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

Duke Elllington And His Orchestra: The Duke Box 2

Read "The Duke Box 2" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
December 14, 2016

This box set of seven CDs, one DVD and an illustrated booklet celebrates the latter part of Duke Ellington's monumental career. It opens with the so-called “Silver Jubilee" 1952 coast-to-coast broadcasts from Birdland in New York City by NBC. They were held to mark the 25th anniversary of Ellington's breakthrough first gig at the Cotton Club on December 4, 1927. One of the musical highlights comes early on with Ray Nance on CD1 growling his way through ...

Album Review

Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio: Desire & Freedom

Read "Desire & Freedom" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 14, 2016

Rodrigo Amado's Motion Trio is the model of free jazz genuineness and efficiency, and by that I mean proficiency. They give off an impression of nonchalance here, but don't let their relaxed approach fool you, beneath the surface their music is burning with all the agitation of the 1960's New Thing in jazz. After a wave a recordings with guests that included trumpeter Peter Evans on The Freedom Principle (NoBusiness, 2014) and Live In Lisbon (NoBusiness, 2014) and ...

Year in Review

Jerome Wilson's Best Releases of 2016

by Jerome Wilson
December 13, 2016

Any “best of the year" list is really a snapshot in time. It's impossible to listen to all the worthwhile jazz music out there so you end up making a list based on what you've heard during the year. With apologies to Kris Davis, John Scofield, Darcy James Argue and all the other musicians whose CDs I haven't heard yet, here is my current Best Of for 2016. Nels Cline Lovers Blue Note Records

Album Review

John Raymond & Real Feels: Real Feels - Live Vol. 1

Read "Real Feels - Live Vol. 1" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
December 13, 2016

Trumpeter John Raymond's Real Feels trio with guitarist Gilad Hekselman and drummer Colin Stranahan earned praise for the titular studio release earlier in 2016 with its fresh and modernist take on classics pop tunes and beloved hymns. They took that vibe to the streets in numerous gigs and venues capturing the magic from two dates in Real Feels -Live Vol. 1 The set recorded at the BLU jazz club in Akron, Ohio begins with a crisp solo ...

Album Review

Emilio Solla: Tributango

Read "Tributango" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 13, 2016

There's nothing quite so romantic and life-affirming, in its exuberantly dance-able way, than the tango. It's a sensuous, sinuous sound that bubbled up from the streets of Argentina where bandoneonist/composer Astor Piazzolla found it, and refined it and took it to the concert halls. And in the tradition of all great music, assimilations occur, hand-offs to oncoming artists willing to take the baton on run with it. Grammy-Nominated Argentine Composer/pianist Emilio Solla is one top purveyors of tango in the ...

Album Review

David S. Ware/Matthew Shipp: Live in Sant'Anna Arresi 2004

Read "Live in Sant'Anna Arresi 2004" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 13, 2016

In every mystical film we see, like A Sea Of Trees and A Dog's Purpose or book we read--A Sudden Light by Garth Stein or Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, the departed find a way to communicate with the living. As humans, we desire this experience. Fortunately, music affords us this opportunity at just about every turn. While there are no newly discovered Albert Ayler recordings coming, there are some by saxophonist David S. Ware yet unissued. Thanks to ...

Album Review

Barclay James Harvest: Everyone Is Everyone Else

Read "Everyone Is Everyone Else" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 13, 2016

During the advent of progressive rock in the late 1960s through the '70s, bands like ELP, King Crimson and Yes were snagging most of the headlines while others enjoyed limited success or traversed the proverbial roller coaster ride with fleeting moments of fame and recognition. Thus, Barclay James Harvest was a solid entity, tracing its origins back to the '60s amid ensuing personnel changes and subsets of the core unit, surging into the early 2000s. However, Everyone is Everyone Else ...

Live Review

November Music 2016

by Henning Bolte
December 13, 2016

November Music s'Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands November 11-13, 2016 November Music is a yearly festival, founded in 1993. It is held in the medieval town of s'-Hertogenbosch, in the southeast part of The Netherlands. s'-Hertogenbosch (also called Den Bosch) was the hometown of well-known Dutch painter Jheronimus Bosch (1450-1516) who died 500 years ago. It is a festival of contemporary music, new music in the broadest sense: in addition to the core of contemporary composers' ...

Hi-Res Jazz

The Westerlies: New Music For Brass In Hi Res

by Mark Werlin
December 12, 2016

The Westerlies, a self-titled album performed by an “accidental brass quartet" of two trumpet players and two trombonists, is a stunning accomplishment: a reference-quality recording of trans-genre new instrumental music that managed to beat the odds and reach a wide audience. The album's unexpected success points to the importance of curation in an overcrowded online music sphere. One track from the album, an arrangement of the English folk ballad “Saro," was promoted by Tom Huizenga, a music producer ...

Year in Review

Geno Thackara's Best Releases of 2016

by Geno Thackara
December 12, 2016

I always say it when recapping every year, and it's been truer than ever for me since I was fortunate to join All About Jazz at the start of 2016: there's always too much great stuff to take in. There are always too many albums we don't get around to during the year and too little time to properly dig into everything we do. Nonetheless, here are the jazz-related standouts out of everything that's managed to cross my desk (in ...