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.

Profile

The Ganelin Trio: Creative Tensions

by Duncan Heining
October 19, 2016

Imagine a time, not so very long ago, when a foreign Jazz/Improvising Trio created such a stir in Britain that they made the TV news! Imagine the national newspapers queuing round the block for interviews. And imagine London's Bloomsbury Theatre filled with musicians, journalists and arts administrators--not to mention the odd, very odd, raincoated spook. That noise was the Ganelin Trio in 1984 on their first visit to these shores, from Russia with love. All that noise left ...

Album Review

Aziza: Aziza

by Dan Bilawsky
October 19, 2016

How do you define Aziza? Is it a collective-minded outfit? A supergroup? An offshoot or variant on previous gatherings? An archetype for musical synergy? A nod-in-name to African mythology and spiritual discovery? Yes, it's all of that. But why not avoid the traps and trappings involved with classification and just cut to the chase: Aziza is an artistically headstrong and muscular powerhouse, plain and not-so-simple. Would you expect anything less from the combination of bassist Dave Holland, saxophonist Chris Potter, ...

Album Review

Anna Webber's Simple Trio with Matt Mitchell & John Hollenbeck: Binary

Read "Binary" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 19, 2016

Canadian native, now a Brooklyn resident, Anna Webber, has a broad, international music education having studied at McGill University in Montreal, Manhattan School of Music and the Jazz Institute of Berlin. In the latter two cases she has received Master's degrees to accompany the substantial number of grants and awards that speak to her compositional ability. She has recorded three previous albums as a leader and with Binary, the saxophonist/flautist/composer returns with her “Simple Trio" of pianist Matt Mitchell and ...

Album Review

Annie Ross: A Handful Of Songs

Read "A Handful Of Songs" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
October 19, 2016

This release on British label Él Records sells itself short since it's very much more than just A Handful Of Songs. It's actually more like a veritable cornucopia of songs. Covering two CDs, in addition to the title album there's A Gasser! and the original cast of the London Production of the revue Cranks, named after John Cranko, who wrote and devised the show with music composed by John Addison. There's a “taster" selection of tracks from four albums by ...

Album Review

Miles Davis: Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series Vol. 5

Read "Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series Vol. 5" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
October 19, 2016

If ever a band of Miles Davis' deserved the high-intensity inspection/dissection represented by The Bootleg Series Vol. 5, it is his second great quintet. With that man with the horn as the great catalyst, the rapport between pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams is virtually unparalleled in the history of jazz, but to hear the machinations behind their creations here is almost as fascinating as the 'finished product' itself (liner notes rightly suggest ...

Multiple Reviews

Mysteries Of The Deep and Binary from Brian (Shankar) Adler

by Dan McClenaghan
October 19, 2016

The compact disc probably won't disappear anytime soon, but the importance of the physical product is on the wane in the music world. Drummer Brian (Shankar) Adler works the “digital download only" mode of operation in his music-making sojourn, with two marvelous, mysterious, free-flowing EP sets, Mysteries of the Deep and Binary. Brian Shankar Adler Mysteries Of The Deep Circavision Productions 2016 Adler is one of those rare percussionists who takes the rhythmic ...

Live Review

John Scofield's Country for Old Men at the Ardmore Music Hall

by Mike Jacobs
October 18, 2016

John Scofield's Country for Old Men The Ardmore Music Hall Ardmore, PA September 24, 2016 There are probably only are a handful of guitarists with a catalog as deep and stylistically diverse as John Scofield's. One of the obvious perils that these artists encounter when touring is facing an audience with fans from different stages of their careers--with different expectations. Short of doing an exhaustive retrospective every time out, this can almost guarantee a certain ...

Book Review

Dafnis Prieto: A World Of Rhythmic Possibilities

by Dan Bilawsky
October 18, 2016

A World Of Rhythmic Possibilites Dafnis Prieto 276 Pages ISBN: #978-0-692-65526-9 Dafnison Music 2016 Learning to fluently and fluidly dissect, construct, and speak rhythms through the drums is a lifelong process of study, discovery, and growth. Touching on the new while truly expanding that coded language is incredibly difficult to do, and having the wherewithal and communicative skills to actually breakdown those expansions is as rare as can be. But clearly nobody ...

Album Review

Ravi Shankar: In Hollywood, 1971

Read "In Hollywood, 1971" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
October 18, 2016

A real treat for fans of legendary sitarist Ravi Shankar, this is not only a live recording of a rare morning concert, but also an “at home" performance Shankar did for some special friends at his residence on Highland Avenue in Hollywood, California. He spoke about his distress over the plight of the people of East Pakistan (later known as Bangla Desh) in the aftermath of Cyclone Bhola. George Harrison was in attendance, so the occasion has the additional distinction ...

Album Review

Kent Carter Rivière Ensemble: Oratorios and Songs

Read "Oratorios and Songs" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
October 18, 2016

Over years, the Emanem label has built a reputation for fine releases by interesting and adventurous string ensembles such as Stellari String Quartet and Barrel. Preceding such groupings, the label released The Juillaguet Collection (Emanem, 1999) by the duo of Kent Carter and Albrecht Maurer on double bass and violin, respectively, and Intersections (Emanem, 2006) by the Kent Carter String Trio, in which the duo was joined by Katrin Mickiewicz on viola. Following that trend, it is no surprise to ...