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

Laura Dubin: Live at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival / Matt Savage: Piano Voyages

Read "Live at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival / Matt Savage: Piano Voyages" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 29, 2016

Here are three new CDs by two exemplary young pianists, Laura Dubin and Matt Savage, the first two of which reprise a concert by Dubin's splendid trio at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival in July 2016. The third, Piano Voyages, is Savage's twelfth recording, the first in which his eloquent piano is the lone instrument. There are other differences as well: Dubin's album, recorded in concert, has the benefit of audience interaction; and unlike Savage, whose program consists for ...

Album Review

Joan Torres's All Is Fused: Of The Musical

Read "Of The Musical" reviewed by Paul Naser

by Paul Naser
December 29, 2016

Bassist Joan Torres's journey as a musician led him to many interesting places. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he gravitated towards bass at an early age and attended several Berklee College of Music programs as a high school student. It was through one of these that Torres met world-renowned bassist Oscar Stagnaro, whom he counts among one of his earliest mentors.It was during his formative years that Torres made connections with the musicians that he continues to ...

Album Review

Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita: Transparent Water

Read "Transparent Water" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
December 29, 2016

Cuban Pianist Omar Sosa and Senegalese kora player and vocalist Seckou Keita have assembled an extraordinary album seamlessly melding Latin American and West African music. Additional guest instrumentalists bring with them a host of other sounds predominantly emanating from the Far East. The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed instrument whilst the sheng is a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes. The bawu is a Chinese wind instrument and the geomungo is a traditional Korean type of ...

Album Review

Pawel Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Trio & Mr Krime: Vars & Kaper:Deconstruction

Read "Vars & Kaper:Deconstruction" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
December 29, 2016

Doubtless some were surprised when pianist/composer Pawel Kaczmarczyk left ACT Records after the ambitious Complexity in Simplicity (2009). However, the decision has perhaps proven to be a musically astute one, given the stunning statement from Kaczmarczyk's Audiofeeling Trio--featuring one of Poland's top rhythm sections in Maciej Adamczak and Dawid Fortuna--that was Something Personal (Hevhetia, 2015). Here, the same line-up is augmented by Mr. Krime (Wojceich Dlugosz) on turntables and electronics in a powerful reimagining of Bronislaw Kaper and Henryk Vars' ...

Anatomy of a Standard

"Ain't Misbehavin'" by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf

by Tish Oney
December 28, 2016

Legendary pianist and songwriter, Thomas Wright Fats" Waller (1904-1943), contributed several outstanding gems to what we consider today to be the Great American Songbook. These standards include “Honeysuckle Rose" and “Ain't Misbehavin'" (both from 1929), among others. Waller's all-too-brief career reflected the impressive output of a first-rate musician, and showed him to be a talented radio personality, prolific recording artist, and beloved performer both on live stages and in film. Well-versed in the stride piano style, thanks to his early ...

Year in Review

Jakob Baekgaard's Best Releases Of 2016

by Jakob Baekgaard
December 28, 2016

The world seems more uncertain than ever before, but in times of uncertainty, music provides comfort and a hope that it is actually possible to communicate across borders, whether they be physical or psychological. Among the releases that caught my attention this year, the one that meant most to me by far is not on this list, and it was not even reviewed on All About Jazz, not by me or any other writer. Bassist, composer and ...

Album Review

Handmade Blade: Aram Bajakian's Dolphy Formations

Read "Aram Bajakian's Dolphy Formations" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 28, 2016

Guitarist Aram Bajakian has always played music that made things happen, whether it was with his contributions to Lou Reed's band, or Diana Krall's, or on his work on Tzadik Records, or his own self produced CD, 2016's superb Music Inspired By The Color of Pomegranate, an unofficial alternative soundtrack to the Russian movie of the same name. Dolphy Formations is another story. Bajakian is up front about “[wanting] to create a piece where nothing happens." He ties ...

Album Review

André Santos: Vitamina D

Read "Vitamina D" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
December 28, 2016

Vitamina D is guitarist André Santos' third album, following Ponto de Partida (2013) and Mano A Mano (2014). Not having heard the earlier two discs, there is little to say here about this latest project in relation to Santos' earlier work. That said, the cover of Vitamina D gives a good indication of the range of emotions presented by this intense player. On the left is the “raging" Santos, while on the right he appears calm, even sedate. ...

Album Review

Rent Romus' Life's Blood Ensemble: Rising Colossus

Read "Rising Colossus" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 28, 2016

Edgetone Records sent the LP edition of this album that is also available on CD and digital format. Yet I still maintain that most jazz albums are better served via full-bodied analogue productions often equating to a studio-in-your-room experience, coupled with a first-rate turntable and audiophile trimmings that may enhance the listening experience. San Francisco new-jazz saxophonist Rent Romus leads his Life's Blood Ensemble --which has been an ongoing coalition comprised of alternating personnel --through a program framed ...

Album Review

Radio Bévort: Which Craft?

Read "Which Craft?" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
December 28, 2016

Pernille Bévort, the Danish saxophonist/composer and singer, has been quietly working her musical charms for over twenty years, as both a mainstay of the Danish big-band scene and leader of impressive small ensembles. Following the stripped-down, straight-ahead Trio Temptations (Gateway Music, 2014), Bévort rekindles her Radio Bévort project, whose Perfect Organisation (Gateway 2011)--with bandoneon player Marcello Nisinman--explored the confluence of jazz and tango nuevo. For Which Craft?, Francesco Cali features on accordion, as Bévort steers her highly attuned octet through ...