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.

Catching Up With

Dmitri Matheny: Flugelhorn Evangelist

by David Becker
September 1, 2016

The flugelhorn can be a difficult mistress. Players may find themselves endlessly explaining the differences between their axe and the trumpet, why their instrument seldom sounds like Miles Davis in a bad mood and why most horn players treat it as a specialty tool. But when someone with the authority of bebop legend and flugelhorn champion Art Farmer, tells you stick with something, you tend to listen. Dmitri Matheny, one of Farmer's last private students and his most ...

Live Review

Tom Griesgraber and Bert Lams at Kennett Flash

by Geno Thackara
September 1, 2016

Tom Griesgraber and Bert Lams Kennett Flash Kennett Square, PA August 27, 2016 A good piece of music can paint a picture, evoke feelings, tell a story or possibly, in the right hands, do all those things together. This is certainly what happens when Chapman Stickist Tom Griesgraber meets up with guitarist Bert Lams (the stage--left member of the California Guitar Trio) in among their other respective gigs. They weave a sophisticated musical tapestry: old-world ...

Album Review

Charlie Rich: Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High) / Silver Linings / Take Me / Rollin' With The Flow

Read "Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High) / Silver Linings / Take Me / Rollin' With The Flow" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
September 1, 2016

There is an anecdote about the legendary singer Elvis Presley, who walked into the office of Sun Records to do an audition. He was asked by receptionist Marion Keisker what kind of singer he was and Presley answered: “I sing all kinds." The same could be said about another Sun Records-affiliate, the pianist, composer and singer, Charlie Rich. Rich never got as famous as Presley, even though he was just as talented, but he released a steady ...

Album Review

Massimo Discepoli/Daniel Barbiero: An Eclipse Of Images

Read "An Eclipse Of Images" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 1, 2016

For the jazz listener, operating outside the canon can be a daunting experience. Once you dig 4/4 time, syncopation, swing, cool jazz and hard bop, it is difficult to appreciate other genres. Pop is formulaic and overproduced, and classical, too rigid. Electronics, fahgettaboudit. Machines cannot replace the human capability for improvisation. True, but what if there exists a synthesis of the human and the machine? Then, yes, the electroacoustic can be as enlightening to the jazz listener as the tradition.

Album Review

Dave Stryker: Eight Track II

Read "Eight Track II" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 1, 2016

Eight Track II, Dave Stryker's twenty-seventh album as a leader, could be subtitled “Stryker Strikes Again," as it is a pleasing sequel to 2014's well-received Eight Track, on which the guitarist's working trio and guest vibraphonist Stefon Harris revisited pop songs from the '70s and rearranged them in a hip new groove. Eight Track II offers more of the same with the trio (Stryker, organist Jared Gold, drummer McClenty Hunter) allied this time with the similarly proficient vibraphonist Steve Nelson, ...

Album Review

Natalie Cressman and Mike Bono: Etchings in Amber

Read "Etchings in Amber" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 1, 2016

The admonition, “Youth is wasted on the young" is neither accurate nor applicable to Natalie Cressman. Cressman, a vocalist/trombonist/composer/arranger is a modern day Renaissance woman who wears many hats and all of them beautifully. She is a standing member of the Trey Anastasio Band, as well as Jesus on the Mainline. Cressman has recorded two previous CDs: Unfolding (Self Produced, 2012) and Turn the Sea (Self Produced, 2014), both I found as exceptional as they were different from one another.

Interview

Tony Monaco: Taking Jazz Organ to the Summit

by C. Andrew Hovan
August 31, 2016

Columbus, Ohio native Tony Monaco is primed and ready to place jazz organ in a whole new spotlight. Although he has been a playing musician for most of his life, it has been during the past sixteen years that he has made the biggest strides as an artist. A gifted educator with a unique approach to instruction, Monaco recently sat down to discuss his past experiences and to promote a major event that he has spearheaded with the help of ...

Album Review

Peter Ponzol and Abbey Rader: It's Time

Read "It's Time" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
August 31, 2016

Reedman Peter Ponzol not only designs and makes unique mouthpieces for various saxophones he is also an imaginative improviser with a singular style. He and intrepid drummer Abbey Rader have a long history of collaboration spanning over four decades. On their 2016 It's Time they perform 11 intimate, original duets that are full of sublime mysticism and showcase individual virtuosity and seamless camaraderie.Rader masterfully blends sparse chimes and reverberating cymbals with silent pauses as he sets a Zen ...

Album Review

Fidel Morales: Omío

by James Nadal
August 31, 2016

There is a saying, that Cuba and Puerto Rico are two wings from the same dove. This could not be more evident than in the musical collaborations and cultural exchanges which have historically united both islands, and their people. Fidel Morales is a native Cuban who since 2006 has secured the drum chair in the Jazz and Afro-Caribbean Music Program at the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico, a prestigious position, in an island replete with drummers and percussionists.

Album Review

Prasanna: All Terrain Guitar

Read "All Terrain Guitar" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 31, 2016

As a solo artist, Prasanna (Raga Metal Conversations, Raga Bop Trio) doesn't record that often, but when he does, it's usually an impressive musical statement, incited by his ferocious licks and unique convergence of Indian Carnatic music with a Western muse. For example, check out his previous outing, which is an East-West tribute to Jimi Hendrix --Electric Ganesha Land (2006). With an all-star lineup featuring trumpeter Dave Douglas, pianist Vijay Iyer, alto saxophonists, David Binney and Rudresh Mahanthappa performing on ...