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

John Crawford: Times and Tides

Read "Times and Tides" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
October 28, 2016

For his second album British pianist/composer John Crawford continues his love of Latin American and Spanish flamenco music, while also incorporating fresh new influences. Crawford's opening original “Blurred" shares a Brazilian heritage with the cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's “Once I Loved" that follows it. Guitarist Guillermo Hill makes an immediate impression on nylon-string guitar: he's an effective foil to Crawford's piano. The Jobim tune also features sultry vocalist Linley Weir and saxophonist Duncan Lamont Snr. “Solea por ...

Album Review

Mosaic: Subterranea

Read "Subterranea" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
October 28, 2016

Mosaic is led by Royal Academy of Music jazz graduate Ralph Wyld's whose debut album for Edition Records augurs well for this London-based musician. Opening with “White Horses," this track holds the key to Wyld's imaginative compositions; starting slowly, the initial use of horns and arco strings for tonal colour is deceptive as the mood rapidly builds with the deployment of feisty vibraphone and drums. The light and shade of the piece is evinced by swathes of alternating crescendo and ...

Album Review

Nigel Price: Heads & Tales Volume 2

Read "Heads & Tales Volume 2" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
October 28, 2016

Nigel Price's second volume of Heads & Tales is, quite literally, a game of two halves. As with the first volume, released in 2011, it incorporates two CDs each containing different versions of standards. The first disc, where Price is accompanied by Matt Home on drums and Ross Stanley on Hammond organ, plus guest saxophonists Alex Garnett and Vasilis Xenopoulos, utilises the same device as on the first volume. The standards are given new heads and titles but follow the ...

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

Death By Banjo, Playing With Emotion, and Musical Divorce

by Mr. P.C.
October 27, 2016

Dear Mr. P.C.: I just played a gig with a bad banjo player. I spent a lot of time learning the music, and the gig went fine. My problem is that now I can't get that music out of my head. It's killing me! What am I supposed to do? --Troubled in Tallahassee Dear Troubled: Unfortunately, offensive music in your head can only be displaced by music that's more offensive--that's how the ...

Profile

The Blue Notes and the Brotherhood of Breath - Marching to a Different Drum

by Duncan Heining
October 27, 2016

Early one August morning in 1964, seven people crossed the border by train passing from South Africa into Mozambique. It was an unusual group of people--five black men, one white man and one white woman. Any “mixing of the races" was, of course, immediately suspicious in apartheid South Africa. The six men--Louis Moholo, Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani and Nikele Moyake--made up The Blue Notes. South Africa's only multi-racial jazz group was ostensibly travelling via Mozambique to Paris and ...

Album Review

Jim Rattigan’s Pavillon: Strong Tea

Read "Strong Tea" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
October 27, 2016

First recorded in 2010 and released in 2012 this reissue marks Jim Rattigan's Pavillon 2016/17 tour of the UK. For anyone unfamiliar with Rattigan's work, in addition to several albums released under his own name, he has performed with many leading figures in the jazz world including Michael Brecker, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden and Bill Frisell. He was also a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1989 to 1995. Pavillon, the French word from which Rattigan's band ...

Album Review

Nancy Wright: Play Date

Read "Play Date" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
October 27, 2016

When Paul Williams released “The Hucklebuck" in 1949, it not only became a national dance craze, but also started the popularity of the tenor sax players, or the “honkers," during the golden age of rhythm and blues. The honkers had incredible chops and technique, developing a certain style and sound, that was raucous and raw; appreciated by live audiences, it leant itself perfectly to increasing radio play and record sales. Saxophonist Nancy Wright has been an authentic honker on the ...

Album Review

Samantha Boshnack: B'shnorkestra: Global Concertos

Read "B'shnorkestra: Global Concertos" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
October 27, 2016

Jazz music has an eclectic relationship with the city of Seattle, from the Jackson Street days during and following prohibition, through the often brilliant scene today, the musical current has burned brightly in terms of innovation, and the freedom to express one's musical identity freely. Composer/trumpeter Samantha Boshnack seems then, a natural extension of this current of innovation and expressive magnetism that continues to spark the creative freedom this city inspires.Since her arrival here from her native New ...

Album Review

Peter Brendler: Message In Motion

Read "Message In Motion" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
October 27, 2016

Message In Motion is a recording that can be gainfully approached from a number of angles. You can choose to play it in a single sitting from start to finish, taking in an array of moods evoked by bassist Peter Brendler's seven compositions and a band worthy of his exemplary skills as a writer. (The record also includes selections penned by Duke Ellington, Elliott Smith, and Alice Coltrane.) Equally satisfying is the practice of detaching the compositions ...

Album Review

Ron Thomas / Paul Klinefelter: Duo

by Budd Kopman
October 27, 2016

One of the wonderful things about jazz is that it can be appreciated from more than one angle, oftentimes simultaneously: pure entertainment, art as entertainment, art as beauty and art as intellect among others. Some of this, of course, relates to music in general, but jazz as a genre has moved beyond any stylistic boundaries to the point where no one can claim any particular sub-genre to represent “jazz." This push-pull aspect of jazz allows a player to ...