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

Cuong Vu Trio With Pat Metheny: Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny

Read "Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 4, 2016

One of the most distinctive jazz sounds to have appeared this millennium has been shaped by Cuong Vu. Beginning with his It's Mostly Residual (ArtistShare, 2005) through Vu-Tet (ArtistShare, 2007) and into Leaps of Faith, (Origin Records 2011), the modernistic and often plugged-in trumpeter has crafted an assault of sound: a thick, sludgy, glow-in-the-dark, pugnaciously percussive music that reaches out of the speakers and grabs you by the front of the shirt. Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Meditations

Read "Meditations" reviewed by Sacha O'Grady

by Sacha O'Grady
June 4, 2016

One man's meditation can be a migraine to another. By the early '60's, John Coltrane found himself moving ever further away from traditional forms of musical expression, and into what could be described as uncharted territory, even for jazz. So much so that the saxophonist's influence and ability to break down barriers not only within his own relatively elite circle extended itself into the ever growing rock fraternity, to the extent that bands such as The Byrds and Santana cited ...

Live Review

The Zombies at NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
June 4, 2016

The Zombies with special guests Felix Cavaliere's Rascals NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY May 22, 2016 The Zombies are revered for their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle (Date Records/CBS Records). The platter has been hailed as one of the greatest pop and psychedelic albums of all time. The album has made Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Superstar musicians Robert Plant, Dave Grohl and Paul Weller, among others, have ...

Live Review

Flow Tribe at the Gramercy Theatre

by Mike Perciaccante
June 4, 2016

Flow Tribe Gramercy Theatre New York, NY May 20, 2016 Funk is a rhythmic, danceable genre of music that mixes soul, jazz, and R&B. The music features a strong and rhythmic bass and drum backbeat. Interestingly this backbeat and rhythm which is usually in the background is moved to the foreground in the funk genre. Most funks songs have an extended single chord that the bass and drums help to drag out. ...

Album Review

Jeff Parker: The New Breed

Read "The New Breed" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 4, 2016

There are certain artists that you know you can always count on. Whenever they are involved in something, at least it is going to be interesting and often it will be great. Guitarist Jeff Parker is one of those artists. It has been an undivided pleasure following Parker through his many constellations, whether it is Isotope 217, Tricolor, Chicago Underground, Brian Blade Fellowship, Makaya McCraven or Tortoise, just to name a few. However, Parker has also carved ...

Album Review

Omri Ziegele Noisy Minority featuring Ray Anderson: Wrong is Right

Read "Wrong is Right" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 4, 2016

The Swiss trio Noisy Minority led by alto saxophonist-poet Omri Ziegele mocks the notion that you can make a clear-cut line between what is right and wrong in jazz or any improvised music. Their aesthetic goes deeper than the often-repeated inverse by pianist Kenny Barron: “if you don't make mistakes, you don't play jazz." Instead, Noisy Minority adopts Italian philosopher Alessandro Bertinetto argument that jazz is not an aesthetic of imperfection but a “perfection of the moment." These ...

Album Review

Lars Bech Pilgaards Slowburn: Som før

Read "Som før" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 4, 2016

Danish guitarist Lars Bech Pilgaard has been involved in a number of underground projects and has his own record label, Mom Eat Dad Records. Recently, he has moved in an exciting new direction where influences from African music, jazz and experimental rock are combined. This original sound was featured prominently on his new project, Klimaforandringer (Climate Change), and he continues to add new layers to this sound on the album Som før (As before). This time, the ...

Live Review

John Daversa Big Band at The Baked Potato

by Paul Naser
June 3, 2016

John Daversa Big Band The Baked Potato Los Angeles, CA May 29, 2016 It's a rarity to find a modern big band dedicated to playing original music in Los Angeles; home to some of the world's most talented musicians and entertainers, pretty much every style of music imaginable is represented here, but often a big band show celebrates music of the past more than it looks to the future. John Daversa's big band does the ...

Multiple Reviews

Albert We Hardly Knew Ye

by Mark Corroto
June 3, 2016

The Chinese mystic philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “the flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long." Although he never heard the music of Albert Ayler, we're sure that he would agree the saxophonist's fire music was luminescent. Ayler's career was indeed quite brief, recording only for a period of eight years until his untimely dead at age 34, in 1970. The description of the flame is also apropos, as Ayler was quoted as saying, “Trane was ...

Album Review

Jack DeJohnette: Return

Read "Return" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 3, 2016

The only thing that Jack DeJohnette seems to have forgotten in his maturing years, is that, by the law of nature, he is supposed to be slowing down. Instead, as the composer/multi-instrumentalist heads toward his mid-seventies, he is as productive as he has ever been in his long, celebrated career. His releases over the past twelve months, include In Movement (ECM, 2016), a probing trio collection with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and bassist/electronic artist Matthew Garrison, the raucous quintet outing Made ...