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

Umbra: Umbra

by Ian Patterson
December 31, 2016

Dublin guitarist/composer Chris Guilfoyle's Umbra has been around for half a decade, so its debut album can be seen as the product of patience and endurance. Critically acclaimed performances at the IMC's Down With Jazz and 12 Points festivals, as well as Bray Jazz, have helped raise the band's profile, but with band members not always residing in the same country, gigs have been too infrequent and tours too short for a combo of such evident talents. Forty minutes of ...

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Under the Radar

Jazz Education: The Next Generation, Part 1

by Karl Ackermann
December 30, 2016

A Protracted Beginning Ken Prouty, an assistant professor of Musicology and Jazz Studies at Michigan State University and author of Knowing Jazz: Community, Pedagogy, and Canon in the Information Age (University Press of Mississippi, 2013) has written at length about the early history of jazz education in the US. In his writings, he has pointed to the period from the advent of U.S. jazz and into the 1940s, as one where written records regarding formal jazz training ...

Year in Review

Phil Barnes' Best Releases of 2016

by Phil Barnes
December 30, 2016

It was tempting to view the events of 2016 in apocalyptic terms--even leaving politics to one side, the succession of beloved entertainers falling to the Grim Reaper was a salutary reminder of the limits of our own mortality. Some saw this as a sign of something ending, a watershed and not in a good way, but only time will tell whether this is anything more than a simple shift in demographics. Musically, I found it harder than ever ...

Live From Philadelphia

Kurt Rosenwinkel Trio at Germantown Settlement School

by Geno Thackara
December 30, 2016

Kurt Rosenwinkel Trio Settlement Music School Philadelphia, PA December 23, 2016 He's come a long way since first starting lessons at Philadelphia's Settlement Music School, but city native Kurt Rosenwinkel has never forgotten those roots. On a night when they could have been squeezing in a little last-minute shopping or relaxing beside the tree with some good eggnog, he and a pair of good friends were happy to come out to the ...

Album Review

Pauline Oliveros/Roscoe Mitchell/John Tilbury/Wadada Leo Smith: Nessuno

Read "Nessuno" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
December 30, 2016

In 1991 the label I Dischi Di Angelica was founded solely for the purpose of documenting the performances of its namesake music festival in Italy. The non-profit label has grown--but only marginally--releasing a compact catalog of global music, typically related to artists that have some association with the annual event. Fortunately for fans of creative music, producer Massimo Simonini captured this unique event at AngelicA Festival in Teatro San Leonardo, Italy in 2011 and rendered here as Nessuno.

Album Review

Maureen Choi Quartet: Ida Y Vuelta

Read "Ida Y Vuelta" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
December 30, 2016

The phrase, Ida Y Vuelta, literally translates into roundtrip, as in a journey, going somewhere and returning back to point of origin. For violin virtuoso Maureen Choi, her sojourn to Spain in 2012 has turned into an extended residency, as an educator, and applying her musical prowess to expand upon the influence of Spanish music from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caribbean and into South America. Working within the quartet format, she delves into established folkloric currents with inventive compositions ...

Album Review

Richard Pinhas - Barry Cleveland: Mu

by Glenn Astarita
December 30, 2016

French guitarist and electronics ace Richard Pinhas set high standards for electronic rock with the advent of Heldon back in 1974. But his voluminous discography as a solo artist and collaborator surges onward with two concurrent 2016 releases for Cuneiform Records: Process and Reality with drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and noise electronics whiz Masami Akita aka Merzbow, and this quartet date Mu, co-led with guitarist, technologist, Barry Cleveland. The frontline reaps the benefits of having bass legend Michael Manring ...

Album Review

Sunny Trio & Natt Buntita: Two Of A Kind

Read "Two Of A Kind" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
December 30, 2016

The merging of jazz and Asian folk idioms is gradually becoming more common, though most typically in Indonesia and South Korea. Thailand's rich folkloric tradition has been overlooked by Thai jazz musicians, who tend to favour American jazz standards. Until now, that is. Two of a Kind sees pianist Sunny Rattana and singer Natt Buntita visit traditional Thai folk songs/poems through a jazz prism, ably supported by bassist Tae Siriwat and drummer Hong Chanutr Tetchatananna--all jazz instructors at Bangkok's Silpakorn ...

Interview

Jack Wilkins: Playing What He's Preaching

by Rob Rosenblum
December 29, 2016

Some time in 1975 a box of records from the Mainstream label was dropped by my front door. I picked it up and began to open it with a mix of excitement and dread of having to face writing more record reviews. I saw an LP titled Windows with an unfamiliar cast of characters and put it aside. I had too many other albums to listen to and render judgment. Despite a nagging sense of obligation, this piece of vinyl ...

Year in Review

Nicola Negri's Best Releases Of 2016

by Nicola Negri
December 29, 2016

Here is a small selection, in no particular order, of some of this year's best releases, chosen among those reviewed at All About Jazz. Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo Peace Libra Records A powerful example of Fujii's explosive creativity and masterful compositional prowess. Simply wonderful. Wadada Leo Smith America's National Parks Cuneiform Records Another work of epic proportions from Maestro Wadada Leo Smith. Essential.