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

Dave Anderson: Blue Innuendo

Read "Blue Innuendo" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 14, 2016

A follow up to his highly-acclaimed debut album Clarity (Pony Boy Records, 2010), saxophonist Dave Anderson presents his second foray into the modern jazz landscape but this time, adding a tinge of the blues with the artful and engaging Blue Innuendo, offering a selection of original music that sizzles and swings from beginning to end. The title of the album is drawn from an original song penned and dedicated to the great organ master Joey D'Francesco after hearing the organist ...

What is Jazz?

Jazz: The Sacred and the Profane

by Victor L. Schermer
May 13, 2016

“As above, so below" --Hermes Trismegistus A warning: this article is worth reading only if you believe, as I do, that jazz is not just a form of entertainment, but an art form that has deep significance for our lives and contributes to our search for meaning. I fully appreciate the value of “digging the music" and leaning into it for its rhythmic syncopation and feelings of fun and excitement. But for many of us, jazz is part ...

Live Review

Anderson Ponty Band at the Boulder Theater

by Geoff Anderson
May 13, 2016

Anderson Ponty Band Boulder Theater Boulder, CO May 4, 2016 Some collaborations are inevitable; Ella and Louie, Tedeschi and Trucks, peanut butter and chocolate. Others are not so obvious; Plant and Krause, Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson, pineapple and pizza (OK, maybe some people will disagree on that last one). Sometimes these seemingly unlikely pairings can be even more fun than the obvious ones because of unanticipated and serendipitous results. The Anderson ...

Album Review

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

Read "Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
May 13, 2016

When trumpeter/composer Cuong Vu became a member of the Pat Metheny Group--he contributed to Speaking Of Now (Warner Bros., 2002) and The Way Up (Nonesuch, 2005)--it came as a bit of a shock to anyone familiar with his work in the downtown New York City scene. While Pat Metheny has made music that fits in with Knitting Factory acts, the PMG always had a big, wide-screen approach. Their World Music sounds and rhythms and breezy melodies gave them a broad ...

Album Review

Oestergaard Art Quartet: More Stories from the Village

Read "More Stories from the Village" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 13, 2016

Drummer Michala Østergaard-Nielsen and her quartet's More Stories From The Village is a completely improvised set that captivates with its lyricism and its darkly cinematic ambience. This short yet compelling and cohesive disc is a mordant postmodern folk tale that relies equally on the fluid spontaneity among the ensemble members as well as their expressive individuality. On “A Road Trip To An Old Mountain" Østergaard-Nielsen, with her brushes, generates complex rustling patterns that match guitarist Marc Ducret's dense, ...

Album Review

The Bo-Keys: Heartaches By The Number

Read "Heartaches By The Number" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
May 13, 2016

There is an ongoing resurgence in retro-soul music, as contemporary artists emulate the style and sound from the golden age of soul and rhythm and blues. But there are still many of the original musicians from that era out there doing it, of which The Bo-Keys are a primary example. Delving deep into the sub-genre of country/soul, Heartaches By The Number is an outstanding set of jukebox favorites, recorded by the premier musicians of the Stax/Volt and Hi Records studios ...

Album Review

Scott Neumann/Tom Christensen: Spin Cycle

Read "Spin Cycle" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 13, 2016

The new ensemble led by Scott Neumann and Tom Christensen is called Spin Cycle. It could, maybe should, have been dubbed The Chameleonic Quartet. Along with the virtuosic sidemen, guitarist Pete McCann and bassist Phil Palombi, the ten tracks spin-off varying styles and musical modes, from blues to ballads, punk to funk. Such catholic tastes are not unexpected from drummer Scott Neumann, who was raised on the jazz-rock fusion of Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, then went on ...

Live Review

Tony Bennett Slays 'Em At Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo

by John Ephland
May 12, 2016

Tony Bennett and His Quartet Chenery Auditorium Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival Kalamazoo, MI May 7, 2016 You could sense it. Here was an artist who was the last man standing from an era that covered anything and everyone, from Gershwin to Gaga. With an accent on George. Tony Bennett was appearing at the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. As for how a singer was headlining, that's another story. But what was ...

Album Review

Will Vinson: Perfectly Out Of Place

Read "Perfectly Out Of Place" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 12, 2016

Perfectly Out Of Place--the sixth album from saxophonist Will Vinson--is a marvel of compositional design, textural beauty, and musicality. It's both in keeping with his previous work and several steps beyond and above. While Vinson is essentially sticking with his favored quintet format on this one, he's expanded his sonic palette by adding some judicious overdubs and bringing in a number of special guests--The Mivos Quartet, vocalist Jo Lawry, and percussionist Jamey Haddad. He's also upped his ...

Live Review

Abullah Ibrahim at SFJAZZ

by Harry S. Pariser
May 12, 2016

Abdullah Ibrahim SFJAZZ San Francisco, CA April 29-30, 2016 At 81, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, is still going strong, something he proved during a remarkable tour-de-force performance which spanned four nights at SFJAZZ in San Francisco. For the first two evenings (Thursday and Friday), Ibrahim appeared in the company of his Mukashi Trio. For these nights, Ibrahim brought together bassist, cellist, and composer Noah Jackson, a Detroit native, and Cleave Guyton Jr. who played ...