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

Motif: My Head is Listening

Read "My Head is Listening" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 2, 2017

This Scandinavian band lives by its moniker. Indeed, most of these works are framed on a sequence of primary motifs, mini- motifs and sub-motifs, interspersed with knockdown, drag-out cadenzas that span free jazz, semi-free jazz, modern jazz and so on. At times this collective seems to thrive on nervous energy amid a surfeit of highs, lows and briskly executed reverse- engineering parameters. They go from one extreme to another, whether it's dainty horns and piano etudes to moments of quietude ...

Anatomy of a Standard

"Desafinado" by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Newton Mendonça and Jon Hendricks

by Tish Oney
February 1, 2017

There has been a healthy dose of Latin songs that have made their way into the Great American Songbook—after all—Central America and South America are every bit as “American" as the United States. Among the composers of Latin jazz standards, the inimitable guitarist/composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994), stands tall. Jobim composed a great many enduring songs that jazz musicians have latched onto as essential Great American Songbook gems. Newton Mendonça wrote the original Portuguese lyrics, after which the vocalese master, ...

Album Review

Eyal Lovett Trio: Tales From A Forbidden Land

Read "Tales From A Forbidden Land" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 1, 2017

It takes a high level of confidence to offer up a two CD set on a sophomore outing. Most artists wait for later in their careers for for this particular audaciousness. But Berlin-based pianist Eyal Lovett, originally from Israel, follows up his debut, Let Go (Self-Produced, 2013), with double CD offering Tales From A Forbidden Land. He has a lot to say, with his music with it's Middle-Eastern tinge, influenced it seems by the sounds of Brad Mehldau ...

Album Review

Luke Sellick: Alchemist

Read "Alchemist" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
February 1, 2017

Raised in Winnipeg, but currently a resident of New York City, Luke Sellick's debut album represents an auspicious beginning to this Juilliard School educated bassist. He gained a scholarship in 2012 to join the prestigious Juilliard, for which he gained a scholarship and was mentored for his Masters degree by the legendary virtuoso Ron Carter. He now works regularly with the likes of Johnny O'Neal, Jimmy Greene, Orrin Evans, and Russell Malone. Tenorist Greene plays on three tracks on the ...

Album Review

Francois Carrier: The Joy of Being

Read "The Joy of Being" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 1, 2017

Continuing their world travels, the team of reedman Francois Carrier and percussionist Michel Lambert again meet acoustic bassist Rafal Mazur, almost a year to the day from the recording of Unknowable at the Alchemia Jazz Klub in Krakow, Poland to create The Joy Of Being.Much of what can be said about “spontaneous" jazz in general or of how these players interact specifically can be found in the earlier review.What is particularly interesting in this meeting is ...

Album Review

Equally Stupid: Escape from The Unhappy Society

Read "Escape from The Unhappy Society" reviewed by Anthony Shaw

by Anthony Shaw
February 1, 2017

This second album by Equally Stupid sees the same transnational crew of three gents working in the same vein as their first Exploding Head, blending Rögnvaldsson's astringent guitar with saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen's this time more mellow tenor. David Meier is still holding things together with a strong physicality behind the drums, but from the cover onwards there's obviously a major change of style. I wonder if they have been listening to John Cale or Arvo Pert as ...

What is Jazz?

Listening to Jazz Knowingly and Authentically: The Epistemology and Ontology of Jazz

by Victor L. Schermer
January 31, 2017

"What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought.'" --David Hume I deliberately used the words “epistemological" and “ontological" in the title in order to attract your attention. If you don't know what they mean, you're going feel put off or curious. If you do know, you're going to wonder what they have to do with jazz. Either way you're going to think consciously about what you just read, and if you ...

Rediscovery

Five Classic ECM Titles in High Res

by John Kelman
January 31, 2017

If ever there were a label that deserved to have its catalog released in a high resolution format, it's Munich's ECM Records. Since its inception in 1969, the multiple award-winning record label headed by producer Manfred Eicher has truly redefined how, initially, jazz and improvised music recordings could--and, at least for some, perhaps should--sound. Attention to the minutest detail and creating albums of such pristine clarity that every layer is clearly audible--from the loudest roar to the softest decay--has garnered ...

Album Review

Heather Bambrick: You'll Never Know

Read "You'll Never Know" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 31, 2017

You know those stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks moments that only music can elicit? Those oh-so-rare occurrences where sound and intention hypnotize, leaving a permanent mark on the soul? This writer experienced one of those sonic epiphanies in hearing Heather Bambrick's enthralling version of “Far From The Home I Love." It's a song that I've been relatively indifferent about in the past, but Bambrick changed that with her take. She made a convert out of me. If Bambrick's name is new ...

Album Review

Nicolas Kummert: La Diversité

Read "La Diversité" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
January 31, 2017

Belgian saxophonist Nicolas Kummert has been influenced by African music since a two month stay in Senegal at the age of 17, where he collaborated with musicians from that country and later from Benin, Mali, Kenya, Sao Tomé, Morocco and Tunisia. He met award-winning Blue Note guitarist Lionel Loueke during a recording session for Beninese singer Patrick Ruffino in 2008 and by 2015 Kummert had asked Loueke to join his new band. His previous album Voices (2014), featured Senegalese guitarist ...