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

Carol Liebowitz / Nick Lyons: First Set

Read "First Set" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
February 6, 2017

The improvising legacy of Lennie Tristano continues to this day. It went through his student, the late Connie Crothers and it continues in this live set by two musicians she influenced, pianist Carol Liebowitz and saxophonist Nick Lyons recorded at Crothers' loft in 2012. This duo does, in the old Tristano fashion, improvising rooted in standards though you have to listen very closely to detect the skeletons of “You Stepped Out Of A Dream" in “Carol's Dream" or ...

Album Review

Mats Gustafsson & Craig Taborn: Ljubljana

Read "Ljubljana" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 6, 2017

Congratulations to whomever conceived of this pairing of two improvised music giants. Pianist Craig Taborn and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, both born in the great white north (so to speak), Taborn in Minneapolis and Gustafsson, Umeå, in Northern Sweden. Both are original and distinctive improvisers whose paths had never crossed until the 2015 Ljubljana Jazz Festival. Taborn, of late, has been christened heir to the improvised piano chair of Keith Jarrett by ECM records chief Manfred Eicher. This is ...

Album Review

Craig Taborn: Daylight Ghosts

Read "Daylight Ghosts" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
February 5, 2017

In addition to his eighty-plus appearances as a sideman, pianist Craig Taborn has during the last six years found a happy home for his own music on the ECM label, where he's been able to establish a formidable body of work in just a few recordings. It makes sense, really, that after his solo record Avenging Angel (2011) and trio outing Chants (2013), he is now working with a quartet. An expanded group gives him more tools to work with, ...

Album Review

Artbeaters: Life Compass On!

Read "Life Compass On!" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 5, 2017

Artbeaters were a Slovenian band in search of a leader, in whom they found violinist Peter Ugrin. Ugrin had completed his studies in music in New York City, returning home to an opportunity awaiting him. After two intense years of woodshedding and performing, the band recorded their well-received debut recording, Garden of Adventure in 2013, going on to perform throughout Europe. Now emerges the band's sophomore effort, Life Compass On!, demonstrating further growth in these already fully-established musicians. “Their original ...

Album Review

Angelo Hart: Storyteller

Read "Storyteller" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
February 5, 2017

On his second release as a leader, the impressionistic and introspective Storyteller, pianist Angelo Hart impressively balances his instrumental virtuosity with his compositional ingenuity. Hart expresses a range of overlapping emotions as he draws on various influences while creating his intricate and engaging pieces. The melancholic “Daybreak" is filled with a deep and stirring romanticism. Hart's dense and rolling lines mix western classical elegance and a warm, eastern lyricism. With his spontaneous acrobatics and expansive arpeggios Hart creates ...

Album Review

Niculin Janett Quartet Featuring Rich Perry: No Parking Any Time

Read "No Parking Any Time" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 5, 2017

I was beginning to wonder if there were any “blowing sessions" recorded today that did not sound so blatantly contrived. From Berlin comes such a recording by Swiss alto saxophonist Niculin Janett and his quartet. No Parking Anytime features New York City tenor saxophonist Rich Perry, whose own recent Organique (Steeplechase, 2016), with Gary Versace (Hammond B-3 organ), Jeff Hirshfield (drums) has been very well received. This is quietly defiant acoustic jazz, sparklingly new, played through a sepia filter, effecting ...

Album Review

Tania Chen, Henry Kaiser, Wadada Leo Smith, William Winant: Ocean of Storms

Read "Ocean of Storms" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 4, 2017

If, for no other reason than Wadada Leo Smith rears his predominant head, this recording should be considered. Within the electronic walls of All About Jazz, one can forgive me for having not paid proper tribute to Smith's exceptional America's National Parks (Cuneiform Records, 2016) since no less than five colleagues did. I am a late comer to Smith, whose pan-artistic approach is so enormous I have shied away from taking it on. We have lived in a post-John Cage ...

Album Review

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Read "The Grateful Dead 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
February 4, 2017

The Grateful Dead didn't always make the most astute business decisions through the course of their career, but the marketing/merchandising agreement reached in 2006 with Rhino Records has been a treasure trove for the label, the band and its fans. And notwithstanding accusations of cash-grabbing, the fact is packages such as Sunshine Daydream (Rhino, 2013) and Thirty Trips Around the Sun (Rhino, 2015) are as collector-friendly as they are commercially savvy. A long-term series of reissues covering the ...

Live Review

Los Lobos at The Barre Opera House

by Doug Collette
February 4, 2017

Los Lobos Barre Opera House Barre, Vermont January 28, 2017 Without playing virtually any of their best known material-no “La Bamba" or “How Will the Wolf Survive?"-Los Lobos thoroughly charmed and eventually won the hearts (and minds no doubt) of a Vermont crowd January 28. This even after a “Wanna get away moment?" for guitarist Cesar Rosas when, early in the evening, he came right out and asked his audience where he and his bandmates ...

Album Review

Norman David: The Eleventet - Please Call

Read "The Eleventet - Please Call" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
February 4, 2017

Clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Norman David founded and has been leading Philadelphia's Eleventet for over three decades. After thirty years playing in in and around the city, the band found their recording groove with their first CD, At This Time (Norman David/Coolcraft, 2011). Now, in this new release, they deliver swinging and ear-popping sounds while at the same time offering nuances, subtleties, and creative ideas that generate interest for the more serious listener. David plays a mean soprano sax, while ...