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

Jan Kus Quartet: Faith

Read "Faith" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 9, 2016

As a young Slovenian saxophone student, Jan Kus proved so promising that he earned a scholarship from the Slovenian Ministry of Culture to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, studies which included tours of Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, and The Netherlands, with other young European jazz players. In 2012, Kus crossed the Atlantic to pursue his Masters, studying under saxophonist Antonio Hart at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, where he received ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Chuck Redd

by AAJ Staff
May 8, 2016

About Chuck Redd Chuck Redd is an internationally well-known performer on both drums and vibraphone. He began his career when he joined the Charlie Byrd Trio at the age of 21. He also became a member of the Great Guitars (Barney Kessel, Byrd, and Herb Ellis.) To his credit are 25 European tours and six tours of Japan, with the Barney Kessel Trio, Ken Peplowski and the Benny Goodman Tribute Orchestra, Terry Gibbs and Conte Candoli. Redd ...

The Vinyl Post

Frank Kimbrough on Newvelle: Meantime

by C. Andrew Hovan
May 8, 2016

With the resurgence of the LP being what it is today, it should come as no surprise that some entrepreneur would decide to establish a subscription series solely devoted to music pressed on vinyl. In an era of grassroots projects and self-starters, the time had come for such a project, a point not lost on musician Elan Mehler and business partner Jean- Christophe Morisseau. Through their Kickstarter project, the pair established Newvelle Records, a jazz-only recording concern dedicated to documenting ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Tropical Infinito

Read "Tropical Infinito" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 8, 2016

Brazilian pianist/composer, arranger and longtime educator Antonio Adolfo, has more than twenty-five albums as a leader delivering the best of bossa nova and samba-styled grooves and employing a variety of rhythm sections in accomplishing this. Tropical Infinito is a musical homage of sorts from the pianist, exploring the jazz music of the early 1960s that influenced an entire generation of Brazilian bossa artists like himself. However, to accomplish this, Adolfo had to alter his rhythm-based approach to the music by ...

Album Review

Michael Dease: Father Figure

Read "Father Figure" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
May 8, 2016

Never underestimate a jazz musician's capacity for drawing on material from vastly different sources, deflating the ostensible dissimilarities, and producing vibrant sounds that don't hew to convention or expectations. From the music's early years, resourceful artists have been confounding audiences and critics alike by putting their stamp on anything that strikes their fancy, from gutbucket blues to pop ditties to art songs, and everything in between, ultimately leaving no stone unturned. Michael Dease's Father Figure, the trombonist's third disc for ...

Album Review

Beninghove's Hangmen: Pineapples and Ashtrays

Read "Pineapples and Ashtrays" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
May 8, 2016

Picture an imaginary drive-in theater at the edge of a cliff. The movie is an assortment of grainy black and white vignettes of spaghetti westerns, furtive foreigners smoking, and retro surfing footage. The soundtrack is Pineapples and Ashtrays, performed by Beninghove's Hangmen. These guys play what they call 'creeptastic surf noir,' which defies further definition, but makes interesting listening. The man behind this eccentricity is Bryan Beninghove, a versatile multi-instrumentalist, who is admittedly out to have fun while ...

Album Review

Groove Legacy: Groove Legacy

Read "Groove Legacy" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 8, 2016

Built around the core of saxophonist Paulie Cerra, keyboardist Bill Steinway and bassist Travis Carlton (son of legendary guitarist Larry Carlton), Groove Legacy is just as much a sound and feel as it is this band and the title of their eponymous debut. Although they've collectively played with everyone from Al Green through Stevie Wonder to Carrie Underwood, this debut shares the trio's mutual passion for the sound of 1970s jazz-funk--Creed Taylor's seamless, sparkling productions for CTI Records, The Meters, ...

Album Review

Svein Rikard Mathisen: Copenhagen Diaries

Read "Copenhagen Diaries" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 8, 2016

Copenhagen Diaries documents Norwegian, Bergen-based guitarist Svein Rikard Mathisen experiences while studying at the acclaimed Rhythmic Music Conservatory in the Danish capital, an era described by him as a “twilight zone" where “curiosity meets nightmares and angst meets caffeine." Fortunately, Matisen experiences were processed into an appealing yet complex compositions, reflecting the dramatic emotional turmoil of that seminal time. Mathisen core quartet feature Swedish pianist William Larsson and double bassist Paul Hinz and Danish drummer Andreas ...

Multiple Reviews

The Unity Sessions / Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny

by Geno Thackara
May 7, 2016

Pat Metheny The Unity Sessions Nonesuch Records 2016 What's in a name? First there was the Unity Band in 2012; after several years of collaborations, solo work and small ensembles, the ever-restless Pat Metheny decided it was time for a steady quartet of his own again. The following year it was expanded to a quintet with a dozen more instruments added to the sonic palette, spurring the name switch to Unity Group. Eventually, they ...

Book Review

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Day By Day, Night After Night

by Budd Kopman
May 7, 2016

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Day By Day, Night After Night Craig Hopkins 424 Pages ISBN: 978-0-9654927-2-0 Self Published 2008 Blues/rock guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan had “IT." What this is has little directly to do with his tone, monster technique, clothing choices or even stage presence. This “IT" has everything to do with the fact he played with the same intensity in front of five people as five thousand people. He ...