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

Bobby Kapp / Matthew Shipp: Cactus

Read "Cactus" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 24, 2016

Drummer Bobby Kapp, free jazz spirit in New York in the mid-sixties, relocated to Mexico City, to the Artists' colony San Miguel de Allede. But he gets around, and on a return to New York he joined pianist Matthew Shipp to record a terrific set of duo improvisations called Cactus. Shipp, the better-known half of the team, plays with a vehemence that parallels his public persona--a prickly, chip-on-the-shoulder, in-your-face approach, a sort of Randy Weston meets Cecil Taylor ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Jennifer Bellor

by AAJ Staff
August 23, 2016

About Jennifer Bellor: Las Vegas-based composer Jennifer Bellor blends contemporary jazz, classical, and popular styles. Her works have been performed by Washington National Opera, Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, UNLV Jazz Ensemble, and many others in the United States and abroad. She earned a 2013 DownBeat Award for her composition “Midnight Swim" for big band in the original composition/orchestrated work category at the graduate college level. Her composition Noir ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Horace Silver: The United States of Mind – Revisited

by Marc Davis
August 23, 2016

At what point did Blue Note Records jump the shark? Is there a single moment when Blue Note stopped being the world's greatest purveyor of jazz and instead became an irrelevant producer of schlock? Truth is, it was a long, slow slide. In the 1950s, Blue Note was the greatest source of hard bop. In the 1960s, it produced the best soul-jazz on earth. And then, one day in the 1970s--poof! It was all gone. Where did it ...

Multiple Reviews

Piano & More: Rich Halley 5, Casey Golden Trio, Jeff Denson Quartet, Fred Hersch Trio, Peter Erskine Trio, & Sirius Quartet

by Mark Sullivan
August 23, 2016

An assortment of striking jazz/improvisation recordings. Three of them are piano trios--each with their own unique character--but two of them have no piano, or any other harmonic instrument. Rich Halley 5 The Outlier Pine Eagle Records 2016 Tenor saxophonist Rich Halley's longstanding quartet with trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Carson Halley--last heard on Eleven (Pine Eagle Records, 2015)--becomes a quintet with the addition of reed player Vinny Golia. ...

Album Review

Sundae + Mr. Goessl: Makes My Heart Sway

Read "Makes My Heart Sway" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 23, 2016

I admit it. I am raving mad for the Great American Songbook, particularly from for the first three decades of the 20th Century. That same madness extends to acts specializing in this repertoire. Recently pianist Mike Jones further established himself as keeper of the roaring '20s flame with his exceptional trio recording, Roaring (Capri Records, 2016). Another equally successful group specializing in this music of the front end of the last century is the duo, Sundae + ...

Album Review

Alejandro Vargas: AMa AZa LaNdO

Read "AMa AZa LaNdO" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
August 23, 2016

Music seems to be a matter of play as much as craft for Alejandro Vargas Rodríguez. The Cuban (now Spain-based) pianist shows plenty of chops throughout this whole recording, but they're often equalled or surpassed by the spirit of almost childlike joy that runs through it, as evidenced by the freeform playfulness of the track titles. (The title AMa AZa LaNdO, for example, is itself a playful anagram of “A Mano Alzada"--meaning something that's done freehand.) The piano work is ...

Album Review

George DeLancey: George DeLancey

Read "George DeLancey" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
August 23, 2016

During the golden age of the big bands, composers wrote with the entire ensemble as a singular voice, with the soloist (and solos) connected to the concept of the song as a whole. The leading exponent of this era was Duke Ellington, whose writing was built around that awareness; and his songs have withstood the test of time. Listening to bassist George DeLancey on his self-titled debut release, one cannot help but think of the Duke, and the fine art ...

Album Review

Gil Evans: The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix

Read "The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix" reviewed by Sacha O'Grady

by Sacha O'Grady
August 23, 2016

Out of all the myriad of tribute albums dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, this would have to be the most authentic and genuine. Evans and Hendrix had spoken on numerous occasions about working together, Jimi having even asked the legendary jazz arranger to teach him how to read and write music, thus liberating the guitarist from the burden of having to record everything on tape. But their friendship might never have happened were it not for producer Alan Douglas, who had ...

Interview

Ron Carter: Always at the Center of the Action

by Victor L. Schermer
August 22, 2016

Great jazz bassists can always be identified by the fact that you really listen to them! A good jazz bassist keeps good time and gets the chords right, but a great bassist, going as far back as Jimmy Blanton, Scott LaFaro, Charlie Haden, or Jimmy Garrison, catches your ear because you're surprised and moved by what they do. They aren't just keeping time but creating new music. They are at the center of the action. Ron Carter is ...

Live Review

Benny Golson Quartet at Duc des Lombards

by Patricia Myers
August 22, 2016

Benny Golson Quartet Duc des Lombards Nous N'Irons Pas a New York (We're Not Going to New York) Festival Paris, France August 10, 2016 Tenor saxophonist Benny Golson showed no negative effects of his 87 years during the opening set of two nights at Duc des Lombards in Paris. His breathy style purred like the engine of a vintage Rolls Royce, his vibrato-edged style poured out as enticing as a gently cellared French Bordeaux. ...