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.

Live Review

The Last Waltz 40 Tour at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
February 18, 2017

The Last Waltz 40 Tour NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY February 3, 2017 On November 25, 1976 (Thanksgiving), the Canadian-American rock group the Band gave its farewell concert at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom. The concert was filmed by director Martin Scorsese and made into the documentary, The Last Waltz. The movie included appearances by over a dozen special guests, including Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Ronnie Wood, Bobby Charles, Ronnie Hawkins, Eric Clapton, ...

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 Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 18, 2017

Saxophonist Phillip Johnston founded The Microscopic Septet in 1980 when the group briefly counted John Zorn as one of its members. They recorded four albums and were a regular presence in New York's downtown scene before disbanding in 1992. In 2006 Cuneiform Records re-released the four albums leading to the reformation of the group and presently, to their new release Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues.Johnston and pianist Joel ...

Album Review

Trish Clowes: My Iris

Read "My Iris" reviewed by Fiona Ord-Shrimpton

by Fiona Ord-Shrimpton
February 18, 2017

Firstly, each individual in the Trish Clowes Quartet, Trish Clowes on various saxophones, Ross Stanley on piano and Hammond, Chris Montague on guitar and James Maddren on drums, fits their corner perfectly, providing the extra dimension that makes their cohesive playing effortless. There are no shirkers or hang back components in this line up. My Iris is mistressful and masterful musical wizardry and it sounds fascinating. “One Hour" starts with an uncommon horn-like guitar sustain, acting both other-earthly ...

Album Review

John Martin: The Hidden Notes - Spirit Of Adventure

Read "The Hidden Notes - Spirit Of Adventure" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 18, 2017

The Hidden Notes--Spirit Of Adventure by saxophonist John Martin and his quintet (Ralph Wyld on vibes, guitarist Rob Updegraff, drummer Tim Giles and Tim Fairhall on bass) (mentioned briefly here) is a project that has had a four-year gestation. Calling the naturally occurring harmonics that are produced over the fundamental by all instruments the “hidden notes," Martin has put enormous effort into bringing out and controlling the harmonic possibilities of the saxophone through multiphonics, controlling the overtone patterns through different ...

Extended Analysis

Way Down Inside: Songs of Willie Dixon

by Doug Collette
February 18, 2017

Big Head Todd and the Monsters have been fans of blues music since their first days together playing music in high school, so it only makes sense they'd eventually record am album in this seminal form. Accordingly, in 2011 the band delved into the blues with their first 'Big Head Blues Club' project, 100 Years of Robert Johnson (Big Records, 2011), which featured guest appearances by BB King, Hubert Sumlin, Charlie Musselwhite, Honeyboy Edwards, and others. The success of that ...

Profile

Rolling in Rhythm: Philly Joe Jones and Charles Wilcoxon

by Dustin Mallory
February 17, 2017

Drummer “Philly" Joe Jones is known as one of the most recorded drummers in jazz history, appearing on more than 200 albums. His legacy as a studio drummer appears on seminal classics like John Coltrane's Blue Train, Thelonious Monk's Blues at the Five Spot, Miles Davis's Milestones, and Bud Powell's Time Waits. Beside these recordings, Jones regularly toured as a member of the Miles Davis Quintet and a later incarnation of the Bill Evans Trio. Jones also learned or received ...

Album Review

Benedikt Jahnel Trio: The Invariant

Read "The Invariant" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 17, 2017

The Invariant, as in a “constant," is a fitting title for Benedikt Jahnel Trio who have recorded as a unit since their debut Modular Concepts (Material label, 2008) and later moving on to the ECM label with Equilibrium (2012). Jahnel, a musician and mathematician in Berlin, has a deep appreciation for complex similarities between the two disciplines and he reveals an ability to peel away the superficial elements to tinker with the inner workings of the music.Canadian native--now ...

Album Review

Haruka Yabuno, Milena Jancuric, Ehud Ettun: Collage of Moments

Read "Collage of Moments" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
February 17, 2017

Prodigious pianist and composer Haruka Yabuno is also an accomplished improviser. She draws on her educational background in both classical music and jazz, as well as her native Japanese heritage, to craft engrossing and vibrant works that are delightfully unique. Two like-minded fellow alumni of Berklee College of Music, the virtuoso Israeli bassist Ehud Ettun and talented Serbian flutist Milena Jancuric, join her on the intriguing and poignant Collage of Moments. Captured during European tour in 2015, the CD ...

Album Review

Tim Langedijk Trio: Up North

by Budd Kopman
February 17, 2017

One of the hallmarks of a truly creative jazz musician is that his or her musical vision is immediately identifiable, and guitarist Tim Langedijk is one of those players. His trio's latest album, Up North is a marvelous document of his elegance, intensity, surprising musical choices and understated technique. When combined with the equally subtle playing of bassist Udo Pannekeet and drummer Hans Van Oosterhout, the music on the album almost glows in the dark. Everything has been ...

Album Review

Harriet Tubman and Wadada Leo Smith: Araminta

Read "Araminta" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 17, 2017

Things are urgent now. Actually, they have been critical for some time, but you might have chosen to ignore them. Politics, racism, sexism, war, inequality, and xenophobia are now issues that you must confront at home, work, in social media, and even within your bowling league. Everyone must have an opinion, and maybe that is the good news. This consciousness of social justice has long been the well that artists and musicians draw from. Half a century ago ...