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

Brian Bromberg: Brian Bromberg

Read "Brian Bromberg" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 28, 2016

Talk about backstory! There are multiple backstories going on with bass virtuoso Brian Bromberg's Full Circle. The first actually involves Bromberg's back. Full Circle marks Bromberg's return to recording and full-on playing since suffering a debilitating spinal injury several years ago. Always a chops-meister, Bromberg truly projects the sheer joy of music-making throughout. Cutting loose seems like a great thing to do, as Bromberg could barely hold his instruments, let alone play them, even after months of physical therapy and ...

Live Review

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2016, Part 2

by Mike Chamberlain
May 27, 2016

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Various Venues Victoriaville, Quebec May 21-22, 2016 Part 1 | Part 2 Following a memorable--in a good way--first two days of FIMAV, Saturday's program promised more highlights, anchored by three consecutive sets of musicians performing John Zorn's Bagatelles at the festival's largest venue, Colisee A, the town's hockey arena set up as a concert venue. The day, however, started with a ...

Album Review

Tweed Funk: Come Together

Read "Come Together" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
May 27, 2016

The world is about to tune into what has been Milwaukee's best kept secret. Tweed Funk is a high-powered, horn driven ensemble that has been winner of Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) awards since their 2010 formation. Come Together is their fourth release on the Tweed Tone label, and is a seamless combination of top tier musicians fronted by an energetic vocalist. Joseph “Smokey" Holman is the kind of soul singer all bands are looking for, and only ...

Album Review

Hans Olding & Sigurdur Flosason: Projeto Brasil!

Read "Projeto Brasil!" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
May 27, 2016

Projeto Brasil!, from saxophonist/flutist Sigurdur Flosason and guitarist Hans Olding, when compared to the authentic and stunningly beautiful Porto da Madama, seems rather tame. But, one cannot fault a project for not being what it cannot be, and never tried to be. What Flosason and Olding have created is a tribute to the music of Brazil which put it on the map -that from the '60s and '70s. The songs of the giants of that era, Antônio Carlos ...

Album Review

Fred Frith / Darren Johnston: Everybody's Somebody's Nobody

Read "Everybody's Somebody's Nobody" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
May 27, 2016

Here's a West Coast entrant to the slim body of guitar/trumpet duets from iconoclastic strummer Fred Frith and trumpeter Darren Johnston. It collects 11 short cuts from two studio sessions into a three-quarter hour program. They're not averse to co-opting rhythms (Frith) or melodic figures (Johnston), meaning that what we have here can be termed the accessible avant-garde. Each jointly crafted extravaganza explores a different mood. They ring the changes both between numbers but also within them, especially in some ...

Album Review

Eduardo Elia: Solo

by Dan McClenaghan
May 27, 2016

Argentinian pianist Eduardo Elia, based now in his homeland, attended Berkelee College of Music in Boston. He has a handful of CD releases as a leader, and beyond that, information on the artist is hard to find. His internet profile is sketchy. So the review is all about the music, and maybe that's how it should be... Solo is Elia's sit down at the piano alone offering, in which he mines mostly 1960s jazz tunes, with ...

Live Review

Snarky Puppy at the Electric Factory

by Asher Wolf
May 26, 2016

Snarky Puppy The Electric Factory Live From the Lot Festival Philadelphia, PA May 21st, 2016 As I sit in this Philadelphia train station trying to decipher the ambient jazz faintly trickling from the overhead speakers I am reminded of why we need more bands like Snarky Puppy, who just took The Electric Factory by storm. Technology now allows music to pervade every nook and cranny of the public ...

Album Review

Naomi Moon Siegel: Shoebox View

Read "Shoebox View" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
May 26, 2016

Seattle-based composer/trombonist Naomi Moon Siegel, is a member of Wayne Horvitz's Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble and has performed with fellow trombonists Julian Priester and Wycliffe Gordon, among others, while maintaining a steady presence in the Northwest music scene. Not so coincidentally, Horvitz' appearance on five of the ten tracks recalls some of the pianist's pastoral tone on Some Places Are Forever Afternoon (Songlines Recordings, 2015).Produced on Siegel's own Break Open Records label, the original compositions on Shoebox ...

Album Review

Doug Mosher / John Estes: Southern Lights

Read "Southern Lights" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
May 26, 2016

It is almost certain that many readers of these pages have at one time or another been faced with a recording that you just did not like or could not get into. Now, life is short, and there is no dishonor in moving on to other things. However, perhaps this work was recommended or it had garnered good reviews by people whose knowledge and/or taste you have come to respect. If that is the case, you might try ...

Album Review

Thomas Borgmann Trio: One For Cisco

Read "One For Cisco" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
May 26, 2016

This limited edition LP documents a collectively birthed exploration spread across the two sides by the visiting German pair of reedman Thomas Borgmann and long time associate drummer Willi Kellers, who team up with NYC bassist Max Johnson. The concert took place as part of the New York Tenor Saxophone Festival at Ibeam in 2015 organized by Cisco Bradley of Jazz Right Now fame, hence the title. The trio constitutes a favored format for Borgmann. He's helmed two killer outfits ...