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

Allen Carter Big Band: Time on My Hands

Read "Time on My Hands" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 10, 2016

In 2010, composer / arranger / drummer Allen Carter seemingly appeared from out of nowhere (North Dakota, actually) to record Gifts, his first album as a big-band leader and one of the more impressive anthologies in that or any other year. As 2016 passed its midpoint and moved inexorably toward a final bow, Carter decided the time had come to record again, and in so doing held fast to the maxim “if it ain't broke, don't fix it." In other ...

Album Review

Illegal Crowns: Illegal Crowns

Read "Illegal Crowns" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 10, 2016

Three quarters of the cast on Illegal Crowns comprises familiar faces and frequent collaborators. Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and guitarist Mary Halvorson have enjoyed long associations with iconoclastic composer and reedman Anthony Braxton. With the addition of drummer Tomas Fujiwara, they constitute Bynum's Trio and the larger part of The Thirteenth Assembly, whose Station Direct (Important, 2011) was one of the unsung classics of that year. The ringer here is French pianist Benoit Delbecq who, as well as leading his ...

Album Review

Holly Bowling: Better Left Unsung

Read "Better Left Unsung" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
December 10, 2016

As wry as is the implication of its title, Holly Bowling's double album of Grateful Dead material, Better Left Unsung, is utterly absorbing. These thirteen wholly instrumental, solo piano renditions of material spanning the spectrum of the iconic San Francisco band's songbook illuminate why the songs are so memorable on their own terms as well as fodder for inspired improvisation. Perhaps it's Holly Bowling's her background as a classically trained pianist, but she never dumbs down her playing. ...

Album Review

Jeff Parker: Slight Freedom

Read "Slight Freedom" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
December 10, 2016

One is tempted to think of Jeff Parker as the first guitar anti-hero. He's a subtle player, first and foremost, not given to showy pyrotechnics and rapid-fire flights of plectral fancy. His chameleonic, almost self-effacing, presence on recordings by Tortoise, Joey DeFrancesco, Isotope 217, Fred Anderson, the Brian Blade Fellowship, Peter Erskine, Nicole Mitchell, Yo La Tengo, Hamid Drake, Joshua Redman, Scott Amendola, George Lewis and countless others is startling for its sheer stylistic diversity. Yet, Parker, unlike pretty much ...

Multiple Reviews

Calling Ra, Mr. Sun Ra your rocket ship is ready

by Mark Corroto
December 9, 2016

How prophetic is it that we now live in the second century of Sun Ra's earthly existence? Born (maybe) in Alabama 1914, Herman Poole Blount became the pianist, arranger, band leader, poet, and can we say prophet(?) we know as Sun Ra. He was both a man of his times and a messenger from the space. I say he was maybe born in 1914, because the person known as Sonny Blount claimed to have been abducted by space aliens in ...

Year in Review

Mark Sullivan's Best Releases of 2016

by Mark Sullivan
December 9, 2016

So many reviews this year, in so many genres, that I've split them into two categories--"Jazz" and “Latin, World & Experimental"--in response to the feeling that I was trying to compare apples to oranges. They're presented in more or less chronological order, and the guiding principle was whether I had a clear memory of the recording even before I went back to listen to it again. A few of these were drawn from Multiple Review articles, and I cheated a ...

Album Review

Richard Sears: Altadena

Read "Altadena" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
December 9, 2016

It is inspiration which fuels Brooklyn-based pianist Richard Sears's Altadena, a five part suite commissioned in 2013 by the Los Angeles Jazz Society featuring the legendary drummer Albert Tootie" Heath. The professional linking between Heath, who first recorded with John Coltrane in 1957 and Sears, a rising young talent, began after the two met and exchanged ideas in 2012. Like many collaborations in jazz between younger and older artists, this connection is one of mutual respect and admiration.

Album Review

Whit Dickey/Kirk Knuffke: Fierce Silence

Read "Fierce Silence" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 9, 2016

Whether through economic necessity or artistic preference cornetist Kirk Knuffke's discography suggests a penchant for duets. Recent entries include Row For William O (Relative Pitch, 2016) with bassist Michael Bisio and Moon with pianist/vibraphonist Karl Berger (NoBusiness, 2015). Fierce Silence with David S. Ware and Matthew Shipp alumnus Whit Dickey isn't even his first hook up with a drummer: that was The Exterminating Angel (NotTwo Records) with Mike Pride back in 2010. Certainly the cornetist thrives in such open situations, ...

Album Review

Morten Schantz: Godspeed

Read "Godspeed" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
December 9, 2016

Old friendships are never forgotten, and sometimes they grow stronger as time goes by. This is also the case with musical friendships. Back in the days, in 2005 exactly, pianist and composer Morten Schantz played with saxophonist Marius Neset and drummer Anton Eger in the acclaimed group JazzKamikaze. They were full of youthful energy and to this day, the group has not officially disbanded. The members have also moved on to other projects. Both Neset and Eger ...

Album Review

The Rolling Stones: Blue And Lonesome

Read "Blue And Lonesome" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
December 9, 2016

Among those jazz fans who take a nip of rock & roll from time to time, there may be a secret wish that groups like The Rolling Stones would head for their overdue retirement. That the seventy-three year old Sir Michael Philip “Mick" Jagger and his septuagenarian bandmates have nothing left to prove, is long established. That they become a parody of themselves with nothing left to say is the cringing fear. Defying the odds, the Stones issue what may ...