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

Bobby Previte: Mass

Read "Mass" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 2, 2016

Finally, I understand Black Sabbath and it is about damn time. Musically, my preferences tend toward the durable and dependable blues pentatonic. That is something that, harmonically, I can understand from down in my DNA. That said, when I was a teenager, I wore into nothing, the first four Black Sabbath recordings. As much as they appealed to me, they could not compete with the Allman Brothers Band of the same period. What I had always wondered was where the ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Newport Jazz Festival 1959

by Marc Davis
November 1, 2016

The collector asks: When is it OK to say, “I have enough, thanks. I don't need the live version, too." Consider the dilemma of Wolfgang's Vault, a musical treasure trove of old jazz and rock performances. If you've never been there, go now. The site is stunning. It is an enormous collection of long-lost jazz shows, mostly from the 1950s, '60s and '70s. For the fan and collector, it's a must see. But is it also ...

Live Review

Steve Coleman and Five Elements at Albright-Knox Art Gallery

by Matthew Aquiline
November 1, 2016

Steve Coleman and Five Elements Albright-Knox Art Gallery Art of Jazz Buffalo, NY October 29, 2016 If Steve Coleman's set at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery proved anything, it's that residencies are still a beneficial means to cultivating unrivaled virtuosity within a band. In the case of composer, alto saxophonist, and bandleader Steve Coleman and his band Five Elements, a recent 11-day run of shows and workshops at Detroit's Carr Center allowed for ...

Album Review

Michiel Stekelenburg 5: Layers

by Mark Sullivan
November 1, 2016

Dutch guitarist/composer Michiel Stekelenburg expands his group to a quintet for his second album as a leader. Joined by saxophonist Efraim Trujillo, pianist Jeroen Van Vliet, bassist Guus Bakker, and drummer Pascal Vermeer he presents a sharp set of contemporary jazz originals. The opener “024" begins with folk guitar strumming, a sound recalling Pat Metheny, clearly a significant influence. That impression is confirmed by the implied dedication in the closing tune's title “Letter To Missouri" (Metheny's birthplace). The ...

Album Review

Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Big Band: Intenso!

Read "Intenso!" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
November 1, 2016

What better way to pay tribute to your father than, over the course of several years, painstakingly capturing his keyboard playing (and sometimes singing) and at a later date adding superb big band arrangements? Bandleader and keyboardist Clare Fischer died in 2012 aged 83 but left a legacy of work that his son, bandleader and bassist Brent Fischer, has faithfully recorded, using his father's archived keyboard playing on most, but not all, of the tracks. Brent Fischer did a similar ...

Album Review

Nick Sanders & Logan Strosahl: Janus

by Budd Kopman
November 1, 2016

Pianist Nick Sanders and saxophonist Logan Strosahl musical connection goes back to 2007 when they were both students at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Since that time Sanders has release a number of albums, including You Are Creature with bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Connor Baker. The three players played on Strosahl's musically eclectic debut album of this year, Up Go We . The attitude of thinking of the entire canon of Western music to be “just ...

Album Review

Lars Jansson: Satori

by Chris Mosey
November 1, 2016

Satori means “sudden enlightenment" in the Japanese Buddhist discipline known as Zen. It's something you might be wise not to claim you had experienced for fear of the head priest fetching you a whack across the shoulders with his wooden staff while shouting something deep and meaningful such as “The pine tree in the courtyard!" Once expressed, the term Satori becomes rational and meaningless. In the same way, the word Zen itself can mean all manner of ...

Live Review

Galway Jazz Festival 2016

by Ian Patterson
October 31, 2016

Galway Jazz Festival Various Venues Galway, Ireland October 7-9, 2016 The best jazz festivals are not necessarily the biggest. They're not always the ones with the marquee names. The best festivals, without a doubt, are the ones you remember, years later, for having had a hell of a good time. Such festivals, first and foremost, are usually rooted in and celebrate community. They often promote feasting, revelry and joy. The Galway Jazz Festival ticked ...

Album Review

Jordan Young: Jazz Jukebox

Read "Jazz Jukebox" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 31, 2016

The predominance of the jukebox in social situations is essentially a thing of the past. But how much has really changed? Those once-ubiquitous machines that brought musical happiness to the good people in corner bars and diners throughout the land may have vanished, but the concept they put forward has not. It's simply been modernized, with shuffling playlists, random streaming, curated listening parties, and smartly programmed albums like this now carrying the jukebox flame and furthering the mix-it-up musical formula. ...

Live Review

Trevor Anderies Quintet at Fresh Santa Fe

by Dave Wayne
October 31, 2016

Trevor Anderies Quintet Fresh Santa Fe New Music Series Santa Fe, NM September 3, 2016 To be perfectly honest, most of the bands that come to Santa Fe, NM are playing fill-in gigs between dates in Albuquerque (or Phoenix) and Denver. And that's okay because it just makes sense, logistically. The town is exceptionally pleasant, though for most jazz groups there's not much choice in terms of venues. There are, perhaps 2 or 3 ...