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

Michael Gamble: And the Rhythm Serenaders

Read "And the Rhythm Serenaders" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 22, 2016

Nothing deep or inscrutable here, simply good, clean, appetizing swing served with gusto by bassist Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders. While the size and makeup of the group varies from track to track, there's no doubt that everyone on the premises is in the proper frame of mind and fully attuned to Gamble's purpose, which is to leave the listener smiling broadly and tapping his or her toes. The album was recorded at the Isis Music ...

Album Review

Michael Formanek - Tomas Fujiwara - Mary Halvorson: Convallaria

Read "Convallaria" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 22, 2016

Three hyper-progressive improvisational jazz and cross-genre artists push the envelope again on their 2nd album for Cuneiform Records. The musicians' busy schedules via numerous and largely prolific solo and group-based projects have rocketed their respective artistries into the limelight, especially ECM recording artist Michael Formanek (bass) who for the past several decades has become a household name within these circles. Nonetheless, it's an adventurous exploration, led by guitarist Mary Halvorson's signature phraseology, comprised of extended lines that vaporize into the ...

Album Review

Macy Gray: Stripped

by James Nadal
August 22, 2016

It should come as no surprise that vocalist Macy Gray would make a jazz record. Renowned for her platinum trajectory in popular music, Gray always exhibited inherent jazz and blues inclinations in her vocal style and personal demeanor. Stripped is her debut on Chesky Records, recorded in a live setting with their singular binaural microphone technique, accompanied by a premier jazz ensemble. Gray is certainly no stranger to jazz, as she has recently collaborated with saxophonist David Murray ...

Album Review

The Eternals: Espiritu Zombi

Read "Espiritu Zombi" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 22, 2016

Adventurist listeners want more from their music. That's why they venture into jazz, world, and improvised music. If you were a fan of the Talking Heads in the 1970s and 80s, the band's expanded lineup of backing singers and percussionists, plus keyboardist Bernie Worrell and guitarist Adrian Belew propelled the band out of its new wave niche and into an African flavored global sound. Same can be said for Chicago's The Eternals. Originally a duo of Damon Locks and Wayne ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Javier Perez Sandoval of Carrera Quinta

by AAJ Staff
August 21, 2016

Meet Javier Perez Sandoval: Javier Perez Sandoval's Carrera Quinta is a Colombian sextet established in 2006 by composers Javier and Francy Montalvo. The band blends contemporary jazz with traditional Colombian music from the Andean region, creating an unique, intense and powerful sound. After recording their debut album En Esencia in 2009, the group expanded to an eighteen-piece orchestra delivering their second album Carrera Quinta Big Band. The album features compositions awarded in 2013 by Bogotá´s department of Arts, ...

Album Review

Blameful Isles: Strange But Not Entirely Unattractive

Read "Strange But Not Entirely Unattractive" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
August 21, 2016

Essentially a one-man-band based in Sweden, Blameful Isles is one of many artists who are actively rediscovering and re-processing the sounds of the early jazz-rock movement of the 1970s. Overall, the ongoing re-vitalization of jazz-rock and fusion has been a really good thing. For audiences of a certain age, the mere sound of a real Fender Rhodes piano or mini-Moog evokes waves of happy nostalgia. The marriage of vintage sounds with 21st Century chops, if executed with taste, can be ...

Extended Analysis

Jasper Høiby: Fellow Creatures

by Phil Barnes
August 21, 2016

Creativity is an unpredictable beast, yesterday's inspiration can soon turn stale, evaporating with the morning dew if not carefully cultivated and attended to. That idea that was once so exciting can easily become a well-worn rut, or even a trap, into which the unwary can fall. Bassist Jasper Hoiby, a third of Phronesis, appears to recognise the benefits of staying creatively fresh on this fantastic new record, explicitly taking the time to try something different, and, possibly, recharging the creative ...

Album Review

Hanna Paulsberg Concept: Eastern Smiles

Read "Eastern Smiles" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
August 21, 2016

Hanna Paulsberg's tenor saxophone voice is increasingly in demand for a wide variety of projects, from the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra to collaborations with Ellen Andrea Wang, Jon Balke, Andreas Ulvo, Erland Dahlen and veteran Knut Rissnaes. Yet her standing as a composer and leader of one of Norway's most outstanding young quartets has been firmly established with releases such as Waltz for Lili (Ora Fonogram, 2012) and Song for Josia (Ora Fonogram, 2014). Eastern Smiles, her third release, and first ...

Album Review

Steve Buscemi/Elliott Sharp: Rub Out The Word

Read "Rub Out The Word" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 21, 2016

Is it significant that Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) and William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) were born just one year apart? Maybe. Sinatra began as a teen idol, before developing into American's bon vivant and arbiter of cool, and finally a cranky old man. On the other hand, the writer Burroughs was born a cranky old man, and perpetuated that image throughout his life. We loved him for his irascibility. It tempered his truths, by giving a reader a passage into his junky ...

Album Review

Stranger Days: Stranger Days

Read "Stranger Days" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
August 21, 2016

Trumpeter Adam O'Farrill is still very young, but that is not keeping him from making waves with his debut album Stranger Days and band of the same name, comprised of O'Farrill, tenor saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz- Brown, bassist Walter Stinson and his older brother, drummer Zack O'Farrill. Of course, it does not hurt to have Chico O'Farrill as your grandfather and Arturo O'Farrill as your father either, and neither does his recent work with Rudresh Mahanthappa and his Bird ...