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.

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Music and the Creative Spirit

Buddy Montgomery Jazz Legacy Project Benefit & Concert

by Walter Atkins
October 10, 2016

Buddy Montgomery Jazz Legacy Project Benefit & Concert Hillside Club Berkeley California September 10, 2016 The sold out first annual Buddy Montgomery Jazz Legacy Project Awards Benefit and Concert (BMJLP) was an exquisite evening that fulfilled the long held vision of Charles “Buddy" Montgomery. It recognized well deserving Bay Area veteran artists like Jeff Chambers and John Santos, and also championed rising young jazz talent. The high lights included the BMJLP award presentations ...

Album Review

Gwendolyn Dease: Beguiled

Read "Beguiled" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 9, 2016

While this fourth album from marimbist Gwendolyn Dease is rightly seeing release on the classical arm of Origin Records, it wouldn't have been completely out of place if it had landed on the jazz side of that imprint. Dease bypasses contemporary marimba fare and late twentieth century favorites from the usual suspects like Ney Rosauro, Casey Cangelosi, Joseph Schwanter, Keiko Abe, and Jacob Druckman, focusing instead on newly commissioned works from jazz-associated composer-performers. A number of jazz notables--trombonists Marshall Gilkes ...

Album Review

Autobahn: Of the Tree

Read "Of the Tree" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
October 9, 2016

Not to be confused with the band of the same name from The Big Lebowski (or the similarly-named British indie- rock / emo band, for that matter) this Autobahn is a trio of jolly Canadians who play 21st Century jazz. Not “swinging" jazz in the traditional Blue Note sense, the music of this bass-free trio of reeds, drums, and piano has really strong affinities with jazz--an emphasis on improvisation, jazz derived harmonies, and phrasing that borrows heavily from modern jazz ...

Album Review

Gene Ess: Absurdist Theater

Read "Absurdist Theater" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
October 9, 2016

On this CD guitarist Gene Ess and his group Fractal Attraction have put together an intelligent fusion of jazz, folk and rock concepts led by the glassy clarity of Ess' guitar and the calm beauty of Thana Alexa's voice. Alexa's rising and falling wordless tones are the first thing heard on the disc and they lead into a pretty, slow theme built on a methodical blend of voice, guitar and Manuel Valera's piano. The quiet mood continues on “Circe's Compassion" ...

Album Review

Eric Johnson: EJ: Song Explorations on Acoustic Guitar and Piano

Read "EJ: Song Explorations on Acoustic Guitar and Piano" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
October 9, 2016

The very announcement of a (largely) solo acoustic album from Eric Johnson is enough to startle fans of the Texas bluesman as well as those who know him only by name and a little of his tenure as a contemporary guitar hero. Hearing EJ: Song Explorations on Acoustic Guitar and Piano will no doubt dazzle those in both camps.That's because even in his use of a non-electrified fretboard instrument, with occasional utilization of acoustic piano, Johnson's able to ...

Interview

Meet Kenny Garrett

by Craig Jolley
October 9, 2016

This interview was first published at All About Jazz in April 2002 and is part of our ongoing effort to archive pre-database material. First tier alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett is notorious for his energy and for his ability to spontaneously compose (improvise). He announced himself twenty years ago in the bands of Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw and came to even greater recognition with Miles Davis' late '80s band. Happy People is Garrett's latest in a string of ...

Live Review

Live From Birmingham: The Manchester Camerata Orchestra, The Gloaming & Kirk Fletcher

by Martin Longley
October 9, 2016

The Godfather, with live accompaniment by The Manchester Camerata Orchestra Symphony Hall September 16, 2016 There seems to be a growing tendency for talkie screenings with live musical scoring. Back in the day, it was only silent movies that received the fleshly musician treatment. Current digital technology makes it easier to use a 'print' that excises the original score, allowing an onstage group to drop in their real time performance, noticeably, yet unobtrusively. This ...

Album Review

Matt Brewer: Unspoken

by Andrew Luhn
October 9, 2016

Bassist Matt Brewer first revealed his talents as a bandleader and a composer on his 2014 Criss Cross debut Mythology. Brewer returns to the Criss Cross label for his sophomore effort with a completely new quintet to explore seven new original compositions, a Bill Frisell cover, and one Charlie Parker tune. Joining him this time around are tenor saxophonist Ben Wendel, guitarist Charles Altura, pianist Aaron Parks, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, all of whom have previously recorded as sidemen for ...

Extended Analysis

Tales from Topographic Oceans (Definitive Edition)

by John Kelman
October 8, 2016

It was the album that, based on challenges during the five months it took to record, should really never have come to pass. It was the album that broke a three studio album/one live recording winning streak of increasing critical acclaim. It was the album, when at least for some critics, suggested the group's seemingly endless wellspring of creative indulgences were beginning to cross over into excess. It was the album that began to divide the band's fanbase, for the ...

Album Review

Billy Hart & The WDR Big Band: The Broader Picture

Read "The Broader Picture" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 8, 2016

A great teacher's influence can be unusually powerful and completely unbound, fixed to specific moments and lessons in a student's mind while also reverberating through time and space. You simply never know where it may lead, what doors it may unlock, or what wonders and worlds it may help to create. That's the subtext in the story behind this engrossing and brilliant affair. Back in 1992, Christophe Schweizer was a promising student at the Mannes College of ...