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

Rolf Sturm: Young

by Jack Bowers
May 4, 2016

Albums featuring a lone instrument are often the most difficult to review, especially if the writer is not a musician. After commenting on technique, sound and musical selections, what more is there to say? It is even more troublesome when said instrument is a guitar, as there are legions of virtuosos on the scene today, both here and abroad, the bulk of whom sound nearly identical to the untrained ear. And it is with these caveats in ...

Album Review

Naomi Moon Siegel: Shoebox View

Read "Shoebox View" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 4, 2016

Trombonist Naomi Moon Siegel represents the new breed of jazz artists, the ones who have to make it all happen themselves. In lieu of an established record label, the words “Self Produced" say it all. And while the ability and relative affordability of putting out a CD that is self funded--or fan direct funded--certainly eliminates a necessary culling process of artists who aren't quite ready to make this jump, Shoebox View, Siegel's marvelous debut, is one that the record companies ...

Profile

Fahir Atakoglu: Istanbul Blues

by Duncan Heining
May 3, 2016

The history of jazz has been one of fusion. Its musicians and composers have continually drawn upon a huge range of different musics to create the rich and diverse tapestry that is world jazz today. Jazz is an evolving tradition of music-making. And how often, in the life stories of individual jazz musicians, do we see these same patterns operating at microcosm? When it comes to the music of Turkish-born pianist-composer Fahir Atakoglu, we might define it broadly ...

From the Inside Out

India to Italy, Brazil to Slovenia–Where WON'T Jazz Go?

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 3, 2016

Avataar Petal Self-Produced 2016 While growing up in the Northern Ontario mining town of Sunbury, he was known as “Sam." But in his early twenties, Sundar Viswanathan reconnected with his Indian name and heritage, and, through several conservatory courses spanning North Indian classical to Turkish maquam music, dove deeply into his Indian musical roots as a saxophonist and composer. “I had to transcribe flute and sitar improvisations as part of ...

Album Review

C.B.G: Les Indignés

Read "Les Indignés" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
May 3, 2016

The acronym “CBG" is the proxy for the Celano/Baggiani Group. The improvisational group is based in the Netherlands and has been active for more than ten years. Guitarist Guillermo Celano and drummer Marcos Baggiani have been the mainstays in a rotation that has experienced a number of personnel changes as they have veered between quartet and quintet formations across six albums. On Les Indignés, CBG assumes the smaller-size combo. The core members are joined by bassist Clemens van der Feen ...

Album Review

Ron Jackson: Akustik InventYours

Read "Akustik InventYours" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
May 3, 2016

Guitarist Ron Jackson, known as a composer, performer, and educator in a wide range of contexts in his present headquarters of New York City, has enjoyed an adventurous life. Born in the Philippines to a military family, he moved many times as a child, music being his constant companion. Though now known for his work as a jazz aficionado, Jackson always had a soft spot for the acoustic guitar. Moved by the unplugged adventures of Steve Howe, Leo Kottke, Michael ...

Album Review

Benjamin Duboc/Julien Desprez/Julien Loutelier: Tournesol

Read "Tournesol" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 3, 2016

The free improvisations by Benjamin Duboc, Julien Desprez, and Julien Loutelier on Tournesol or “Sunflower" bring to mind the lyrics to “Love Dance," a minor crossover hit for George Benson in 1980: “From too much talk to loving touches/Love touches when pure emotion takes the moment/We take the chance/Turn up the quiet, love wants to dance." It's not so much the music that makes you want to cuddle up with your loved one, it's the hushed tone (unless, of course, ...

Album Review

Victor Rendón & Bronx Conexión Latin-Jazz Big Band: True Flight

Read "True Flight" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
May 3, 2016

Latin music has been popular in New York City since the beginning of the twentieth century. The post-war migration of Hispanics into Spanish Harlem and the Bronx brought about a major cultural shift in the area, music being an essential element, and with that came a plethora of clubs and dance venues. The orchestras of Machito, Mario Bauza and Tito Puente, synonymous with the era, set the standard for the Latin music that endures today. Victor Rendón & Bronx Conexión ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Michael Joseph Harris

by AAJ Staff
May 2, 2016

About Michael Joseph Harris Michael Joseph Harris began playing guitar at age 12. At 16 he won accolades as a jazz guitarist with the Downbeat Magazine award-winning Chantilly High Jazz Band. He studied with guitarist Rick Whitehead during high school and Jack Petersen at North Texas State University. Soon after, as a young guitarist in Washington, D.C., he played with popular Latin Jazz group Bossalingo. Harris moved to Baltimore in 2006 and became a father in 2008. In 2011 ...

Album Review

Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE 2015

Read "HUJE 2015" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 2, 2016

In 1975, Howard University, a bulwark of higher education in our nation's capital since 1867, formed its first Jazz Ensemble and named a young trumpeter / educator, Fred Irby III, as director. One year later, Irby ushered the ensemble into a recording studio to verify its prowess, a tradition that has continued uninterrupted for forty years. Irby remains at the helm today, and HUJE 2015 is the latest in an ever-expanding catalogue of impressive albums produced by the university's flagship ...