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.

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff Quartet: Leaving Everything Behind

Read "Leaving Everything Behind" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
July 5, 2016

Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff has restlessly explored a new theme with each new album, with a shifting group of musicians. The central event behind the album title Leaving Everything Behind was her departure from the Soviet Union in 1991. She and her husband came to the United States to start a new life, having literally left everything behind--even their children, left indefinitely with Eckemoff's parents until the couple could get established. To explore this theme she returned to older original material, ...

Album Review

Pedrito Martinez Group: Habana Dreams

Read "Habana Dreams" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
July 5, 2016

The African drums and rhythms that originated in Yorubaland, have been an integral part of the Santeria religion in Cuba, and a profound influence on the rumbero percussionists on the island. Pedrito Martinez is a premier conga master who hails from the Cayo Hueso barrio in La Habana, and is also an akpwon (lead singer) and santero priest, guiding the ceremonious drumming and invocations of the spirits. Habana Dreams was recorded in the historic Areíto/EGREM studios in the city, and ...

Live Review

McCoy Tyner Tribute at SFJAZZ

by Harry S. Pariser
July 4, 2016

McCoy Tyner Tribute Symphony Hall SFJAZZ San Francisco, CA June 19, 2016 At 8:05 PM on a Sunday evening, the lights dimmed and a master of the jazz piano took the stage at Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. A standing ovation greeted the 77-year-old who, after seating himself at the 88s, launched into a ten-minute solo which conjured up pyramids of sound, brought up wave after wave of percussive sound, raising ...

Album Review

Bob Mintzer: All L.A. Band

Read "All L.A. Band" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 4, 2016

Even though saxophonist Bob Mintzer's name rests alone atop the marquee, the All L.A. Band is actually a mutual collaboration with acclaimed drummer Peter Erskine, one of Mintzer's colleagues in the Jazz Studies department at the University of Southern California. Besides occupying the drum chair, Erskine produced the album, while Mintzer composed and arranged its ten handsome themes. Among the musical styles closest to Mintzer's heart are Afro-Cuban and funk, and there is plenty of both on ...

219

Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff Quartet: Leaving Everything Behind

Read "Leaving Everything Behind" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
July 4, 2016

With all of the worldwide hue and cry concerning immigration, precious little is said about the lives of immigrants themselves, the sacrifices they've made and the risks they've taken in order to start their lives anew; free of whatever hardships and oppression they endured in their native country. In the news, entire lives are boiled down to reports of another capsized boat in the Mediterranean, or another truckload of hopeful souls stopped at the border. Even those who immigrate legally ...

Album Review

Amir Seibert: Alpha Centauri

Read "Alpha Centauri" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
July 4, 2016

This music expedition to the closest star system to our sun comes by way of Tel Aviv composer Amir Seibert in Alpha Centauri. It's a continuation of 2014's The Interstellar Suite EP featuring a galaxy expanding theme with a striking arrangement of strings and voice. This time around the five track EP focuses on an absorbing set with Seibert playing a variety of keys from Rhodes to toy piano, voices, and power rhythms from renown Kneebody drummer ...

Album Review

Alan Ferber: Roots & Transitions

Read "Roots & Transitions" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
July 4, 2016

The first thing that ought to be said about trombonist/composer/bandleader Alan Ferber's latest recording, Roots & Transitions, for his long-standing nonet is that the music holds up very well regardless of whether one knows the circumstances that surrounded its creation. However, this release marks an important milestone in Ferber's life--the birth of his first child in 2013. Now, Ferber is not the first husband to find his entire attitude toward life completely change with the arrival of a ...

Film Review

Eberhard Weber: The Jubilee Concert

by Mark Sullivan
July 4, 2016

Eberhard Weber Eberhard Weber: The Jubilee Concert Naxos 2015 German bassist Eberhard Weber's 75th birthday celebration has already been documented in audio form on Hommage à Eberhard Weber (ECM, 2015). This video document more fully captures the celebratory tone of the event, includes a bit of bonus material, and perhaps most importantly, presents Pat Metheny's composition “Hommage" as the multi-media event it was created to be. Weber was both the honoree ...

Album Review

Betty Davis: Columbia Years 1968-1969

Read "Columbia Years 1968-1969" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
July 4, 2016

The vaults of major labels such as Columbia and many others hold many secret and yet to be revealed gems. First of all, check out singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's archival Bootleg output series or trumpet legend Miles Davis archival box set reissues. This isn't just scraping the bottom of a barrel and coming out with alternate takes or rehearsals of songs or music with dubious audio quality, but an avalanche of unbelievable amount of great music, much to the joy of ...

Live Review

TD Ottawa Jazz Festival 2016

by John Kelman
July 3, 2016

TD Ottawa Jazz Festival Ottawa, Canada June 22 -July 3, 2016 It's hard to believe, with seasons that move quickly from spring into summer, that it was time, once again, for the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival. Now in its 36th year, the festival has grown from a weekend event into a full-blown, 12-day festival with a broad cross-section of artists from around the world. The past few years have seen further growth, with the introduction of ...