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

Modus Factor: The Picasso Zone

Read "The Picasso Zone" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
January 24, 2017

Versatiity is the key to the musical success of The Picasso Zone by the multi-national, polystylistic electric jazz trio Modus Factor. Based in Toronto, Modus Factor is comprised of Canadian drummer (and putative bandleader) Chris Lesso, trumpeter Brownman Ali--originally from Trinidad--and Uganada- born bassist Ian De Souza. Clearly, these guys' diverse origins contributed to their abiding interest in a broad swath of musical genres which, in turn, truly enriches the music on The Picasso Zone. Though hip- hop, funk, electronica, ...

Album Review

Brad Myers & Michael Sharfe: Sanguinaria (Hopeful Songs)

Read "Sanguinaria (Hopeful Songs)" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
January 24, 2017

Cincinnati-based Brad Myers's follow-up recording to his 2015 quintet album “Prime Numbers" is essentially a duo record with his bassist colleague Michael Sharfe. The qualification “essentially" is deployed because there is additional percussion on most tracks but it's used as decorative augmentation rather than a vital rhythm unit. The opener, “Sanguinaria (Hopefulsong)" is atypical of successive numbers, with Sharfe initially playing arco bass and Dan Karlsberg on melodica. Both this number and its successor “In From Somewhere" are ...

Philosophisticated Lady

What would Plato have thought about jazz music?

by Marithe Van der Aa
January 23, 2017

"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, p. 39 [Free Press, 1979]) Have you ever wondered what one of the most celebrated philosophers of Ancient History might have thought about jazz music if he had lived to witness its development? There are several fragments of Plato's writings that may point us in the direction of finding out.

My Blue Note Obsession

Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder – 1964

by Marc Davis
January 23, 2017

What's left to say about Lee Morgan's most popular album, The Sidewinder? How about this: It is one FUN record. That's capital F, capital U, capital N. Anything wrong with that? Sometimes it feels like all the fun has gone out of jazz. As if nothing can be Good unless it is Serious. As if muted Miles and spiritual Trane are the ultimate barometers of true jazz respectability. Hey, I love Miles and Trane and all ...

Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Blooming Tall Phlox

Read "Blooming Tall Phlox" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
January 23, 2017

For this quintet outing, pianist and composer Yelena Eckemoff is joined by Verneri Pohjola on trumpet and flugelhorn, Panu Savolainen on vibraphone, Antti Lotjonen on double bass, and Olavi Louhivuori on drums and percussion. Together they move through a sequence of 15 originals that feel less composed than remembered, as though the music were lifted from the air itself and gently given form. What emerges is a cabinet of scents, each one opened with care, each one releasing its own ...

Album Review

Orrin Evans: #knowingishalfthebattle

Read "#knowingishalfthebattle" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
January 23, 2017

Since the 1990s Philadelphia-based pianist Orrin Evans has carved out a revered career as a band leader, producer, composer, and first and foremost, one helluva jazz pianist. Recorded live at New York's Sear Sound's Studio, #knowingishalfthebattle is his third release on Smoke Sessions with an all-star lineup that includes two other well-known Philly natives, guitarists Kevin Eubanks and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Energy runs through the session through the virtuosic performances of the three headliners as well as the ...

Album Review

John O'Gallagher Trio: Live In Brooklyn

Read "Live In Brooklyn" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
January 23, 2017

Over the past 25 years, altoist and New York resident, John O'Gallagher has worked with the likes of Joe Henderson, Maria Schneider, Kenny Wheeler, Billy Hart and Chris Cheek amongst many others. German born but long-time New Yorker bassist Johannes Weidenmueller has played with the Hank Jones trio, the John Abercrombie quartet, Joe Lovano and many others. Born in California, in-demand drummer Mark Ferber has worked with Lee Konitz, Don Byron, Fred Hersch, Norah Jones and Steve Swallow to name ...

Album Review

Jeff "Siege" Siegel Quartet: King Of Xhosa

Read "King Of Xhosa" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
January 23, 2017

It is appropriate that the opening track on King Of Xhosa, is a hand drum invocation and an introduction in the Xhosa language of South Africa, as that is exactly where the origins and influences of this music came from. Drummer Jeff “Siege" Siegel and his quartet are augmented on this recording by Feya Faku, a South African native, on trumpet and flugelhorn, and the one who sets the character of the music. Siegel, an accomplished drummer, leader, ...

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Blooming Tall Phlox

Read "Blooming Tall Phlox" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
January 23, 2017

You can look up the phlox flower online: there are 67 species, many of them fragrant. But none of the photographs or botanical classifications will tell you how it smells. For that we have pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff's musical impressions here, along with a range of other smells recalled from her Russian childhood. When Eckemoff visited Finland and saw how much it reminded her of Russia she decided it was the best place to record an album about her Russian aroma ...

Live Review

ECM Showcase at NYC Winter Jazzfest 2017

by Tyran Grillo
January 22, 2017

ECM Showcase at NYC Winter Jazzfest 2017 Tishman Auditorium, The New School New York City January 7, 2017 Music has been a comfort in troubling times ever since there were humans to bring about troubles to begin with. Rare, however, is that music which seeks not only to placate but also demonstrate. The world of ECM Records, insofar as it has come to be defined through nearly five decades of mapping, demonstrates in every sense ...