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

Anat Fort Trio with Gianluigi Trovesi: Birdwatching

Read "Birdwatching" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
April 5, 2016

Israeli pianist/composer Anat Fort augments her longstanding trio with bassist Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider by adding Italian reedman Gianluigi Trovesi (who plays alto clarinet throughout) for her third ECM album, following 2010's And If. The trio had long been based in New York City, but since Fort 's return to Israel and Schneier's return to Berlin the band is now spread between three countries--which only makes their reunions more joyful. Fort and Trovesi first played together as a ...

Album Review

Roberto Magris: Need to Bring Out Love

Read "Need to Bring Out Love" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 5, 2016

Perhaps the best word with which to describe Italian-born pianist Roberto Magris is busy. Since launching his career in the late '70s, the fifty-six-year-old keyboardist has performed with a veritable who's who of jazz luminaries in forty-one countries, and Need to Bring Out Love is his twenty-seventh album as leader of his own groups (in this case his American trio). While that may seem a lot of mileage and studio time for someone who's still in mid-career, Magris has never ...

Album Review

Dave Miller: Old Door Phantoms

Read "Old Door Phantoms" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 5, 2016

Guitarist Dave Miller has been all over the jazz, rock and improvisational map, performing with the progressive rock band Algernon and stints with Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls amid collaborations with many artists for numerous record labels. However, Old Door Phantoms is Miller's his first solo outing, where he draws upon numerous jazz, pop and rock influences. It's an explosive set recorded at famed producer Steve Albini's Chicago studio, Electrical Audio. According to the press release, [the audio] “has ...

Album Review

Zlatko Kaućić / Ab Baars: Canvas

by Budd Kopman
April 5, 2016

Slovenian drummer/percussionist Zlatko Kaucic (Kaučič) was very busy in 2013-2014. The meetup with pianist Milko Lazar for Ena / One took place between November, 2013 and March, 2014. The disc at hand finds Kaucic performing with Dutch reedman Ab Baars, recorded in October, 2014. Baars is well known in the free jazz side of the Dutch scene.As expected, the music is quite different although the intent is the same: to bring together two free improvisers and see what ...

Book Review

The Miles Davis Lost Quintet and Other Revolutionary Ensembles

by Karl Ackermann
April 5, 2016

The Miles Davis Lost Quintet and Other Revolutionary Ensembles Bob Gluck 256 Pages ISBN: #022618076X University of Chicago Press 2016 In the history of jazz, no one has been written about more than Miles Davis. No one has been more debated, reviled and revered than the difficult genius who defines so much of the disparate history of modern jazz. So taking on yet another analysis of the composer and trumpeter could have been ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Dr. Lonnie Smith: Then and Now – Think! (1968) vs Evolution (2016)

by Marc Davis
April 4, 2016

The “doctor" with the mysterious turban and manic Hammond B-3 fingers is back. And if you think the old man at 73 can't possibly match the passion and pyrotechnics of the young man at 26... well, surprise! Evolution is Dr. Lonnie Smith's triumphant return to Blue Note. I feared it might be like a Beatles “reunion" of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr--a sentimental experiment that's bound to disappoint. I bought Evolution and resigned myself to liking Smith's younger ...

Album Review

Lew Tabackin Trio: Soundscapes

Read "Soundscapes" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 4, 2016

There's no substitute for experiencing jazz live. There are, however, some recordings that manage to do a damn good job coming close. This happens to be one of them. Noted jazz photographer Jimmy Katz, who's quickly developed a strong reputation as a recording engineer and producer who seeks to capture jazz in its true and unaltered forms, was the impetus behind the creation of this album. He sold saxophonist-flutist Lew Tabackin on the idea, set up a ...

Album Review

Bob Gluck/Billy Hart/Eddie Henderson/Christopher Dean Sullivan: Infinite Spirit - Revisiting Music of the Mwandishi Band

Read "Infinite Spirit - Revisiting Music of the Mwandishi Band" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 4, 2016

Composer/musician, author, educator and spiritual leader, Bob Gluck, brings a long-term, multi-media project full circle with the release of Infinite Spirit, Revisiting Music of the Mwandishi Band. Motivated by Gluck's research and interviews for his excellent book, You'll Know When You Get There: Herbie Hancock and The Mwandishi Band (University of Chicago Press, 2012), he assembled a mix of musicians from the Hancock, Swahili named sextet and his long-standing trio for a fresh take on Mwandishi numbers and some original ...

Album Review

Christian Winther: Refuge In Sound

Read "Refuge In Sound" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 4, 2016

Danish-born saxophonist and composer Christian Winther moved to the New Orleans area in 1997, attended the University of New Orleans and performed regularly with some of the legends of jazz including pianist Ellis Marsalis and the late saxophonist great, Frank Morgan among many others becoming a much in-demand fixture in the city's rich and vibrant jazz scene thereafter. Delivering his fifth album as leader, Refuge in Sound is a remarkable album featuring all original compositions of post-bop material rooted in ...

Album Review

Barry Guy / Ken Vandermark: Occasional Poems

Read "Occasional Poems" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 4, 2016

For British bassist Barry Guy the concert that produced this fine double disc package occurred at the end of a four day intensive residency in Krakow culminating in the premier of an ambitious new work by his Blue Shroud Band. While for Chicago reedman Ken Vandermark, the event was the final episode in two months on the road. But whether relief or exhaustion were the dominant feelings, neither resulted in any lowering of standards or resting on laurels. Occasional Poems ...