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

Brandi Disterheft: Blue Canvas

Read "Blue Canvas" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 4, 2017

A canvas is often viewed as a neutral starting point, but it needn't be so. Even a so-called “blank" space can be suffused with certain color(s) before brushstrokes are ever applied, as Brandi Disterheft reminds us. Her fourth album is a trio date painted atop, around, over, and with the color blue. It's a work that uses various shades and hues of the titular color to form a connective design, or if you prefer, a loose theme, built with confident ...

Album Review

The Delegation: Evergreen (Canceled World)

Read "Evergreen (Canceled World)" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
January 4, 2017

Stretched out over two discs and featuring a 13-piece band that includes a string quartet, two vocalists and a dedicated person on “additional electronics" Evergreen (Canceled World) totally lives up to its larger-than-life sweep and scope. The brainchild of keyboardist and composer Gabriel Zucker, the Delegation's music is rooted in the edgy sort of modern / avant jazz one expects from the Brooklyn scene. Yet it goes off into all sorts of interesting tangents which encompass various forms of contemporary ...

Album Review

Dennis Coffey: Hot Coffey in the D – Burnin at Morey Baker’s Showplace Lounge

Read "Hot Coffey in the D – Burnin at Morey Baker’s Showplace Lounge" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 4, 2017

Who is Dennis Coffey? In this period of Adderall attention spans, Dennis Coffey is this: The Temptations' “Ball of Confusion" (Gordy, 1970); Edwin Starr's “War" (Gordy, 1970); Diana Ross and the Supremes' “Someday We'll be Together" (Motown, 1969). Does that ring a bell? I know everyone talks about the West Coast's “Wrecking Crew," but, Detroit had its “Funk Brothers" and a head brother was one Dennis Coffey. Coffey eventually became a ubiquitous presence in the Detroit music scene ...

Album Review

Jo Ann Daugherty: Bring Joy

Read "Bring Joy" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 4, 2017

On her third release as a leader Bring Joy, lyrical pianist Jo Ann Daugherty showcases her uniquely fluid style on the ten enchanting interpretations that comprise the album. Overall, as the title suggests, a jubilant ambience prevails. This is not to say that the music is monotonously celebratory, on the contrary it is vibrant and quite multifaceted with various motifs subtly and intricately woven within it. On pianist Abdullah Ibrahim's classic “Water From An Ancient Well" Daugherty takes ...

Multiple Reviews

Ivo Perelman: The Art of the Improv Trio

by Jim Trageser
January 4, 2017

For the last few centuries, the avant-garde movement has taken for itself the role of challenging preconceived notions of what is acceptable in music, in poetry, in the visual arts. This challenge has, for the most part, consisted of violating accepted rules in order to provoke discussion about the validity of those norms. In the arena of serious music, we've progressed, as it were, from the highly structured world of Baroque and Romantic symphonic music to modern composers ...

Out and About: The Super Fans

Meet Luis Torregrosa

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
January 3, 2017

Dr. Luis Torregrosa has been a Super Fan for as long as he can remember; you could even say his love of music is no less than a calling. Based in Trenton, MI (our first Super Fan outside of New York!), Luis has spent the last 45 years of his life not only enjoying the music he loves, but also helping to maintain and support it, something he feels is the duty of every super fan. If you're wondering just ...

From Far and Wide

The World's First International Online Contest by 7 Virtual Jazz Club

by Hrayr Attarian
January 3, 2017

On December 19th 2016, the first international online jazz contest ended with the announcement of the three winners. Organized by Valerio Pappi the artistic director of “7 Virtual Jazz Club" the inaugural edition of this innovative competition was dedicated to cornetist Nick La Rocca. Born of Sicilian parents in New Orleans, La Rocca, despite the controversies surrounding him, is of immense historical importance as leading the first ever jazz recording. The disc, of course, is the 78 RPM Dixieland Jass ...

Multiple Reviews

2016: An Ivo Perelman Marathon

by Mark Corroto
January 3, 2017

The original marathoner, Pheidippides in 490 BC, is believed to have run from Marathon, where a battle was being fought, to Athens to inform an assembly that the Persians had been defeated. It certainly was quite the achievement, taking into account the sorry state of footwear at the time and lack of prepackaged gels and energy drinks. Admirers of saxophonist Ivo Perelman's music have also participated in a sort of marathon in 2016 owing to the fact that he released ...

Album Review

Bert Joris / Brussels Jazz Orchestra: Smooth Shake

Read "Smooth Shake" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 3, 2017

While much can be said and written about Belgian trumpeter Bert Joris' music, perhaps no one can more aptly describe the rationale underlying the Brussels Jazz Orchestra's new collaboration, Smooth Shake, than the composer himself: “A warm sound--that's what I had in mind for this album. A sound that envelops you, fills you with energy, like a meaningful friendship." With that in mind, Joris (who bears a passing resemblance to the Irish actor Liam Neeson) wrote all ...

Album Review

Laura Dubin Trio: Live At The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival

Read "Live At The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
January 3, 2017

Ambition is certainly in no short supply for pianist Laura Dubin, as evidenced by this two-disc live recording from the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival in 2016. On 21 cuts, she not only surveys an exceptional range of jazz piano styles, from stride to bebop to modal; she also brings in the classical tradition, with jazz-inflected pieces from Beethoven and Mozart (among others) making appearances. There's something here for everyone, and her appreciative audience at the Rochester festival inspires her ...