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

Rebecca DuMaine: Happy Madness

Read "Happy Madness" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 7, 2017

There's a natural appeal in Rebecca DuMaine's vocal work. Perhaps it's due to her straightforward approach, reflective of a theater background yet undeniably tethered to pure jazz. She puts a song across with a smile, capitalizing on her innate ebullience, and she gives the impression that she knows of what she sings. On this, DuMaine's fourth album on the Summit imprint, she continues her work with the Dave Miller Trio. She has a longstanding connection to this ...

New York @ Night

Steve Reich Celebration: Repercussion

by Peter Jurew
January 7, 2017

Steve Reich Celebration: Repercussion National Sawdust Brooklyn, NY December 10, 2016 As part of the many celebrations of composer Steve Reich's 80th birthday throughout 2016, the World Music Institute and National Sawdust co-presented a program in December that brought the Ghanaian master, Gideon Alorwoyie, together with the critically-acclaimed Mantra Percussion Ensemble for sixty minutes of riveting music and dance. The back story on this landmark performance begins in the summer ...

Album Review

Dwiki Dharmawan: Pasar Klewer

Read "Pasar Klewer" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
January 7, 2017

Another day, another two- disc set. Or so it seems. Fortunately, one does not have to wade through Dwiki Dharmawan's Pasar Klewer. Despite some odd choices in track sequence one may even wonder ..."is that all?" after the second disc has finished its spin. Dharmawan is an Indonesian jazz pianist who, like so many of his countrymen, has found a rich vein of inspiration in the folk and ethnic musics of his native land. It's worth noting that Dharmawan is ...

Album Review

Rachel Therrien: Pensamiento

Read "Pensamiento" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
January 7, 2017

The music of Colombia is as unique as the geographical layout of the country itself. Having two distinct coastal expanses divided by the Isthmus of Panama, the Caribbean or eastern Atlantic region, and the western Pacific region; each offering a diverse blend of musical styles and rhythms, representing the Spanish, African, and Indigenous cultures prevalent in the area. Trumpeter Rachel Therrien in 2014 went on a national tour of Colombia with the Gypsy Cumbia Orchestra, and was exposed to the ...

Album Review

Colin Vallon / Patrice Moret / Julian Sartorius: Danse

by Karl Ackermann
January 7, 2017

Pianist Colin Vallon seems on the verge of a creative breakthrough with his new trio album Danse. With his third ECM trio release Vallon has cemented a personal approach to his music; it is one that has taken time to unfold much like many of his compositions. In his writing, as well as group interplay, the pianist has made a science of exploring open spaces and filling them with nuanced textures or opting for minimalism. Vallon's influences include ...

Catching Up With

Trombonist Wayne Wallace racking up Grammy nods with distinctive record label

by David Becker
January 6, 2017

Usually when a musician starts a record label, it's with no intent beyond releasing his own music. Not so with San Francisco-based trombonist Wayne Wallace. Since forming Patois Records (Motto: “Promoting improvisation") more than a decade ago, Wallace has used the label as a vehicle to promote both his own Latin jazz work and music of fellow free spirits performing everything from salsa to big-band jazz. Along the way, the label has picked up a handful of Grammy nominations, including ...

Album Review

John Abercrombie Quartet: Up and Coming

Read "Up and Coming" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
January 6, 2017

Starting the new year with, if not precisely a bang, a nevertheless unforgettable record whose strength lies in pristine lyricism, nuanced group interplay and writing that capitalizes on the entire quartet's appreciation of subtlety over gymnastics and refined lyricism over angularity, John Abercrombie's Up and Coming--ECM's first release of the year--is also founded strongly on the concept of relationship. The guitarist has been playing with Marc Copland since the pianist's days in the early '70s as a saxophonist ...

Album Review

Sei Miguel: (Five) Stories Untold

Read "(Five) Stories Untold" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 6, 2017

As he did on his two previous Clean Feed albums Suite for a Jazz Combo (2010) and Salvation Modes (2014), Portuguese trumpeter Sei Miguel works with the pocket variety of the instrument and sounds superb in the process. With (Five) Stories Untold he utilizes a revolving cast of players in tempering abstraction with an abundance of lyrical input. This is not to say that the album is anything short of eclectic inventiveness of the highest order.Miguel is little ...

In The Biz

Roberta Piket: Focusing on the Music

by Kathy Sanborn
January 6, 2017

Native New Yorker Roberta Piket is a pianist who loves to explore the more inventive territory of jazz and improvised music. A gifted composer, she was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk BMI Composers' Competition. Her latest album, One for Marian: Celebrating Marian McPartland, reached JazzWeek and CMJ Jazz Top 50. Piket graciously shares a bit of her own career philosophy with us, along with helpful tips on how to flourish in the music business of today. ...

Album Review

Ian Faquini e Paula Santoro: Metal Na Madeira

Read "Metal Na Madeira" reviewed by Jim Trageser

by Jim Trageser
January 6, 2017

For most of us in the United States, mentioning “Brazil" in a musical conversation connotes bossa nova or samba--which is a bit like describing all American music as blues or country. Expertise in the music of Brazil is the work of a lifetime; much as with the United States, each region has its own style, its own traditions. And modern urban centers have given rise to nonregional styles as well. None of this means we have ...