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.

Multiple Reviews

Pi Recordings 2016 Releases

by Hrayr Attarian
December 24, 2016

Over the 15 years of its existence, Pi Recordings has been the home of musical innovators both established and up and coming. Its catalogue includes works by such legends as composer and woodwind player Henry Threadgill, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and other members of the Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The imprint is also where such rising talents as trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and guitarist Liberty Ellman launched their careers. Seth Rosner and Yulun Wang helm Pi and limit ...

Live Review

Jazztopad 2016, Part 1

by Henning Bolte
December 24, 2016

National Forum of Music Jazztopad 2016 Wroclaw November 22-24, 2016 Wroclaw was this year's European Capital of Culture, sharing that title with Donostia/San Sebastian, a landmark of importance. But it isn't the only distinctive 'C' connected with the annual Jazztopad festival organized by the National Forum of Music, the representative center of musical culture in Poland. High-ranking commissions, international collaborations and sharp artistic choices form the other important C's (for the C's see also my ...

Year in Review

Nick Davies Best Releases of 2016

by Nick Davies
December 24, 2016

In terms of jazz 2016 has been a strong year with a number of solid releases and this has made the task of choosing twelve releases all that more difficult. The selections I have made take the listening on a journey from Matthew Bourne and his experimental sounds of the Moog to Nat Birchall more traditional saxophone playing. 2016 also saw the emergence of young talent such as Elliot Galvin as well as some great independent record labels and it ...

Album Review

Brian Simpson: Persuasion

Read "Persuasion" reviewed by Jeff Winbush

by Jeff Winbush
December 24, 2016

There's jazz that is edgy, startling, daring, confrontational and demands attention be paid. It grabs you by the ears and pulls you close and won't let go. Then there's a kinda/sorta jazz where all the edges have been sanded off, there's no chances taken, no unexpected or startling moments, and nothing is ever at risk. If that's your thing, then Brian Simpson's Persuasion is here for you. Simpson plays nice piano and there's some nice synths and nice ...

Album Review

Daniele D'Agaro, Giovanni Maier, Zlatko Kaućić: Disorder at the Border Plays Ornette

Read "Disorder at the Border Plays Ornette" reviewed by Nicola Negri

by Nicola Negri
December 24, 2016

Ornette Coleman's compositions have been reinterpreted many times and by all kind of musicians, often with less than optimal results. His pieces, deceptively simple on the surface, have always some aspects that are quite difficult to grasp, and they are so personal that sometimes they seem to work only if the author (or some of his closest associates) is involved... Exceptions exist of course, and one of the most successful recent attempts at “playing Ornette" is this new record by ...

Album Review

Jack Lee: Anthology - Bigger Than Life

Read "Anthology - Bigger Than Life" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
December 24, 2016

Just one cut shy of two dozen tracks comprise the Jack Lee Anthology Bigger Than Life, but the single CD nevertheless lives up to its title if only in regards to the artist's reputation (plus the fact these recordings have not been readily available since their original issue thirty-plus years ago). As one third of the Nerves--with Peter Case and Paul Collins--Lee aided in no small part to nurture the punk movement in Lost Angeles in the late Seventies, despite ...

Album Review

Camilla George Quartet: Isang

by Roger Farbey
December 24, 2016

Isang is the long overdue debut album for alto saxophonist Camilla George, a graduate of London's renowned Trinity College of Music. George has worked with several leading bands including Tomorrow's Warriors, Nu Civilisation Orchestra and Jazz Jamaica. She's led her own quartet since 2014 and her love of African and Western music is influenced by her country of birth, Nigeria. The album's title Isang (pronounced E-S-A-N-G) is an old Efik/Ibibio word that means voyage and symbolises George's own musical journey. ...

Album Review

Brainchildren of Xenog: Brain//Child

Read "Brain//Child" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
December 24, 2016

The Dutch outfit Brain//Child seems like the progeny of many different parents: besides its actual members of course, it shows touches of a range of free players, from Ornette Coleman up to current contemporaries like Ingrid Laubrock with maybe a hint of experimental laptop-ist Ikue Mori. Three members are credited with electronics in addition to instruments, which gives a hint of how far we are from a conventional set-up-and-play session. At the same time, the notes and effects alike happen ...

Live Review

Penang Island Jazz Festival 2016

by Ian Patterson
December 23, 2016

12 + 1 Penang Island Jazz Festival Bayview Beach Resort/Various Venues Penang, Malaysia December 1-4, 2016 A tongue-in-cheek marketing ploy, or fear of inviting disaster? The Malaysians are doubtless no more or no less suspicious than folk in most places, but the organizers of the 12th + 1 Penang Island Jazz Festival, as it was officially billed, perhaps weren't taking any chances. Although the monsoon season in Western Malaysia isn't too severe, a late afternoon ...

Album Review

Audrey Silver: Very Early

Read "Very Early" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 23, 2016

There's immediate comfort in encountering Audrey Silver's music for the first time. Her voice is an open invitation, an instrument of confession and creation that immediately transports you to someplace else. That's evident from her first utterances through her last words on Very Early. In putting together this program, Silver thought long and hard about song selection. It shows, both in the eclectic playlist she created and through the unique arrangements born of her thoughts and Steven ...