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

Michael Aadal Group: Pomona

by Mark Sullivan
October 16, 2016

Proof that great Americana music can come from unexpected places--Norway, in this case. Pomona Avenue in Fullerton, California was the original location of the famed Fender factory. Guitarist Michael Aadal used only solid body guitars on this album--a Stratocaster and a Telecaster, the most iconic Fender models. That says something about the sound of Pomona, but it says just as much about the attitude. Aadal's compositions go to the roots of blues, country, and jazz, but they remain stylistically fluid. ...

Album Review

Chefa Alonso & Tony Marsh: Goodbye Red Rose (2008/9)

Read "Goodbye Red Rose (2008/9)" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
October 16, 2016

An air of nostalgia and remembrance pervades this album, starting with its title and cover photograph which portrays the duo of Spanish-born soprano saxophonist Chefa Alonso and Lancaster-born drummer Tony Marsh on stage at The Red Rose in Finsbury Park, north London, on 20th January 2008, during John Russell's long-running monthly improv concert series Mopomoso. In the photograph, the wall behind Alonso and Marsh features the album title in large letters, as the day in question was the last time ...

Album Review

Honey Ear Trio: Swivel

by Mark Corroto
October 16, 2016

The opening track of Allison Miller's new Honey Ear Trio recording, “Arby," had me singing the lyrics to “Heavy Metal Drummer," the 2002 Wilco hit song ..."She fell in love with the drummer/Another and another/She fell in love/I miss the innocence I've known/Playing KISS covers, beautiful and stoned." That connection is made from the heavy, maybe better yet, HEAVY entrance the Honey Ear Trio makes with track one. Miller, saxophonist Jeff Lederer (Matt Wilson Quartet, Brooklyn Blowhards) and bassist plus ...

Album Review

Miroslav Vitous: Music of Weather Report

Read "Music of Weather Report" reviewed by John Ephland

by John Ephland
October 16, 2016

The music on bassist Miroslav Vitous' Music Of Weather Report is a fascinating document by an original member of that seminal group, formed in 1970. Revisiting music he helped to create as well as one tune that came after he left the group in 1974 (along with new music he wrote and one from original member Wayne Shorter's time with Miles Davis), one can enter the mind of this man's singular reinterpretations of such gems as “Seventh Arrow," but also ...

Multiple Reviews

Paul Kelly: Seven Sonnets & A Song and Death's Dateless Night

by Doug Collette
October 16, 2016

Paul Kelly is one of our most brilliant songwriters in large part because he is so courageous in taking an unconventional approach to his creative endeavors. In the last few years alone, since his last recording of original material under his own name, Spring And Fall (Dramatico, 2012) he's undertaken a tour in which he's performed his entire discography in chronological order, overseen and participated in homage to r&b in the form of The Merri Soul Sessions (Cooking Vinyl, 2014) ...

In The Biz

Cheryl Hodge: Chasing the Muse

by Kathy Sanborn
October 15, 2016

Award-winning jazz and blues artist Cheryl Hodge shares how she manages to thrive in the dark and light of today's music business. With a 2016 release (Living Off the Grid) and a persistent attitude, Hodge continues to navigate the sometimes choppy waters of a music career on her own terms. Just nominated for another Hollywood Music in Media Award for her single from Living Off the Grid, “Senegal," Hodge keeps chasing her particular muse with satisfying results. ...

Album Review

Stephan Crump: Stephan Crump's Rhombal

Read "Stephan Crump's Rhombal" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 15, 2016

Often times, a jazz performance without a chordal instrument, a guitar or piano, is considered to be flying without a net. Exciting, but often without aim. It routinely relies on just one powerful figure to command the proceedings. That is, unless the ensemble is configured under egalitarian principles. Equal contribution and respect for the differing voices removes that fear of flying without the safety of a chordal net. If I can paraphrase Abraham Lincoln for you now, “a jazz quartet ...

Extended Analysis

Big Star: Complete Third

by Doug Collette
October 15, 2016

In perusing the credits of the Big Star's Complete Third box set, it may be puzzling to notice only the names of original members guitarist/vocalist/composer Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens, plus, almost as prominently, producer of the Ardent Studios Memphis sessions, Jim Dickinson. And the notation of baroque strings and horns may well seem contrary, at least at first, to the Beatles/Byrds influences ( as self-conscious as they sometimes sounded) duly noted by esteemed rock writer and music lover ...

Album Review

Jane Bunnett & Maqueque: Oddara

by James Nadal
October 15, 2016

There has been a constant stimulating fascination associated with Cuba that has attracted numerous jazz musicians to delve deeper into its musical traditions. Also, judging by the amount of recent recordings by Cuban artists, and those who feature them in collaborative efforts, the island sustains its status as a vital source of inspiration on the global jazz scene. Cuba captivated saxophonist/flautist Jane Bunnett many years ago, eventually leading her to form the all-female group Maqueque in 2013, culminating in a ...

Album Review

Davy Knowles: Three Miles From Avalon

Read "Three Miles From Avalon" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
October 15, 2016

It's tempting to call Davy Knowles' Three Miles From Avalon a sequel to his first solo album The Outsider (Independent, 2014). But that misrepresents an artistic progression that goes back to the days this young native of the Isle of Man was fronting the blues-rock quartet Back Door Slam back in 2003. Fractured by the tragedy of one member's death, that group eventually gave birth to Knowles' decision to work solo under his own name with accompanying musicians, which is ...