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

Julphan Tilapornputt: Regards To You II

Read "Regards To You II" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
December 4, 2016

Originally from Thailand, jazz guitarist Julphan Tilapornputt studied guitar performance at the Berklee College of Music and earned his Master's Degree in Jazz Studies at NYU's Steinhardt school. Currently residing in New York City, Tilapornputt regularly leads performances in New York, Boston and Thailand. Combining an interesting mix of influences: jazz, classical, folk, Taiwanese Music and rock with a focus on sophisticated guitar-centric compositions mixing classical elements and jazz improvisation.Tilapornputt's second CD with his new quartet, Regards to ...

Album Review

Richie Cole: Have Yourself an Alto Madness Christmas

Read "Have Yourself an Alto Madness Christmas" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 4, 2016

Yes, there are jazz musicians who earn more bread than Richie Cole, and others who rank higher in the popularity contests that double as polls. There aren't many, however, who have more fun making music than the well-traveled alto saxophonist who, late in life, has found a place to call home in Pittsburgh, PA. On Cole's superb new seasonal album, Have Yourself an Alto Madness Christmas, the warmth and happiness fairly burst from the leader's horn on ...

Album Review

Alex LoRe Quartet: More Figs And Blue Things

Read "More Figs And Blue Things" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 3, 2016

Saxophonist Alex LoRe is a musician of philosophical and poetic bent. With his debut--Dream House (Inner Circle Music, 2014)--that wasn't always apparent, as the scales slightly favored progress over patience. Here, the balance tips the other way, but not so much so that things become tedious. LoRe may be a deep thinker, but he doesn't allow his music to get mired in his own thoughts. There are two major agents of change that help More Figs And ...

Album Review

Frank Kimbrough: Solstice

Read "Solstice" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
December 3, 2016

Pianist/composer Frank Kimbrough presents a trio album with only one of his originals, a reversal of his usual approach. He was a student of the late Paul Bley, and although there is no formal dedication the program has an air of homage about it. Kimbrough first heard three of the selections played by Bley's mid-60's trio. This group with bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Jeff Hirshfield has a similar adventurous, open spirit. There are also nods to drummer Paul Motian ...

Album Review

John Butcher, Thomas Lehn, Matthew Shipp: Tangle

by John Eyles
December 3, 2016

Recorded at Café Oto in February 2014, on the first night of pianist Matthew Shipp's three-day residency at the venue, Tangle is the first recording of the trio of saxophonist John Butcher and synthesiser player Thomas Lehn with Shipp. (The YouTube clip, below, was filmed on the night in question.) Typically, there were previous links between the three, with evidence being available on past Fataka releases; Butcher and Lehn had first collaborated as far back as 1996 and, in June ...

Album Review

Duncan Lamont Big Band: As If By Magic

Read "As If By Magic" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 3, 2016

Mention Mr Benn to people who were young children (or university students) in early 1970s Britain. They may well smile ruefully, develop a far-away look in their eyes and mutter something about things having been much better back then. Nostalgia is a wonderful feeling. At least some of that warm feel-good glow can be put down to the music on this album-- As If By Magic--and its composer, saxophonist Duncan Lamont.The bowler-hatted Mr Benn lived in 52 Festive ...

Album Review

Steve Messick: Endemic Ensemble: Tangled

Read "Endemic Ensemble: Tangled" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
December 3, 2016

Veteran composer/bassist Steve Messick has brought back the eclectic group of musicians he formed in 2010, Endemic Ensemble, for a new album entitled Tangled. The session presents nine new compositions, three each from Messick, pianist David Franklin, and saxophonist Matso Limtiaco. The ensemble, rounded out by drummer Christian Krehbiel, and noted saxophonist Travis Ranney, have created an album of solid compositions and arrangements, skillfully crafted in the big band tradition, but presented more with a hard bop edge.

Extended Analysis

Dave's Picks Volume 20: CU Events Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO - December 9, 1981

by Doug Collette
December 3, 2016

Dave's Pick's Volume 20 marks a milestone in the Grateful Dead's current archive series, its significance not lost on the curator, David Lemieux. Yet rather than indulge in nostalgia in his notes accompanying this set, the man chooses to take the success of the series as further inspiration to carry on, not just with these quarterly releases, but the judicious exhumation of the iconic band's vault in general. A little over a year after the Grateful Dead began ...

Film Review

The Life & Songs of Emmylou Harris

by Doug Collette
December 3, 2016

Various Artists The Life & Songs of Emmylou Harris Rounder Records 2016 When Emmylou Harris truly began her solo career, after working with the late Gram Parsons upon recommendation from Chris Hillman, she quite quickly transcended the s 'cosmic American music' created by the former member of the Byrds and the co-founder of the Flying Burrito Brothers. Over the course of its near two-hour duration, The Life and Songs draws the arc of Harris' career ...

Multiple Reviews

Psalms and Poetry: Den Danske Salmeduo and Nicolai Munch-Hansen

by Jakob Baekgaard
December 2, 2016

Sometimes, the answer to the quest for an original sound is so obvious that it is overlooked. While many European jazz musicians have tried to imitate the sound of the American jazz scene and the pulse of New York, fewer have tried to reach back into their own musical heritage. Two new Danish jazz releases find inspiration in their home country. One through the European tradition of psalms and the other through the works of a Danish poet.