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

Eileen Howard: Big City Love

Read "Big City Love" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 24, 2016

Jazz and blues songbird Eileen Howard began her singing career in the Midwest where she recorded four previous albums but in 2012, moved to New York City and has been excited about the change ever since. Big City Love is her fifth solo album as leader paying musical tribute to her new adopted home with a selection of familiar songs like “Sunday in New York," “New York, New York" and the Rogers and Hart classic “Manhattan" in the repertoire. More ...

Interview

Gideon King: New York and Music

by Sammy Stein
April 24, 2016

Gideon King is a New York City boy. He was born and raised in the city. He is a composer, guitarist and producer and has worked with some of the finest musicians. He has been involved in projects which cover a range of music genres including pop, funk, jazz and fusion and has produced and collaborated with world class performers including John Scofield, Chris Potter, singer-songwriters Marc Broussard and Grace Weber and James Genus. He has recently made a long ...

Album Review

James Hughes & Jimmy Smith Quintet: Ever Up & Onward

Read "Ever Up & Onward" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
April 24, 2016

Detroit was once a vital jazz center, contributing some of the major hard bop artists of the 1960s: Hank, Thad, and Elvin Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Paul Chambers, Kenny Burrell, and Ron Carter, just to name a few. The James Hughes & Jimmy Smith Quintet honors that tradition by playing mostly original hard bop with real flair. In addition to being strong soloists, saxophonist James Hughes and trumpeter Jimmy Smith contribute all of the compositions and arrangements.

Album Review

Piero Umiliani: Psichedelica

Read "Psichedelica" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 23, 2016

Psichdelica is a fun album. It is music from the pen of Italian movie scorer Piero Umbiliani. The music here composed and recorded for the movie Svenzia Inferno e Paradiso (1968) is in large part a slice of those times. “Trippy, very trippy," might be the colloquial 1968 description for the the disc's first four tunes, with “before their time" electronics, loopy organ work, a soaring vocal chorus sounding like Gregorian chants that include females in the choir, backed by ...

Album Review

Vladimir Tarasov Trio: Intuitus

by John Eyles
April 23, 2016

Born in 1946, drummer Vladimir Tarasov long ago assured his place in the history of jazz and improvised music through his membership--from 1971 to 1986--of the Ganelin Trio, one of the first groups from the USSR to become renowned and achieve critical acclaim outside of their homeland. Since 1968, Tarasov has been a resident of Vilnius, Lithuania, also the home of No Business Records. He is something of a polymath, having performed with symphony orchestras, written music for film and ...

Album Review

Yves Theiler Trio: Dance In A Triangle

Read "Dance In A Triangle" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 23, 2016

Although a piano trio has a leader, the better ones behave as an equilateral triangle. That is, they “go Dutch." In the case of the Yves Theiler Trio, we could say the music on Dance In A Triangle “goes Swiss." The pianist, Yves Theiler, composed all the music here, but it is improbable that it could be navigated by surrogate performers. At least, ones that were not well rehearsed. Theiler, who studied with Richie Beirach and has recorded ...

Album Review

Anthony Phillips: Wise After The Event - Deluxe Edition

Read "Wise After The Event - Deluxe Edition" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 23, 2016

A founding member of the time-honored progressive rock band Genesis, guitarist Anthony Phillips suffered from stage fright and followed his physicians' advice by departing the group in 1970 after Trespass was released. In hindsight, the guitarist may have lost out on some lucrative paychecks, but since the golden days of prog he's amassed an impressive discography as a solo artist. This clamshell boxed-set should kindle the appetites of Phillips' fan base and completists. This reissue presents a concentrated ...

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Jazz Primer

You Too Can Be A Jazz Fan!

by AAJ Staff
April 23, 2016

No jacket required—no SUV or Ph.D., either...Jazz is intimidating. Now I know those of you who live and breathe jazz are probably shaking your heads in pity, but speaking for those who haven't been fully initiated into the mysteries of jazz, trust me—it's intimidating.Part of the problem is that, for an art form that had relatively humble beginnings, jazz has picked up some rather lofty icons along the way. Luxury sedans. Custom kitchens with granite countertops. ...

Book Review

Prince: Let’s Go Crazy (Prince and the Making of Purple Rain)

by Nenad Georgievski
April 23, 2016

Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain Alan Light 304 pages ISBN: 1476776725 Atria Books 2014 Musician Prince is one of the enduring enigmas of today's pop music. Throughout the years this eclectic, mercurial and prolific genius has dazzled, enraged and confused audiences and music critics alike both with his anarchic approach to music making, writing songs that oozed with sexuality, keeping the temperature rising with explicit shows, which ...

Hi-Res Jazz

Blue Note On Blu-Ray

by Mark Werlin
April 22, 2016

Jazz music is best appreciated with “big ears" and an open mind. Just as exposure to new music casts older, familiar works in a different light, newer formats can expand a listener's perspective on the strengths and limitations of the original recordings. SACDs, Blu-Ray discs and hi-res downloads accurately represent the affective details of jazz performance: the swish of brushes on a snare; the subtle inflections of a trumpet player's phrasing; the timbre that distinguishes one bassist's instrument--and ...