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

Franklin Kiermyer: Closer To The Sun

Read "Closer To The Sun" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 9, 2017

Most of drummer Franklyn Kiermyer's records have a strong spiritual aura but none as intensely so as the deeply introspective Closer to the Sun. For this sublime session Kiermyer draws inspiration from saxophonist John Coltrane's Impulse years. This is not, however, a mere tribute through reinterpretation of the great artist's work as Kiermyer has a unique style that is deferential to but never derivative of those who have influenced him. Kiermyer often utilizes repeating motifs and melodic fragments ...

Album Review

Terell Stafford: Forgive And Forget

Read "Forgive And Forget" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
January 9, 2017

Veteran trumpeter Terell Stafford delivers the second installment of saxophonist Herb Harris's dynamic “Jazz Masters Unlimited" series production, with the unveiling of Forgive and Forget, providing a forum for Stafford's talents and improvisational skills. Showcasing a repertoire penned and arranged by Harris, the trumpeter surrounds himself with a formidable quintet that makes his performance here much easier to appreciate. The A-list of players appearing with Stafford include tenor saxophonist extraordinaire Tim Warfield who served as the first masters series feature ...

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Interview

Nat Hentoff: The Never-Ending Ball

by Ian Patterson
January 9, 2017

This interview was first published at All About Jazz on June 23, 2010. Nat Hentoff was eleven years old when, walking down the road one day in Boston, he heard music so exciting that he shouted with pleasure and ran into the shop to learn that the music was of clarinetist Artie Shaw. In that moment was born a love affair with jazz which has lasted seventy-four years thus far. At nineteen, Hentoff was hosting his own jazz ...

Opinion

A giant of jazz journalism silenced

by Jim Trageser
January 8, 2017

Nat Hentoff was an old-school intellectual whose favorite topic—whose very touchstone—was, throughout his life, jazz. At one point in the 1990s, Hentoff—who passed of natural causes on Jan. 7—announced that he was giving up writing about jazz to focus on topics that seemed more critical—free speech and civil liberties, which he felt were under constant attack from all ends of the political spectrum. And while he continued to advocate for free speech and civil liberties for the rest ...

Album Review

Lettuce: Mt. Crushmore

Read "Mt. Crushmore" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 8, 2017

The long-time jazz/funk band Lettuce has been referred to in terms that liken their sound to an evangelizing of funk and that is certainly a fitting descriptions for a good portion of their music. What the funk-laden descriptions obscure is that the blending of a strong jazz element makes this group unique. That aspect is largely driven by an enhanced reed and brass section some of whom perform elsewhere as The Shady Horns. The EP Mt. Crushmore is the sixth ...

Album Review

Knut Riisnæs Quartet: 2nd Thoughts

Read "2nd Thoughts" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
January 8, 2017

Contemporary Norwegian jazz has a well-deserved reputation for atmospheric beauty. Such players as saxophonists Jan Garbarek and Trygve Seim, trumpeters Nils Petter Molvær and Arve Henriksen, and guitarists Terje Rypdal and Eivind Aarset (all associated with ECM Records) have attracted international attention for many years. But Norway also has strong roots in bebop, and the Knut Riisnæs Quartet provides solid proof. It's certainly bop with a contemporary edge, as shown by the opener, the title tune by pianist ...

Album Review

John McNeil: Hush Point III

Read "Hush Point III" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
January 8, 2017

Trumpeter John McNeil is a real trooper, battling and overcoming much physical adversity, but nevertheless engaging in long-term projects such as the group Hush Point. Joined by saxophonist Jeremy Udden, with Aryeh Kobrinsky on bass and Anthony Pinciotti on drums, McNeil's somewhat idiosyncratic sense of humor (musical and otherwise) is on display, as is his desire to forge a true group sound and aesthetic. The group's marvelous, and purposefully underwhelming third release Hush Point III is full of ...

Album Review

Scott Whitfield: New Jazz Standards, Volume 2

Read "New Jazz Standards, Volume 2" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 8, 2017

On New Jazz Standards, Volume 2 (yes, the title may seem a tad optimistic at first glance; more about that later), trombonist Scott Whitfield leads a well-honed quartet playing the music of Carl Saunders. If the name Carl Saunders is new to you, he is quite simply one of the finest jazz trumpeters you've never heard--and he may well be one of the best composers too. As for Whitfield, Saunders' personal choice to preside over this album, he is one ...

Bailey's Bundles

Landon Spradlin, Jack Mack, Tom Craig, In Layman Terms, Bobby Rush, and the 2016 International Blues Challenge

by C. Michael Bailey
January 7, 2017

For two music genres often thought dead or near death, the blues and jazz continue to be two densities attracting talent for interpretation. The blues has been due a resurgence since the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and is likely to take off in the wake of the Rolling Stone's Blue and Lonesome (Polydor, 2016). Here is the front end of what is sure to be 21st Century blues deluge. Landon Spradlin No More Blue ...

Multiple Reviews

Weekertoft Hits Its Stride…

by John Eyles
January 7, 2017

As Weekertoft approaches its first anniversary, its teething troubles seem over as it is settling down into a pattern of releasing music regularly. Of the label's two latest releases, one is on CD, the other a download, a balanced approach that seems likely to become the norm. The download release is significant for two connected reasons: it is the label's first release not to feature one of its proprietors, guitarist John Russell and pianist Paul G. Smyth; and, with music ...