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

Mariza: Mundo

Read "Mundo" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
July 30, 2016

Even if you don't understand a word of Portuguese, the enormity of Mariza's gift is immediately and intoxicatingly evident upon first hearing. Armed with an alluring voice and arresting charismatic presence, Mariza is one of the great exponents of the Portuguese fado music and much more than that. Arriving several years after her strictly traditional take on fado with Fado Tradicional (EMI Music Portugal, 2010), Mariza's Mundo is a place where music is a pure expression of emotion, but far ...

Album Review

David Cross Band: Sign of the Crow

Read "Sign of the Crow" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
July 30, 2016

The David Cross Band lets you know you're in for something picturesque right away with Sign of the Crow. The title suggests something portentous while the cover is pure Stephen King. It may suggest a quiet and gloomy listen, but if you know the violinist from his time in early-'70s King Crimson or the genre-spanning collaborations he's done since, you know he's just as capable of cranking it up to the rafters. On this album volume and intensity are the ...

Album Review

The Funky Knuckles: New Birth

Read "New Birth" reviewed by Mike Jacobs

by Mike Jacobs
July 30, 2016

With the recent ascendance and mass embrace of Snarky Puppy, there may be a tendency by some to superficially assess The Funky Knuckles as SP redux. This would be a mistake. Yes, they both have a similar instrumental footprint and stylistic aesthetic, hail from the same Dallas scene and are even label mates, but it might be akin to dissing Albert Collins because there's BB King. The initial resemblance is there, but both have their own unique game faces. Plus, ...

Album Review

Jeff Denson Quartet: Concentric Circles

Read "Concentric Circles" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
July 30, 2016

The immediate standout feature of Jeff Denson's group is that he uses a bassoon as the reed instrument. That gives an interesting twist to the quartet's sound. Denson's compositions are a free-ranging mix of fast-paced progressive jazz and pretty ballads. The nimble, woody tone of Paul Hanson's bassoon gives an intellectual feel to the shifting tempos of pieces like “City Life" and “Look Before You Leap" that suggests the quirky music of old Canterbury Sound jazz-rock bands like ...

From the Inside Out

Artistry in Rhythm: Afro-Cuban Epiphany to Haitian Voodoo

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 29, 2016

Brian Andres & the Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel This Could Be That Self-Produced 2016 This Could Be That celebrates the first decade of Brian Andres & his Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel, which came together in 2007 in and around the San Francisco Bay Area's Latin jazz hothouse. Music is sort of the Andres' family business: Brian's father Mike, a professional woodwind player from the Cincinnati area (who appears on this set), introduced his ...

Album Review

Winston Byrd: Once Upon a Time Right Now

Read "Once Upon a Time Right Now" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
July 29, 2016

"Once Upon A Time" usually prefaces a fairy tale, Aesopian fable, or, a Hollywood action movie. While no tale of witches, Princess Brides, or cigar-chomping cowboys, this recording from trumpeter Winston Byrd and his magnificent more-than-seven is an overall right now hoot. An aural feast where Byrd is Exec Chef, the production delivers superbly-performed ass-kicking funk, cognac-smooth contemporary, and white-hot straight-ahead jazz for take-out. The sheer diversity of the material, all performed with high energy and outstanding musicianship, ...

Album Review

Dan Costa: Suite Três Rios

Read "Suite Três Rios" reviewed by Paul Naser

by Paul Naser
July 29, 2016

The rich musical history of Brazilian music parallels the development of jazz in the United States' in many ways. At the same time, the two informed and influenced each other as they matured. Brazilian legends like Antonio Carlos Jobim and Dori Caymmi are remembered for their influence on the development of Bossa Nova, and Jobim, like few composers of popular music in the 20th century, continues to be revered for his many contributions and innovations. All this history ...

Album Review

Peter Brötzmann/Full Blast: Risc

by Mark Corroto
July 29, 2016

The Full Blast trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, Marino Pliakas, and Michael Wertmüller get an injection of fervency with the electronics of Gerd Rische. As if they needed any more ferocity. Risc is the fifth official release by the trio, and follows the ambitious Sketches And Ballads (Trost, 2011). Like Brötzmann's Last Exit recordings of the 1980s, Full Blast is a return to an electric interface between the great man and his cohorts. Here, the electric bass of ...

Album Review

Mats Eilertsen: Rubicon

by John Kelman
July 29, 2016

It's no news to learn that we're the confluence of our many experiences: life, love, music....everything that we are comes from where we've been, what we've done, what we've experienced. That said, it doesn't mean that we can't move in completely new directions or try something completely foreign to us. Still, it's almost impossible to do anything--even things that are intentionally new and different--without there being some inescapable links to our past. With Mats Eilertsen's evocative Rubicon, the double bassist ...

Album Review

Igor Osypov Quartet: Dream Delivery

Read "Dream Delivery" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
July 28, 2016

Igor Osypov's debut album, I (Unit Records, 2015), was quite promising in many ways. Yet, it was a snapshot of an artist still in the formative stages of the craft. Thus, the content of the Berlin-based plectrist's Dream Delivery came as a pleasant shock. Seemingly, within the past year, Osypov has taken prodigious strides towards staking out a unique personal sound. Wielding a semi-hollow body electric, Osypov defaults to a clean tone and a notably percussive attack while mixing in ...