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

Steve Heckman: Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute

Read "Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 11, 2016

Whenever words such as A Coltrane Tribute adorn the front cover of an album, one question that inevitably springs to mind is, which John Coltrane? Trane, after all, was never one to stand still, or, as the saying goes, to rest on his laurels (truth be told, he hardly ever rested at all, choosing instead to use almost every waking hour to pursue his spiritual muse). Saxophonist Steve Heckman, a long-time admirer of Coltrane, makes no apologies for loving “his ...

Album Review

Manu Katché: Unstatic

Read "Unstatic" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 11, 2016

Drummer Manu Katché's career has been a long, circuitous one that began in rock, working for an extended period with Peter Gabriel, Sting and Joni Mitchell. In the cases of Sting and Mitchell, there was a jazz sensibility present in much of their work. Simultaneously, Katché's work on the ECM label was taking shape as he appeared on a number of Jan Garbarek albums. The drummer's own ECM leader debut, Neighbourhood (2005), was well received and the first of a ...

Album Review

Changüí Majadero: El Changüí Majadero

Read "El Changüí Majadero" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
August 11, 2016

The traditional changüí musical style originated in the eastern side of Cuba, specifically the Baracoa section of Guantanamo Province. It was developed by the fusion of Spanish guitar melodies with African derived rhythms, and is the foundation for the Cuban son, which led directly to guaguanco, and salsa. Changüí Majadero is an adventurous ensemble which is reintroducing changüí to a new generation on El Changüí Majadero; taking it from Cuba to California and adding their own blend of syncopated flavors. ...

Album Review

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra: Duke Ellington's Treasury Shows - Vol. 21

Read "Duke Ellington's Treasury Shows - Vol. 21" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
August 11, 2016

This volume of the Duke Ellington Treasury Shows commemorates the death on July 20 1946 of Joe “Tricky Sam" Nanton, one of the founding fathers of the band's early “jungle" sound that helped make its name at the Cotton Club. Nanton was the first musician to die with Ellington and the leader--a highly superstitious man--took it as a bad omen. As indeed it was, heralding an end to stable line-ups and an extended period of “musical chairs" ...

Book Review

50 Summers of Music: Montreux Jazz Festival

by Ian Patterson
August 11, 2016

50 Summers of Music: Montreux Jazz Festival Arnaud Robert 398 Pages ISBN: 978-2-84597-558-3 Montreux Jazz Festival/Editions Textuel 2016 It's neither the oldest nor the largest, but Montreux Jazz Festival is, arguably, the most famous music festival in the word. It's a notable and perhaps unlikely badge of honor for Montreux, described by Deep Purple in the early 1970s as “a sleepy little town full of old ladies and tea rooms." To ...

Album Review

Dominique Pifarély Quartet: Tracé Provisoire

Read "Tracé Provisoire" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
August 10, 2016

French violinist Dominique Pifarély--last heard solo on Time Before And Time After (ECM, 2015)--leads a quartet into that uncharted territory between improvisation and composition. The quartet was founded in the spring of 2014, but the players had many associations before that. Pifarély and double bassist Bruno Chevillon have recorded together with clarinetist Louis Sclavis on Chine (Ida, 1987) and Acoustic Quartet (ECM, 1994). The violinist and drummer François Merville appeared on Sclavis' Dans la Nuit (ECM, 2000). Pianist Antonin Rayon ...

Album Review

Colosseum: Colosseum Live

Read "Colosseum Live" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
August 10, 2016

A remarkable feature of Colosseum Live was the inclusion of one of the more unusual numbers in the band's repertoire, namely Michael Gibbs's outstanding composition “Tanglewood '63." This was a brave piece for a six piece jazz rock band to tackle since the original version (aside from a version recorded by Gary Burton's quartet in 1982) was made by Gibbs for his second big band album for Deram in 1971. But Gibbs plus Colosseum members Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith and ...

Album Review

Yuhan Su: A Room of One's Own

Read "A Room of One's Own" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
August 10, 2016

Continuity and progress are the watchwords for A Room of One's Own (Inner Circle Music, 2015), Yuhan Su's follow-up to Flying Alone (Inner Circle Music, 2013), her impressive debut for Greg Osby's label. New York-based Taiwanese vibraphonist Su's debut announced a melodic composer of nuance and sensitivity and a soloist of some style. A Room of One's Own bears all the same hallmarks -well-defined tunes, elegant, tightly woven compositional frameworks and fine individual showings. Yet here, Su is working with ...

Album Review

Andreas Willers / Urs Leimgruber: Pale White Shout

Read "Pale White Shout" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 10, 2016

Guitarist Andreas Willers (Germany) and saxophonist Urs Leimgruber (Switzerland) are among Europe's most prominent improvisers and free-thinkers. On this outing their experimental metrics are quite rangy and focused, offering the antithesis to a madcap free-form blowing session. The duo alternates between controlled thematic buildups and subdued encounters with polytonal dialogues along with certain parts that elicit notions of exotic birds communicating in a tropical rain forest. Add some bizarre tirades and coiled flurries --abetted by Willers' wily electric guitar effects ...

Album Review

Régis Huby 4tet: Equal Crossing

Read "Equal Crossing" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
August 10, 2016

French violinist Régis Huby's solo projects are quite rare. His previous solo album, Simple Sound was released nine years ago (Le Chant Du Monde, 2007), nine years after his debut album, Le Sentiment Des Brutes (Transes Européennes, 1998). Still, Huby is one of the busiest and most original musicians on the French scene, one who refuses to follow genre or style boundaries, a producer and the head of the Abalone Production label. He recorded with several European musicians, among them ...