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

Victor Gould: Clockwork

Read "Clockwork" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 13, 2016

There are lots of moving parts that make clocks tick. Each has its own function, harmoniously aligned with the others, and every single one helps to sustain the very concepts of time and flow. The analogy can clearly be drawn from these mechanisms behind timepieces to jazz in general, but it's rarely as obvious to the ears as it is on this album in particular. Pianist Victor Gould's debut utilizes a variety of large gears, pinions, and ...

Album Review

Denny Zeitlin: Early Wayne: Explorations of Classic Wayne Shorter Compositions

Read "Early Wayne: Explorations of Classic Wayne Shorter Compositions" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 13, 2016

Pianist Denny Zeitlin's career in music started just a bit after saxophonist Wayne Shorter showed up on the scene. Shorter's debut album, Introducing Wayne Shorter (Vee Jay Records) arrived in 1959. Zeiltin's introduction to the jazz listening public came in 1963, in a sideman stint on flutist Jeremy Steig's Flute Fever (Columbia Records). A year later, in 1964, Shorter signed with Blue Note Records and began releasing what would become a series of classic albums for the label; and Zeitlin ...

Album Review

The Claudia Quintet: Super Petite

Read "Super Petite" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
July 13, 2016

If there's one thing you can pin down about the Claudia Quintet, it's their inability to be pinned down. Starting off this release with “Nightbreak" is like dropping into a soundtrack to some sleepy '50s-style arty cartoon, with an acoustic retro tone that comes from the combination of vibraphone and clarinet. The piece isn't catchy and barely even feels melodic, but simply meanders like a lazy insect wafting back and forth across the garden on a slow summer afternoon. At ...

Album Review

Bobby Bradford/Hafez Modirzadeh/Mark Dresser/Alex Cline: Live At The Open Gate

Read "Live At The Open Gate" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 13, 2016

Live At The Open Gate by the quartet of Bobby Bradford, Hafez Modirzadeh, Mark Dresser, and Alex Cline shouts “West Coast" from the drop of the stylus on this, a limited edition (of 500) LP. It's not because the session is from Center for the Arts in Los Angeles 2013, it's because the inspiration here emanates from the West Coast revolution of Ornette Coleman. Before New York The Five Spot residency, Ornette's sea change in jazz began in ...

Extended Analysis

Tony Williams: Life Time

by Matthew Aquiline
July 12, 2016

By now, it's an irrefutable fact that drummer Tony Williams was the youngest preeminent figure within the avant-garde movement of the mid-'60s. Every jazz fan seems to know the events that led to his international fame: after intriguing trumpeter Miles Davis with his cutting-edge approach to drumming, he was hired and added to the groundbreaking “Second Great Quintet" at the ripe age of 17. During this significant stint, Williams altered the trajectory of Davis' music, solidified himself as a drum ...

Album Review

Leon Foster Thomas: Metamorphosis

Read "Metamorphosis" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
July 12, 2016

Throughout the history of jazz, what once seemed to be oddball instruments have inexorably become part of accepted sonic landscape, while others have fallen into disuse. It's hard to believe that the vibraphone, flute, and violin were once seen as un-swinging, non-jazz instruments, while the banjo and tuba were considered essential linchpins of the jazz sound. Some instruments--both the clarinet and the tuba leap to mind--have gone fully 180 degrees from hip to obsolete and back to hip again. Others ...

Album Review

Mats Gustafsson: MG50 Peace & Fire

Read "MG50 Peace & Fire" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 12, 2016

Mats Gustafsson at fifty. Name another artist who has had this significant and widespread effect on jazz, noise, free improvisation, alternative rock, electronica, and free jazz. Besides John Zorn, that pool is quite shallow. Gustafsson's music seems to attract innovative players into imaginative situations. If you are a fan, this 50th birthday celebration recorded in October, 2014 at Porgy and Bess, Vienna is your personal slice of cake. If you know nothing about Gustafsson's music, this is a great introduction ...

Album Review

Lorens Chuno: Naija Rhythm Affair, NYC

Read "Naija Rhythm Affair, NYC" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
July 12, 2016

Having relocated to America from Nigeria in 2000 to pursue advanced studies in mathematics, vocalist Lorens Chuno was repeatedly drawn back into the music of his homeland, and found a novel method of fusing it with American jazz. Chuno, now an established university math professor, delved into his artistic persona in 2008, releasing “Highlife, Soul, and Ecstasy" that year, and “My House" in 2012. Naija Rhythm Affair, NYC, is a sophisticated blend of original compositions set in a progressive cosmopolitan ...

What is Jazz?

Montreux Jazz Workshops: A Fine, Free Forum

by Phillip Woolever
July 12, 2016

One of the most rewarding experiences at the Montreux Jazz Festival is attending one of the many free workshops conducted by a wide range of jazz and production masters. Many showcases are led by musicians with shows scheduled on or near those afternoons, so they are in high performance mode. Participants are often top ticket attractions, many of them headlining sold-out shows. The location at Petite Palais is just a few hundred footsteps along the beautiful Geneva lakeside ...

Album Review

Marc Ribot: Live In Tokyo

Read "Live In Tokyo" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 12, 2016

Art be damned, let's dance. If you are of a certain age, let's say the baby boomer generation, then the vintage sounds of Philadelphia soul are imprinted on your brain. The 1970's began with The O'Jays “Back Stabbers," which you might have heard on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, a show that originated in Philly, or perhaps you've ridden “The Love Train" or danced to “Me And Mrs. Jones" at a wedding. Those tunes were stamped in your soul, and at ...