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.

Live Review

We Jazz Festival 2016

by Anthony Shaw
December 15, 2016

We Jazz Festival 2016 Multiple venues Helsinki, Finland December 4-11, 2016 The winter We Jazz 'event' has been running for four years now, and founding mentor Matti Nives is somewhat challenged to find suitable new venues to take his artists to, having established a tradition of taking jazz to improbable places. These have included private flats, far-flung small venues as well as traditional medium sized concert halls in Helsinki. Despite these precedents, this year ...

Year in Review

C. Michael Bailey’s Best Releases of 2016

by C. Michael Bailey
December 15, 2016

Shifting priorities in 2016 prevented me from either listening to or reviewing as much music as I have in the past. Thus, I did not take a swing at many fine recordings that by all accounts should be on this list like: John Scofield's Country for Old Men (Impulse!); Keith Jarrett's A Multitude of Angels (ECM); Frank Kimbrough's Solstice (Pirouet Records); Joe Lovano's Classic! Live at Newport (Blue Note Records); or Michael Formanek's Ensemble Kolossus' The Distance (ECM).

Album Review

Rudy Royston Trio: Rise Of Orion

Read "Rise Of Orion" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
December 15, 2016

The visceral style of drummer Rudy Royston was considerably toned down on his leader debut 303 (Greenleaf, 2014), a septet outing where the drummer often worked within the context of an ensemble player. Pared down to a trio formation for Rise Of Orion, Royston retains the services of the ubiquitous saxophonist Jon Irabagon and bassist Yasushi Nakamura from his original group. Without a chordal instrument, and in this more intimate setting, Royston is free to unleash his more forceful side.

Album Review

Dag Magnus Narvesen Octet: Cornua Copiae

Read "Cornua Copiae" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 15, 2016

At times there seems no end to the bewildering stream of talent emerging from the Norwegian jazz scene. Fresh off the conveyor belt comes drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen whose Damana Octet functions more akin to an even larger ensemble, thanks to some expertly voiced charts. On the roster are some increasingly familiar names, such as saxophonists Kristoffer Alberts and Andre Roligheten, alongside a welter of less well known but equally skilled compatriots. In its blend of concise yet integrated solos ...

Album Review

Behn Gillece: Dare To Be

Read "Dare To Be" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
December 15, 2016

It pays to listen to Dare To Be, Behn Gillece's second release as a leader for Posi-Tone Records, from the bottom up. Bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Jason Tiemann are one of most congenial, articulate, and straightforward bass and drums team in recent memory. They're self-effacing, deeply focused and frisky. Regardless of the differences in the material and tempos of the individual tracks (not to mention additional percussive sounds fashioned by Gillece's vibes and Nate Radley's guitar) Okegwo and Tiemann ...

Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock Serpentines: Serpentines

Read "Serpentines" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 15, 2016

On the eponymous Serpentines, German-born, NYC-based saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock's unveils a new outfit featuring unconventional instrumentation, peopled by an all star cast. For this line up Laubrock takes her enigmatic charts for groups such as Anti-house and Ubatuba to another level, as improv jazz meets the classical avant-garde in pieces where mood and texture often trump individual pyrotechnics. It's fair to say that the assembled talents very much reside at the service of Laubrock's tightly drawn yet organic frameworks.

Year in Review

Troy Collins' Best Releases of 2016

by Troy Collins
December 14, 2016

Compiling end of the year lists is never easy. Considering the quantity of recordings released in a year's time, attempting to compose a list mentioning every first-rate session would be difficult at best. These ten albums represent a fertile cross-section of some of the most compelling modern jazz issued in 2016. Many of the records listed here feature sophisticated new developments in composition and improvisation from revered masters, ranging from post-war innovators to contemporary stylists. The remainder highlight the virtually ...

Album Review

Leap of Faith Orchestra: Supernovae

Read "Supernovae" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
December 14, 2016

Composer and multi-instrumentalist, PEK, set his sights on something bigger with the Leap of Faith Orchestra's Supernovae. The previous incarnation of the LOFO expands from the fifteen musicians on The Expanding Universe (Evil Clown, 2016) to twenty-one players on this new outing. Another noteworthy element of this project is PEK's use of Frame Notation where the score is seen in written descriptions and straight-forward symbols within Duration Bars. The system provides the musicians with immediate understanding of their own parts ...

Live Review

Improvised Music Company@25, Various Artists At Sugar Club

by Ian Patterson
December 14, 2016

Improvised Music Company@25 Sugar Club Dublin, Ireland November 26, 2016 It was an appropriately festive atmosphere in the Sugar Club to mark Improvised Music Company's twenty fifth birthday celebrations. Older musicians, perhaps just starting out a quarter of a century ago, rubbed shoulders with the current generation of aspiring artists. Friends and supporters of IMC turned out in goodly numbers, though not enough to demolish all the iced buns, proudly bearing the logo ...

Album Review

Morten Schantz: Godspeed

Read "Godspeed" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
December 14, 2016

The three Scandinavian musicians featured on Godspeed are also members of the eclectic JazzKamikaze quintet. By 2014, Morten Schantz had released eight albums, four as a soloist and four with JazzKamikaze. Saxophonist Marius Neset has played alongside Django Bates and Anton Eger is also drummer with Phronesis. JazzKamikaze produces a fairly frenetic sound whereas Godspeed is relatively more sophisticated, but no less dynamic. This is Schantz's follow-up to his 2014 recording Unicorn which was predominantly acoustic, whereas Godspeed bears some ...