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

High Noon: High Noon

Read "High Noon" reviewed by Anthony Shaw

by Anthony Shaw
September 10, 2016

Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima has been making records of a distinctly off the wall hue since he started his professional career over 15 years ago in Helsinki. This orientation took him to study in Berlin where he has been based for the last decade. Working mainly with German musicians, he has seen success in Europe both as a cutting edge instrumentalist and composer, but surprisingly this latest album sees him working specifically with covers of country classics. Focusing particularly on ...

Album Review

Matty Harris: Double Septet

Read "Double Septet" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 10, 2016

Multi-reedman Matty Harris' double septet is a large ensemble endeavor, featuring many Los Angeles artists, including venerable woodwind ace Vinny Golia for a program brimming with numerous horns-based convergences, soulful proclamations, subtle melodic inventions and pieces often designed with embryonic buildups and burgeoning choruses. Other movements enact notions of a calm-before-the-storm stylization amid interweaving passages and accents. Harris and associates primarily reside on the outside realm of jazz, but it is not chaotic by any stretch. The band toggles between ...

In the Studio

Three Days At The Barber Shop, Part 2

by David A. Orthmann
September 9, 2016

Rehearsal | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Day 2 commences with only Nick, Leonieke, Givens, and Gillespie inside of Studio A. The instruments and mics in the live room and isolation booth are still intact from yesterday's session. While everyone sits in the control room, Nick asks Gillespie to playback “Please Send Me Someone To Love." The balance between the three instruments, as well as the strength of the individual performances, is striking. Nick and ...

Album Review

Lello Molinari: Lello's Italian Job, Vol. 1

Read "Lello's Italian Job, Vol. 1" reviewed by Jim Olin

by Jim Olin
September 9, 2016

Stellar bassist Lello Molinari has put together an ensemble of captivating instrumentals on his album Lello's Italian Job. Molinari exceeds expectations on a record with pleasant surprises; however, this collection is more than just ear candy. It's an imagination springboard that will take listeners to oases they've never been before.Mysterious and intriguing, “Speranze Perdute" can very well fit onto the soundtrack of Sherlock. Listening to this track is like participating in a cat and mouse chase set in ...

Album Review

Anderson / Stolt: Invention of Knowledge

Read "Invention of Knowledge" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 9, 2016

Guitarist Roine Stolt and fellow members of Swedish prog rock masters The Flower Kings, Tom Brislin (keys), Jonas Reingold (bass), Daniel Gildenlöw (backing vocals), Michael Stolt (bass) and Felix Lehrmann (drums) align with one of the founding fathers of the British prog movement Jon Anderson (Yes) for a strikingly arranged rock and electro-orchestral program, fabricated with an artistic flair. Stolt and associates would theoretically assume the roles of the 'newer' post-90s extension of prog's glory days, where bands such as ...

Album Review

Otomo Yoshihide Special Big Band: Live At Shinjuku Pit Inn

Read "Live At Shinjuku Pit Inn" reviewed by Nicola Negri

by Nicola Negri
September 9, 2016

Is it possible to maintain impeccable avant-garde credentials and be a popular culture phenomenon? This is the case with Otomo Yoshihide, a central figure in the Tokyo improv community, known internationally since the late '90s thanks to his participation in the downtown New York scene alongside John Zorn and many others. The Japanese guitarist and turntablist has always conducted a parallel activity as soundtrack composer for film and television, and in 2013 his theme for the popular TV drama Amachan ...

Interview

Mariza: Music is My Fado

by Nenad Georgievski
September 9, 2016

Listening to Portuguese fado singer Mariza, it's really hard not to be taken away by her passionate singing, charismatic stage presence, and sly sass. Yet, beneath her almost fragile and gentle appearance is a tiger waiting to spring. Ever since she burst onto the world stage 15 years ago, she swept the world with a fiery and emotional interpretation of songs belonging to the fado tradition. Linked with Portugal's rich maritime history, fado is music imbued with a sense of ...

Album Review

Dustin Laurenzi: Natural Language

Read "Natural Language" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 9, 2016

The first thing you notice about saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi is that he is an old soul. Not that he's old, he and bandmates guitarist Jeff Swanson, bassist Mike Harmon, and drummer Charles Rumback, are the next generation in Chicago's creative jazz tradition. It's his music that fits within the definition of old soul. It is comfortably easy to inhabit while avoiding being mainstream, patient with far-reaching wisdom that exhibits compassion and a certain inner peace. Ok, I know this is ...

In the Studio

Three Days At The Barber Shop, Part 1

by David A. Orthmann
September 8, 2016

Rehearsal | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The Barber Shop Studios are located on the West Shore of Lake Hopatcong, a body of water spanning about four square miles, which makes it the largest freshwater body in New Jersey. The immediate neighborhood is a patchwork of bungalows, upscale homes, newly constructed townhouses, small businesses and restaurants. At one end of an extended parking lot lies a marina that is the home of several pleasure boats ...

Bailey's Bundles

Blues Quanta: Power Trios – Johnny Stachela, Eddie Turner, Paul Deslauriers, Jeff Jensen, Lee Delray

by C. Michael Bailey
September 8, 2016

Who on earth invented the power trio? It might be easy to say Cream or Jimi Hendrix, as they were pioneers, but who first? It could be Buddy Holly and the Crickets or Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two (if we could call them “power" trios). No matter what, all examples have the blues as their common thread. The tradition of the blues power trio remains alive, well, and recording, as we can see here. Johnny Stachela Band ...