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.

Take Five With...

Take Five with Alex Gershman of Sasha’s Bloc

by AAJ Staff
June 25, 2016

About Alex Gershman An intriguing ensemble founded in 2012, Sasha's Bloc is an amalgam of varied artists, nationalities and experiences, all fueled by bassist and songwriter Alex Gershman. This collective delivers a sound that is consistently big, boisterous, full of spirit and rich in everything that makes jazz linger as an American phenomenon. The group has played multiple sold out concerts at key jazz clubs in Los Angeles, including Catalina Bar and Grill, Vibrato, Vitello's, and a sold ...

Live Review

Joe Walsh and Bad Company: One Hell Of A Night Tour

by Mike Perciaccante
June 25, 2016

Joe Walsh and Bad Company Nikon at Jones Beach Theater One Hell Of A Night Tour Wantagh, NY June 14, 2016 On this pleasant mid-June Evening it was “Classic Rock Hitmakers Night" at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater. Joe Walsh and Bad Company produced a relentless hit-after-hit onslaught that had the mostly middle-aged crowd thrilled beyond its wildest dreams. Walsh led the evening off. Backed by a large band which included ...

Live From Philadelphia

Tord Gustavsen with Simin Tander and Jarle Vespestad at Fringe Arts

by Geno Thackara
June 24, 2016

Tord Gustavsen (with Simin Tander and Jarle Vespestad) Fringe Arts Philadelphia, PA June 20, 2016 The music of this trio project is “a mystical and spiritual journey," Tord Gustavsen declared early in the set during his first-ever appearance in Philadelphia, an endeavor about “finding the divine light within ourselves instead of looking somewhere outside." He's self-effacingly quiet and unassuming at the microphone, which is no surprise to anyone familiar with his less-is-more ...

Album Review

Kit Downes and Tom Challenger: Vyamanikal

Read "Vyamanikal" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 24, 2016

Five churches, five church organs and a saxophone or two: the instrumentation to be found on Vyamanikal, the British duo of Kit Downes and Tom Challenger's follow-up to Wedding Music (Loop Collective, 2013). Downes (ENEMY, Tricko, Troyka) and Challenger (Brass Mask, Ma, Dice Factory) recorded Vyamanikal during a 2015 residency at Aldeburgh Music. The venue was established by composer Benjamin Britten in the 1960s in a disused Victorian maltings in the Suffolk village of Snape and is now ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Quanta June: The Sacred Orchestral: Duke Ellington and Wynton Marsalis

by C. Michael Bailey
June 24, 2016

Music and the Christian Tradition are as intimately involved as making love. Since the beginning of an organized Christendom, music has been a part of the liturgy and celebration of what was to become the “Good News." Regardless of one's spiritual inclinations, this religious music looms large on the cultural horizon and cannot be ignored. While so-called “classical" music has provided many religious musical expressions, there have also been several notable jazz contributions to the form not the least of ...

Album Review

Colin Cannon: Intermission

Read "Intermission" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
June 24, 2016

Thank heavens Colin Cannon divided Intermission (Farewell) into three parts because there's so much going on in this recording that it'd almost impossible to review otherwise. Intermission (Farewell) is the young guitarist's fourth recording as a leader. The fact that he's been recording with the same core musicians (bassist Zak Croxall, drummer Tom Hartman, and keyboardist Manami Morita) since 2009 says something. The music on Intermission (Farewell) is so multi-faceted, so detailed and so complex, that its success would almost ...

Album Review

Twenty One 4tet: Live At Zaal 100

Read "Live At Zaal 100" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 24, 2016

The moniker Twenty One 4tet represents a summit of cosmopolitan international improvisers gathering in Amsterdam . On the face of it there's not a lot of connection between peripatetic American saxophonist John Dikeman's Ayler-inspired tirades and Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente's thoughtful chamber explorations, but the outcome suggests much more of a meeting of minds than might have been anticipated. The glue binding them together, in a program of four collective inventions excerpted from live performance, emanates from the experienced pairing ...

Album Review

Pauline Jean: Nwayo

by James Nadal
June 24, 2016

One cannot properly realize the music of vocalist Pauline Jean without delving into the history of Haiti, as they are intrinsically intertwined. She has the innate ability to seamlessly flow within her ancestral culture while very much being the modern artist living the creative life. Her sophomore release Nwayo--Haitian Kreyol for core or center--is an amalgam of pure jazz vocalization steeped in Caribbean rhythm and soul. By beginning with “Rev Pauline/Pauline's Dream" Jean cleverly lays out the concept ...

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Live Review

Miles Electric Band: Bitches Brew To Tutu At SFJAZZ

by Walter Atkins
June 23, 2016

Miles Electric Band SFJAZZ Center Bitches Brew To Tutu San Francisco, CA June 11, 2016 As part of the expansive 34th Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival, the cordial staff at SFJAZZ presented the outstanding Miles Electric Band in the spacious Miner Auditorium. Vincent Wilburn Jr., drummer and nephew of the acclaimed Miles Davis, lead the Miles Electric band in celebration of the music and spirit of “The Chief." The capacity crowd was ...

Jazz Near Me

Green Lady Lounge: A Jazz Club With a Point of View

by Larry Kopitnik
June 23, 2016

Stepping into the Green Lady Lounge feels like stepping back into the 1940s. Dim lighting, red walls, red drapes and faux-classic art lining the walls all build a classic ambiance. This must be what a jazz club in Kansas City used to feel like. That's all by design. It's owner John Scott's vision or, as he puts it, his point of view. “It's the club's responsibility to get the patrons in," Scott explains. “When I hear ...