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

Peacemaker Music & Arts Fest 2016

by C. Michael Bailey
September 17, 2016

Second Annual Peacemaker Music & Arts Fest Harry E. Kelley Riverfront Park Amphitheater Fort Smith, Arkansas July 29-30, 2016 Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia make up what was once the Confederate States of America, eventually to become, “The South." These eleven states have been lumped together as geo-social-political monolith since their formal dissolution in 1865, and fully codified during Reconstruction. It has been my experience that the ...

Album Review

Jakob Bro: Streams

Read "Streams" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
September 17, 2016

"The music wants to go in its own direction," Jakob Bro declares, and “it's our job to follow it." If one central theme of jazz is “never the same way once," the Danish guitarist is someone who lives by it more than most. No two of his albums are made with the same cast and rarely do they repeat the same instrumental lineup. A given release may feature a quartet, nonet or fifteen-piece ensemble; there could be three horns or ...

Live Review

Peter Wolf & the Midnight Travelers at City Winery

by Mike Perciaccante
September 17, 2016

Peter Wolf & the Midnight Travelers City Winery New York, NY September 8, 2016 Peter Wolf was born Peter Blankfield on March 7, 1946 in the Bronx, NY. According to Wolf he grew up in the Belmont section of the borough which also spawned Dion DiMucci better known simply as Dion. When one hears Wolf sing, Dion's influence is clearly audible. As a singer and musician, Wolf is best known as the lead ...

Album Review

Barry Guy: The Blue Shroud

Read "The Blue Shroud" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
September 17, 2016

In some ways, The Blue Shroud might be Barry Guy's signature work. It's the first to unite his varied interests in Baroque music, composition, jazz and improv at an orchestral scale. To do so Guy assembles a 14-strong crack unit capable of interpreting each aspect to the highest level, including several early music specialists who are also able to extemporize. And Guy's topic is worthy of such endeavor. He takes as his inspiration three interlinked themes, the ...

Album Review

Abbey Rader Quartet with Kidd Jordan: Reunion

Read "Reunion" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
September 17, 2016

Intrepid drummer Abbey Rader's second release in 2016, Reunion documents a stimulating live session at the, now sadly defunct, Performing Arts Exchange (PAX) in Miami. Iconoclastic jazzman and legendary saxophonist Kidd Jordan joins Rader and his quartet for this exhilarating improvisational set captured at the above mentioned venue on Halloween night of 2012. The inspired and inspirational music has a definite spiritual edge to it. For instance, on “Talkin,' Burnin,' Prayin,'" Jordan lets loose airy, fluttering lines that, ...

Album Review

Joey Alexander: Countdown

Read "Countdown" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
September 17, 2016

Like most such facile categorizing, 'child prodigy' usually ends up being a dead end rather than a means to explore the subject at hand. In the case of Joey Alexander, it's a disservice precisely because it's so restrictive: if he proves anything on his second album, it is that he will not be confined. Quite the contrary, the thirteen year-old pianist and composer challenges himself on multiple fronts on Countdown. He not only chooses to play with other ...

Extended Analysis

Jack Bruce: Things We Like

by Sacha O'Grady
September 17, 2016

Jack Bruce remains one of the most enduring and fascinating figures of late 20th century popular music. By the age of eleven, he had already written his own string quartet, before eventually attending the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, from which he left at the age of seventeen having become disenchanted with his tutors and also due to the impoverished circumstances of his family. After a spate of travel he found his way to London, where he performed with a ...

Getting Into Jazz

Stan Getz And The Oscar Peterson Trio

by Mark Barnett
September 16, 2016

Getting Started If you're new to jazz, go to our Getting Into Jazz primer for some hints on how to listen. CD Capsule Saxophonist Stan Getz shines in this disc, recorded early in his career with top-flight musicians who created a perfect setting for his skills and sensitivity. Give him an “A" in “Plays well with others." Background Like Zoot Sims (see If I'm Lucky in this “Getting Into Jazz" ...

Album Review

Eri Yamamoto Trio: Life

by Jakob Baekgaard
September 16, 2016

Tourist guides to jazz in New York often recommend the same venues like The Village Vanguard, Birdland and Blue Note, but there is a place known by true connoisseurs that should be the point of destination for everyone wanting to experience a real working trio with one of the most interesting pianists in contemporary jazz. The place is called Arthur's Tavern and for a long time, Japanese-born pianist Eri Yamamoto has played there, and developed her musical ...

Album Review

Shawn Maxwell's New Tomorrow: Shawn Maxwell's New Tomorrow

Read "Shawn Maxwell's New Tomorrow" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 16, 2016

Chicago-based saxophonist Shawn Maxwell has produced an excellent run of straight ahead CD releases in the past decade, sets like his two self-produced discs, Originals (2006) and Originals II (2008), and Maxwell's House (Chicago Session LTD, 2010) before he changed his game up with Shawn Maxwell's Alliance (Chicago Sessions LTD, 2015), a shift away from mainstream quartet--sax and rhythm section--to a walk-on-the-mini-big-band wild side, with a group that includes French horns, vibes, a vocalist and additional saxophones. So what about ...