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.

Live Review

2016 Montreal Jazz Festival: June 29 - July 1, 2016

by Mark Sullivan
July 11, 2016

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal Montréal, Canada June 29-July 9, 2016 When they say the Montreal Jazz Festival is the biggest in the world, they're not kidding. Several city blocks full of concert venues, outdoor stages, and vendors. There are six seated concert venues on the grounds, and another six just offsite (literally down the block)--so many that I didn't get inside all of them in three nights of concerts. There's simply no way that ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Charles Chace

by AAJ Staff
July 11, 2016

About Charles Chace: I'm a contemporary artist and musician from Massachusetts. I've shown my art in galleries in New York City, Miami and North Carolina. My recent works consist of a multimedia installation that included paper collage, video, and manipulatable noise machines. My most recent visual work includes a series of portrait paintings that Dave Bazan used for record covers. I've also recorded tape music for over ten years. That endeavor has evolved into my current improvised recording ...

Live Review

Matt Schofield at Nectar's

by Doug Collette
July 11, 2016

Matt Schofield Nectar's Burlington, Vermont July 5, 2016 In a generous two-set performance that lasted til the midnight hour at Nectar's in Burlington, Matt Schofield made a case for himself as one of the finest bluesmen of his generation. Gary Clark Jr. and Derek Trucks may be more versatile, but the simplicity and passion Schofield brings to his music reminds of no one so much as the archetypal guitar hero himself, Eric Clapton.

Album Review

Harry Beckett: Still Happy

Read "Still Happy" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 11, 2016

Barbados-born Harry Beckett was known across the jazz world, respected as a major player on the UK scene for many years, winning the Melody Maker Trumpeter of the Year award in 1972 and recording or performing with a host of musicians including Louis Moholo, John Dankworth and John Surman. Like many jazz players he was in demand as a session player across genres--he's on Jack Bruce's magnificent Songs For A Tailor (Polydor, 1969), as well as albums by The Faces, ...

Album Review

Daniel Meron: Sky Begins

Read "Sky Begins" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
July 11, 2016

Though pianist / composer Daniel Meron gets top billing on Sky Begins, it's vocalist Maia Karo who steals the show here. Yes, Sky Begins is a vocal jazz album. But it's a quite striking one. Meron's tunes are by no means typical jazz tunes, and Karo isn't a typical jazz singer. Though the album is all-acoustic (save for some subtle electronic effects on a few of the tunes), much of it has a distinctly caffeinated, almost rockish energy. Meron's compositions ...

Album Review

Tori Freestone Trio: El Barranco

Read "El Barranco" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
July 11, 2016

El Barranco is the Tori Freestone Trio's follow-up to their 2014 debut album In The Chop House, released once again on the ever-burgeoning Whirlwind Recordings label. The chordless sound of the trio evinces a warmth which inevitably invites comparisons with the chief progenitor of this configuration, Sonny Rollins and his 1957 album Way Out West, but Freestone doesn't share Rollins's cutting edge, so perhaps a more accurate comparison might be Albert Ayler whose tenor meanderings on his seminal ...

Album Review

Michael Olivera Group: Ashé

by James Nadal
July 11, 2016

While the rest of the world might not have noticed, there has been a continuous cultural exchange between Cuba and Spain for some time now. Due in fact to the historical connection, and that language is no problem, many Cuban musicians have found a haven in Spain to expand upon their talents in the burgeoning jazz scene. Drummer Michael Olivera was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, and after extensive studies and performance opportunities, relocated to Spain, where he is a ...

Album Review

Brian Charette: Once & Future

Read "Once & Future" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 10, 2016

Nobody who wields an instrument of any sort can truly escape the gravitational pull of history. There are many who try to fight it, but better to embrace what came before, acknowledge where a sound or concept originates, and use that knowledge as both a port of arrival and a point of departure. There are no severed ties between past, present, and future; there are only visible and obscured links. Organist Brian Charette's fourth album on the ...

Jazz Near Me

The Merion Inn: A Jazz Gem in Cape May, New Jersey

by Budd Kopman
July 10, 2016

Cape May, New Jersey is one of the oldest resort towns in the United States. Dating back to the Victorian Era, it has, over the past few decades hosted jazz festivals in April and November. The Merion Inn, on Decatur Street, is one of the oldest bar/restaurants in Cape May. It is a place for adults who value a good (real) martini, good food and good vibes created by top-notch jazz pianists playing daily from 5 PM, and ...

Album Review

Beledo: Dreamland Mechanism

Read "Dreamland Mechanism" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
July 10, 2016

Hailing from Montevideo, Uruguay but now resident in New York City, prodigiously talented multi-instrumentalist Beledo signed to MoonJune Records in 2013. The result of this signing is a stunningly good album sporting some of jazz fusion's most talented exponents including the redoubtable British drummer Gary Husband and in-demand NYC bassist Lincoln Goines. Beledo won his spurs playing guitar, his main instrument, in Uruguay rock and blues supergroup Dias de Blues and other bands including his own outfit The Avengers and ...