one celebrates and documents the music of Jimmy Cobb, arguably one of the finest drum masters of our time, and is ...

Album Review

Steve Khan: Backlog

Read "Backlog" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
February 24, 2017

Steve Khan's love affair with Latin music germinated in the 1980's with his stellar Eyewitness recordings and continued to develop in a number of releases including 2011's Parting Shot and 2014's Subtext both on Tone Center Records. Backlog is third in this series and represents some of the esteemed jazz guitarist's finest work to date. A consummate musician, Khan's credits include heavy work in the '70s and '80s with pop and jazz icons Donald Fagen, Michael Brecker, ...

Album Review

Richard Pinhas / Tatsuya Yoshida / Masami Akita: Process And Reality

Read "Process And Reality" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 24, 2017

Since guitarist Richard Pinhas' returned to music in the 1990s, his appetite for touring and recording with various artists has produced an impressive array of albums. Another generation knows him from his 1970s work with the prog/space/electronic rock outfit Heldon. Current listeners await each new solo release and encounters with the likes of science fiction writers Maurice Dantec and Philip K. Dick, Oren Ambarchi, Wolf Eyes, and Noël Akchoté. For many listeners it is Pinhas' collaborations with the Japanese musicians ...