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.

Live Review

Brian Charette/Jim Alfredson Organ Duo at Nighttown

by C. Andrew Hovan
October 26, 2016

Brian Charette/Jim Alfredson Organ Duo Nighttown Cleveland, Ohio October 20, 2016 It's not often that you get the chance to hear two organists going head to head in a live setting. Jimmy Mc Griff and Groove Holmes did it, but few others have dared to tread in such territory. Nonetheless, if New York heavyweight Brian Charette and Michigan marvel Jim Alfredson have anything to do with it, we might see a new precedence set for ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Zachary Serleth

by AAJ Staff
October 26, 2016

About Zachary Serleth Primarily a bassist and banjo player, Zach Serleth has developed a deep love of vintage music that is reflected in his current band, Tongue in Cheek. The group's 2016 album, Mobtown Strutters Ball, pays tribute to the New Orleans jazz tradition, covering tunes written from 1910 to the mid 1930s. Serleth has delved into many traditions from Appalachian blue grass to gypsy jazz. He and his partner, vocalist Bridget Cimino, have a penchant for re-discovering ...

Album Review

Clay Giberson: Pastures

Read "Pastures" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 26, 2016

Pianist Clay Giberson has a fifteen year resume of fine recordings on Seattle's Origin Records label. The discs are, for the most part, solo and trio outings, with the trio sets appearing under his own name or that of his long-standing Upper Left Trio. Some examples: Spaceton's Approach, (2008), and Minga Minga (2015) as Clay Giberson; and Sell Your Soul Side, (2006), and Ulternative, (2012), with the Upper Left Trio. With Pastures, the pianist goes the quartet mode, ...

Album Review

Raphael Malfliet: Noumenon

Read "Noumenon" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 26, 2016

How does it sound when a bass is not a bass, a guitar not a guitar and a drum is a not a drum? The answer to this riddle is the album Noumenon by the Belgian-born bassist Raphael Malfliet. His album is yet another worthy addition to the hip Brooklyn label, Ruweh, but it is also the most difficult and experimental of the three releases on the label so far. Malfliet is interested in ...

Album Review

Slowly Rolling Camera: All Things

Read "All Things" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
October 26, 2016

Slowly Rolling Camera was formed in Cardiff, Wales in 2013 and comprises a nucleus of vocalist and lyricist Dionne Bennett, co-composer and keyboardist Dave Stapleton plus Deri Roberts who in addition to producing the album is heard on electronics and assorted instruments and finally Elliot Bennett on drums and percussion. The group is variously augmented by horns, guitar, bass and strings where required. This is the second album by the band, the first eponymous album was released in 2014, preceded ...

Album Review

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason: Skarkali

by Budd Kopman
October 26, 2016

Prediction: pianist/composer Ingi Bjarni Skúlason and his music will eventually end up on ECM. This is not because he is from Iceland, but rather that he, even at his young age, has a fully developed, recognizable style. Skarkali, which literally means “loud noises," is a piano trio recording that is anything but noise, and is delicately intense (or intensely delicate) rather than loud. Supported by bassist Valdimar Olgeirsson and drummer Óskar Kjartansson, Skúlason's compositions unfold as dramatic stories, ...

Album Review

Quinsin Nachoff: Flux

by Glenn Astarita
October 26, 2016

Canadian-reared, New York City-based saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff summons a meeting of some very bright musical minds on this stirring quartet date. Rounded out by heralded modern era musicians, saxophonist David Binney, keyboardist Matt Mitchell and drummer Kenny Wolleson, the band erects a cunning bridge between structured and melodic thematic ventures with traditional jazz values and free-flowing improvisational overtures. Many of these works are erected with polytonal sequences and odd-metered aberrations via forceful choruses and unanticipated diversions. Moreover, the ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Bridget Cimino

by AAJ Staff
October 26, 2016

About Bridget Cimino Bridget Cimino is a Baltimore-based traditional music vocalist and visual artist. She co-leads the popular band Tongue in Cheek with bassist and banjo player Zach Serleth. (The group is releasing their album Mobtown Strutters Ball November 4, 2016 at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore.) Paying tribute to New Orleans jazz, their first recording and many live performances feature tunes composed from 1910 to the mid 1930's. Cimino and Serleth are known to create events in ...

Live Review

SFJAZZ Collective At SFJAZZ

by David Becker
October 24, 2016

SFJAZZ Collective SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA October 20, 2016 What would Miles think? It was hard not to wonder as the SFJAZZ Collective, the San Francisco jazz presenter's long-running large ensemble project, kicked off it's 12th season with a program dominated by sometimes dramatically re-imagined versions of Miles Davis tunes. The basic playbook for the Collective has been the same since the beginning: Assemble some of the finest players in ...

Album Review

Skyjack: Skyjack

by Dan Bilawsky
October 24, 2016

Don't let the name fool you here. There's no hostile takeover at twenty-thousand feet, no violent occupation of a specific vehicle, and no saboteur to wreak havoc on this voyage. Skyjack is a cooperative venture that's about the art of creation and community, not the co-opting of a certain airspace or the pursuit of pure destruction. It's essentially an international musical summit that connects some of South Africa's finest young jazz greats with some strong-minded Swiss talent. ...