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

SLIXS: Playgrounds

Read "Playgrounds" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
February 10, 2017

The six members of German a cappella group SLIXS have been honing their instruments together, that's to say their voices, for over a decade. Few vocal groups can match SLIXS' energy and musical charisma, or its masterly fusion of funk, pop, jazz and baroque idioms. SLIXS' unforgettable live shows brought them to the attention of Bobby McFerrin, with whom the band subsequently toured, and his influence is undoubtedly felt on Playgrounds. However, the nine original compositions, the lion's share composed ...

Under the Radar

Jazz Education: The Next Generation, Part 2

by Karl Ackermann
February 9, 2017

Part 1 of Jazz Education: The Next Generation explored how the early days of music and--specifically--jazz music was approached through various channels of formal education. The long, arduous process of creating an accepting environment for jazz education necessitated moving the art form from a vaudevillian status through a firewall of academic elitism and prejudice to a proper mainstream reception. The irony is that whether one ascribes the “Golden Age" of jazz to the eras of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington or ...

Album Review

Sonny Rollins Trio & Horace Silver Quintet: Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 40 - Zurich 1959

Read "Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 40 - Zurich 1959" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 9, 2017

To some extent, the concept of glory days equates to fiction based on romanticized truth. When you talk to those who walked the walk at any seemingly important time, you learn that very quickly. Many of them would likely say that there's no time like the present, and the truth is that there's great music and history to be gleaned from any era and area if you know where to look. But then again, you can't argue with the facts ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Invisible Hand

Read "Invisible Hand" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 9, 2017

Satoko Fujii's work has been well documented across her many musical outlets. A restless creative force, the pianist--and occasional accordionist--she has plied her trade in the intimate duo settings with trumpeter-husband Natsuki Tamura and recently with bassist Joe Fonda on Duet (Long Song Records, 2016). But more often than not, Fujii's presence has been in the context of her numerous orchestras from New York, Berlin and Tokyo. Of her dozens of recordings, few have shown a spotlight on her solo ...

Album Review

Alexander Balanescu / Zlatko Kaucic / Javier Girotto: East West Daydreams

Read "East West Daydreams" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 9, 2017

East West Daydreams is one of those recordings that grabs one's attention immediately, only to be quickly and completely overwhelmed by the musicianship, drama and intensity of the music. The trio of violinist Alexander Balanescu, percussionist Zlatko Kaucic and Javier Girotto on woodwinds have collected five live recordings from a number of years ago in cities all over Europe: Vienna, Austria at the Porgy & Bess Jazz Club (October 8, 2009), Florence, Italy at the Pinocchio Jazz Club ...

Album Review

Moon Trio: Moon Trio: Earth-Time

Read "Moon Trio: Earth-Time" reviewed by Marithe Van der Aa

by Marithe Van der Aa
February 9, 2017

Graceful melodies and grooves merge together effortlessly on the debut album of this recently formed trio led by Dutch pianist Jeroen Van Vliet. With the help of occasional electronic effects, Van Vliet and his trio create soundscapes of a dreamlike quality that trigger and inspire the imagination.While it is far from uncommon for contemporary jazz musicians to resort to technical showmanship, these three musicians wisely refrain--and it becomes them. On Earth-Time you will find no complex melodies , ...

Album Review

Kurt Rosenwinkel: Caipi

by Roger Farbey
February 9, 2017

Ten years in the making and with master guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel predominantly playing all the instruments (aside from additional contributions from notable guests such as Mark Turner on tenor saxophone and Eric Clapton on “Little Dream"), this is an intriguingly fine album of light, but not lightweight, tracks. Opening with a distinctly Brazilian feel on the title track, its successor, “Kama," is characterised by falsetto, slightly tremulous vocals and legato violin from Frederika Krier. Typically, the pop/rock element ...

Live Review

Erik Friedlander At National Concert Hall, Dublin

by Ian Patterson
February 8, 2017

Erik Friedlander Kevin Barry Room, National Concert Hall Dublin, Ireland February 4, 2017 The sense of privilege was inescapable. To be one of a small number of people present at an intimate performance of music so beautiful felt like a royal invitation. Cellist Erik Friedlander was born the year that Oscar Pettiford died, in 1960, and although nearly half a century has elapsed since Pettiford's death at the age of thirty eight--when he ...

Album Review

Trio Elf: Music Box Music

Read "Music Box Music" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 8, 2017

German pianist Walter Lang leads something of a double life, musically. On the one hand, he fronts standard piano trios with an impressionist bent--in the mode of a Marc Copland--on recordings like Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (Hagel Neyer Records, 2005) and Eurasia (M & I Records, 2009); on another hand, he heads up Trio ELF, a group with very modernized approach to the piano trio format, one that incorporates synth-like grooves and dance club beats, and staccato hip ...

Album Review

Dante Boon / Jürg Frey: Clarinet (& Piano)

Read "Clarinet (& Piano)" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
February 8, 2017

Without doing an actual count of how many Another Timbre releases feature members of the Wandelweiser group, it is safe to say that they crop up regularly on the label both as composers and performers, with such names as Jürg Frey, Radu Malfatti, Michael Pisaro, Johnny Chang and Eva Maria Houben peppering the label's credits--not just on the monumental 2013 six-disc-set Wandelweiser und so weiter but across the catalogue. So, it comes as no surprise to find Another Timbre entering ...