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.

Live Review

The Julian Lage Trio at Signal Kitchen

by Doug Collette
May 16, 2016

The Julian Lage Trio Signal Kitchen Burlington, Vermont May 9, 2016 Burlington Vermont's Signal Kitchen offered the Julian Lage trio a more confined, but ostensibly more hip atmosphere than the venue of the guitarist's last visit to Vermont when he played the assembly hall of a church outside the Queen City. But the meeting of minds between a knowledgeable audience and an intelligent band was the same, the end result an exquisite concert experience, albeit ...

Profile

Billy Jenkins Turns Sixty

by Roger Farbey
May 16, 2016

On 5 July 2016 guitarist, composer, vocalist and philosopher Billy Jenkins hits the Big Six-O. It only seems five minutes ago that Jenkins played at the Purcell Room during 2010's London Jazz Festival, accompanied by the BBC Big Band to a suitably enraptured audience. He's been gigging and recording less in the past five years. His album Jazz Gives Me The Blues (VOTP VOCD 1167) was released in 2011 and Billy became an Accredited Humanist Celebrant approved by the British ...

Highly Opinionated

Dusseldorf Rally: Jazz's Best Kept Secret?

by Phillip Woolever
May 16, 2016

Year after year, the Dusseldorf Jazz Rally continues to provide visitors with one of the finest festival experiences to be found in Western Europe. While other events in the region may spend more on self-promotion, feature more prominent line-ups or gather more media coverage, the Jazz Rally cheerfully and consistently serves up what is quite likely the best bargain of the bunch. The festival originated in 1993 and has enjoyed general stability and growth since it's inception. The ...

Album Review

The Tony Lustig Quintet: Taking Flight

Read "Taking Flight" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 16, 2016

With this sterling date, up-and-comer Tony Lustig ascends to his rightful place in the pantheon of baritone saxophonists operating today. He brings together a crack crew and delivers eight originals that simultaneously dare and delight. This music marks Lustig as a centrist, but one who's willing to take some risks and push at the boundary lines of conformity. It's the perfect blend of comfort and challenge, feeding the soul and firing the imagination all at once. And ...

Album Review

Myriad3: Moons

Read "Moons" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 16, 2016

Someone's always trying to take a tried and true format out on a new tangent. Consider the piano trio: Bill Evans introduced deep, classically-influenced harmonics and a democracy of instrumental input in the late fifties and early sixties. The Esbjorn Svennson Trio (e.s.t.) brought in classical, rock, pop and techno elements; The Bad Plus plays with avant-garde jazz and pop/rock influences, and they can be loud. Even the tried and true changes. It's all good; and some of it is ...

Album Review

Die Hochstapler: Plays The Music Of Alvin P. Buckley

Read "Plays The Music Of Alvin P. Buckley" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 16, 2016

Back in high school, my physics instructor explained to us how there is a mathematical equation for everything in the universe. We started with the parabola equation of a baseball's flight after being struck by a bat. We were amazed to learn that one (not I) could also calculate the various waves on a lake. A classmate went on to start a successful computer generated imagery company in Hollywood, but that's another story. This is the story of another mathematician, ...

Album Review

Louisiana Soul Revival: Louisiana Soul Revival featuring Doug Duffey

Read "Louisiana Soul Revival featuring Doug Duffey" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
May 16, 2016

Though New Orleans understandably gets most of the attention when it comes to Louisiana music, there is a diversity of styles appreciated as one moves around the state. The northern city of Monroe, is home to Louisiana Soul Revival, which as their name infers, packs a hard hitting combination of funky soul under the direction of singer/songwriter/keyboardist Doug Duffey. A native of Monroe, Duffey came up playing keys around the south in a multitude of bands before heading ...

Album Review

Peter Bernstein: Let Loose

Read "Let Loose" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan

by C. Andrew Hovan
May 15, 2016

When it comes to guitarists of his generation, Peter Bernstein stands head and shoulders above the crowd. His tone and melodic approach are so recognizable as to be detected in a just a few bars. Since 1989, he has been the go-to guitarist in New York City and has literally graced hundreds of recordings. Bernstein has also issued about a dozen of his own albums over the last twenty-five years, done in various formats for a variety of small labels. ...

Interview

Steve Schapiro: Photographs That Can Energize People and Music

by Nenad Georgievski
May 15, 2016

A long time photographer for Life magazine, Steve Schapiro is one of the most esteemed photographers of our time. For over five decades he has taken photographs of well-known politicians, activists and celebrities. These photographs are not only chronicles of people and the times, but cultural milestones as well. He has taken photographs of rev. Martin Luther King and the march in Selma, Senator Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, the film sets of movies such as Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather ...

Live Review

Cedric Burnside Project at 2016 Juke Joint Festival

by C. Michael Bailey
May 15, 2016

Cedric Burnside Project Delta Theater Juke Joint Festival Clarksdale, MS April 16, 2016 The Mississippi River Delta is an imperfect song played perfectly by an old woman losing her mind... It occurred to me, as the bus in which I was riding, passed through what approximates downtown Des Arc, Arkansas, that when most scholars address blues music, it is always from the Mississippi Delta. I suspect that this more appropriately should be ...