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.

Extended Analysis

Grateful Dead: Dave's Pick's Vol. 19: Honolulu, Hawaii, 1/23/70

by Doug Collette
August 14, 2016

Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux has done yeoman's work to distinguish his archival series of recordings from that of his esteemed predecessor Dick Latvala and Vol. 19 is no exception . But this edition of Dave's Picks, from Honolulu, Hawaii in January of 1970, has much in common with a release from Dick's Picks, while simultaneously setting itself apart from those which preceded it (except for the fact it too sold through its limited run). The most significant ...

Album Review

Oddarrang: Agartha

by Roger Farbey
August 14, 2016

Agartha is the fourth studio album by Finnish quintet Oddarrang and their second for the UK label Edition Records. The band is led by eclectic musician and drummer, Olavi Louhivuori. The album's title takes its name from the legendary world that is said to reside in the Earth's core, and Miles Davis's similarly named album Agharta also derives from this mythological entity. “Altheia" starts with spacey low droning synthesizers, evoking shades of early-ish Pink Floyd but ...

Album Review

Geoffrey Eales: Transcience

Read "Transcience" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
August 14, 2016

Transience is Welsh pianist/composer Geoffrey Eales' thirteenth release dating back to 1999. All of the words and music are by Eales, and he has taken this opportunity to express in music his feelings about how ephemeral human existence is in general, but also specifically of the passing within the past year of his mother, as well as that of pianist John Taylor and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler. Naturally, the music is highly emotional, but is never cloying or melodramatic. ...

Album Review

Daniel Lanois: Goodbye to Language

Read "Goodbye to Language" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
August 14, 2016

Consistently imaginative, producer, guitarist and sonic explorer Daniel Lanois has long been hailed not only as a studio wizard but as a gifted musician with a definite and unabashed affinity for experimentation and the avant-garde. Lanois is lauded for many things and among those is his uncanny ability to create wonderful music and ambiances from minimal sonic elements. Goodbye to Language is a deeply beautiful record that redefines the word meditative and shimmers with breathtaking passages of unhurried, ...

Live Review

Cyrus Chestnut Trio at Duc des Lombards

by Patricia Myers
August 14, 2016

Cyrus Chestnut Trio Duc des Lombards Nous N'Irons Pas a New York Festival Paris, France August 2, 2016 Pianist Cyrus Chestnut dazzled a rapt audience during the opening concert of his two nights at the sixth annual Nous N'Irons Pas a New York (We're Not Going to New York) festival that presents American stars. From the first to the final note, he was a man of few words and of much melodic magic.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Edgars Cirulis

by AAJ Staff
August 13, 2016

About Edgars Cirulis: Edgars Cirulis is an up and coming pianist and composer from Latvia. This year he released his first album Ainavisti - with a group he created and is leading since 2014. Edgars is currently studying at Jazepa Vitola Latvian Music Academy, doing his second year of bachelor studies. Outside his regular group he plays with various jazz musicians from Latvia and is now looking to further his bounds outside of his country. Instrument(s): ...

Album Review

Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble: Havana Blue

Read "Havana Blue" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 13, 2016

With diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba warming, the chances for musical reciprocity have escalated apace. As one who has long admired the music of our neighboring island the the south, Chicago-based trumpeter / composer Orbert Davis was quick to seize the initiative, spending nine days in Havana with Cuban-born choreographer Frank Chavez in October 2012 and returning with the outline of his seven-part “Havana Blue Suite," which explores and delineates the tantalizing harmonies and rhythms that are a ...

Album Review

ZAKS: Live at 5e

Read "Live at 5e" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
August 13, 2016

In the music business, bootlegs are generally considered a bad thing. Often poorly recorded and not sanctioned by the artists. However, while some people with dubious intentions have definitely speculated in earning quick cash, there are also others, who have simply recorded music because they were such big fans that it was a necessity to document everything by a certain artist or group. One of the most famous examples of this kind of musical passion is the ...

Live Review

Yes at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
August 13, 2016

Yes NYCB Theatre at Westbury The Album Series: Drama + Topographic 1 & 4. The “Evening With Yes. Westbury, NY August 6, 2016 Yes is like the little engine that could. No matter what, regardless of any obstacle, the band continues to forge on. During the past (almost) 50 years, Yes has been the home to, at various times, 19 official members and another 2 touring members. Band members drift-in, drift-out, leave and eventually ...

Album Review

Jungle: Mat Walerian/Matthew Shipp/Hamid Drake: Live At Okuden

Read "Live At Okuden" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 13, 2016

How is it that a musician like reedsman Mat Walerian can drop straight out of the sky and into your ears? Where did he come from? The mostly self-taught Polish born artist releases Live At Okuden his second for ESP Disk. The label is definitely the most appropriate record company for such a mysterious artist. Think of label founder Bernard Stollman's earliest artists, Albert Ayler, Giuseppi Logan, Frank Wright, Noah Howard, and Charles Tyler. All players introduced to us by ...