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.

Interview

Ethan Margolis: Perfect Mission of Feeling

by Chris M. Slawecki
September 6, 2016

Describing guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer and conceptualist Ethan Margolis as a citizen of the world barely does him or his music justice. Born and raised in Cleveland (OH), Margolis left the US when he was 21 to study the art of Gypsy flamenco guitar in Spain. He stayed there for more than a decade, living alongside and learning from many of Spain's most famous Gypsy flamenco guitarists, teaching his own master guitar classes, and writing and touring a “flamenco rock ...

Album Review

Duffy King: Acoustically Speaking

Read "Acoustically Speaking" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 6, 2016

On the inner jacket to Acoustically Speaking, Duffy King's second CD as a leader, the reader is informed that the Detroit-based maestro plays acoustic and six-string guitars (plural). While that is presumably true (all guitars sound basically alike to some untrained ears), there's no doubt that King plays all of them quite well, as should be expected from a sovereign. When not swapping guitars, King composes, and does that quite well too; he wrote or co-wrote each of the album's ...

Album Review

Tom McCormick: South Beat

Read "South Beat" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
September 6, 2016

A fixture in the south Florida jazz scene for over twenty-five years, saxophonist, composer and arranger Tom McCormick presents his first album as leader on the swinging South Beat, containing a dynamic blend of Latin and Brazilian-tinged jazz with a touch of funk and a sprinkle of the smooth jazz style. A graduate of the prestigious University of Miami Frost School of Music, Dr. McCormick has shared the stage with some of the finest musicians in the world and is ...

Album Review

Fred Frith Trio: Another Day in Fucking Paradise

Read "Another Day in Fucking Paradise" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 6, 2016

The album title may equate to what a disgruntled co-worker may utter at the office on a Monday morning. Yes, some of us have used this line, but master improviser, guitarist Fred Frith's prowess and boundless creativity is the antithesis to anything that may cause a semblance of drudgery. Jason Hoopes' bursting e-bass lines and Jordan Glenn's vigorous drumming and colorful accents supply all the ammo Frith needs via his speed riffing, unearthly effects and keen use of ...

Album Review

Karl Van Deun & Ruben Machtelinckx: Shapes

by Mark Sullivan
September 6, 2016

Young Belgian guitarist Ruben Machtelinckx has already had an active recording career, especially with his quartet and the duo Linus. His recordings have become progressively more acoustic and ever more freely improvised. Guitarist Karl Van Deun was Ruben's teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. His performing career has been sidelined by hearing problems, but he contributes most of the compositions here, and the pair stick to acoustic instruments. The dominant sound is two classical guitars, no overdubbing. ...

Out and About: The Super Fans

Meet Don Shire

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
September 5, 2016

Don Shire's club-hopping habit started in Pittsburgh, but his introduction to the capital of jazz was a 1971 Freddie Hubbard gig at New York jazz institution, the Village Vanguard. And he's still going strong 45 years later. One concert particularly stands out. “When it was over, the people just looked at each other. The feeling was, 'Why go out anymore? We'll never hear anything to equal this!'" There is one jazz great that got away, though not for Don's lack ...

Album Review

Tobias Meinhart: Natural Perception

Read "Natural Perception" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
September 5, 2016

Presenting his debut recording on the Munich-based ENJA Records, Natural Perception is Bavarian-born and Brooklyn, New York-based saxophonist Tobias Meinhart's fourth album as leader delivering a rich palette of swinging modern jazz deserving serious attention. On tap are six Meinhart originals as well as fresh new arrangements of Harry Warren's classic “You're My Everything," and Bill Frisell's “Throughout." Though a veteran of the European jazz environment, since moving to the Big Apple, the saxophonist has become a much in-demand player ...

Album Review

Tatsuya Nakatani: Confirmation

Read "Confirmation" reviewed by Nicola Negri

by Nicola Negri
September 5, 2016

Percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani moved from Japan to the U.S.A. in the mid 1990s, and since then he has worked with many important jazz and free improvisers, both historical figures like Peter Kowald or Fred Van Hove, and younger musicians like Ingrid Laubrock and Mary Halvorson. A specialist of the solo set, he builds his own instruments and employs original techniques to suit his particular style, blending an avant-jazz sensibility with the sense of space and laconic beauty of traditional Japanese ...

Album Review

Shirley Horn: Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens

Read "Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 5, 2016

“Horn did ballads and cool, understated ruminations better than anyone except her first champion, mentor and lifelong friend, trumpeter Miles Davis. Both were masters of silence and anticipation, but even Davis teased Horn about her pacing. 'You do 'em awful slow!' he once said.'" Richard Harrington, Washington Post. The incandescence that was Shirley Horn, and her central importance to jazz vocals, cannot be overstated. She was a master, like Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal, at retaining ...

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Talking 2 Musicians

2016 Guitar Star series winner Zayn Mohammed

by Alan Bryson
September 5, 2016

Appearing on the main stage at the Latitude Music Festival was Zayn Mohammed's prize for winning the 2016 season of the UK SkyArts TV series Guitar Star. He was welcomed to the stage by legendary rock producer Tony Visconti, of David Bowie fame, as, “an incredible performer, a consummate artist, great guitarist, great musician and a visionary!" George Benson, who like Visconti was a judge and mentor on the series, appeared via video on the stage screens with these words, ...