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

Gavin Templeton: Ballast

by Dave Wayne
June 6, 2016

A native of Reno, Nevada, alto saxophonist Gavin Templeton is emerging as one of the leading voices of Los Angeles' suddenly burgeoning modern jazz scene. If the music on Ballast, his fourth album as a leader, is any indication, Templeton might just be on his way to becoming one of the leading voices in modern jazz, period. A product of the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied under Charlie Haden, Joe LaBarbera, Swapan Chaudhuri, and Vinny Golia, Templeton ...

Album Review

Conjunto Sabrosura: Hecho En Puerto Rico

Read "Hecho En Puerto Rico" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
June 6, 2016

Salsa music is intended for dancing. Long before festivals and concerts became the norm, this music was spawned in nightclubs where people went to dance. The virtuosity of the musicians was taken for granted, and they were expected to deliver an established set of no-nonsense entertainment for the paying customers. Conjunto Sabrosura is an intense salsa orchestra that follows that lineage, and Hecho En Puerto Rico establishes them as a force to be reckoned with. Based out of ...

Album Review

Monica Behan: Right Where I Need to Be

Read "Right Where I Need to Be" reviewed by Jim Olin

by Jim Olin
June 6, 2016

Drawing upon the wistful beauty of Joni Mitchell and the confessional ache of Carole King, Monica Behan's voice commands immediate attention. There is an ethereal quality to her singing that illuminates track after track on her new album Right Where I Need to Be. No matter what genre she decides to explore, from vocal jazz to acoustic pop, Behan's vocals defy gravity and lift off into the heavens. On the opening tune, “Time to Fly," it is Behan's ...

Live Review

Beale Street Music Festival 2016

by C. Michael Bailey
June 5, 2016

Beale Street Music Festival Memphis in May International Festival Tom Lee Park Memphis, TN April 29-May 1, 2016 “The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of The Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The Peabody is the Paris Ritz, the Cairo Shepheard, the London Savoy of this section. If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby... ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the ...

Album Review

Roberta Piket: One For Marian: Celebrating Marian McPartland

Read "One For Marian: Celebrating Marian McPartland" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 5, 2016

A young, unrecorded artist is asked to share her talents, sitting in a chair that had been warmed by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Brad Mehldau, Mary Lou Williams, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea and Dizzy Gillespie to name just a few of the legends who graced Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz series. It says a great deal about Roberta Piket, that McPartland would welcome her into the fold of this company and now Piket pays tribute to her host with One For ...

Film Review

Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped

by Doug Collette
June 5, 2016

Rolling Stones Totally Stripped Eagle Vision 2016 Eagle Rock's release of the Rolling Stones Totally Stripped is not another entry From the Vault but it may as well be because it's just as compelling and revelatory, if not more so, than Live at the Tokyo Dome 1990 (Eagle Vision,2015) or Hampton Coliseum Live in 1981) (Eagle Vision, 2014). The DVD/CD package in itself is a broad expansion of the content in the original titles as ...

Album Review

Larry Coryell: Spaces

by Sacha O'Grady
June 5, 2016

The origin of Spaces can be traced back to when Larry Coryell saw John McLaughlin performing at Count Basie's nightclub with the Tony Williams Lifetime ensemble. Apparently he was so impressed with what he heard, that he invited McLaughlin to join him in the studio and record what would turn out to be arguably one of the very first jazz-rock/jazz-fusion records made at that moment in time. Not that they would have known it. But as Bob Dylan sang, the ...

Album Review

Kate Williams: Four Plus Three

Read "Four Plus Three" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 5, 2016

Pianist Kate Williams seems to be fond of septets: Four Plus Three is her third septet album after Made Up (kwjazz, 2011) and Atlas & Vulcana (kwjazz, 2014). Of course, there are other albums in her discography, including the excellent Smoke & Mirrors duo recording with saxophonist Bobby Wellins (kwjazz, 2012), but the seven-piece ensemble seems to suit the breadth of her ambition. This particular combo--piano, drums and strings, brings a new set of musical possibilities to Williams' originals and ...

Album Review

Cuong Vu/Pat Metheny: Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny

Read "Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 5, 2016

Vietnamese trumpeter Cuong Vu has been a frequent Pat Metheny collaborator dating back to the guitarist's Speaking Of Now (Warner Bros., 2002). It has taken well over a decade for Vu to flip the table, putting Metheny in a role he is seldom seen in, that of a sideman. In fact, across almost fifty albums, the guitarist's non-leader entries could be counted on one hand. It speaks volumes about Metheny's regard for Vu and the results on Cuong Vu Trio ...

Book Review

Bob Dylan: A Year and a Day

by Nenad Georgievski
June 4, 2016

Bob Dylan: A Year and a Day Daniel Kramer 288 Pages ISBN: 978-3-8365-4760-4 Taschen 2016 There is an intangible but powerful relationship between music and photography that can't be explained adequately with words. Music has often sought some form of association with the world of visual arts as often photographs can tell a story more articulately and can convey more meaning. Or they can convey more mystery. It is as if the grains ...