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

Michael Blake: Fulfillment

Read "Fulfillment" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 4, 2016

Saxophonist Michael Blake's previous concept album Kingdom of Champra (Intuition, 1997) is based on his experiences living with his family in Vietnam. On Fulfillment, the artist centers his focus on India, namely an incident that occurred when a Japanese freighter, transporting hundreds of East Indian immigrants was denied entry into the port of Vancouver, Canada in 1914. Another source of interest is that Blake's great grand uncle H.H. Stevens was instrumental in engaging the Canadian Parliament to take action.

Live From Philadelphia

Hiromi: The Trio Project at the Annenberg Center Live

by Geno Thackara
April 4, 2016

Hiromi: The Trio Project Annenberg Center Live Philadelphia, PA April 1, 2016 She walks onstage without a word, makes sure to gesture towards the other players for their share of applause, and gives the cheering a minute to subside before getting down to business. The first song starts with a light cascade of high piano notes, the kind of slow intro that could usher in a classic acoustic set from any era. The crowd remains ...

Book Review

The Real Dixieland Book / Tunes Of The Twenties

by Budd Kopman
April 3, 2016

The Real Dixieland Book Robert Rawlins 378 Pages ISBN: 978-1-4234-7694-8 Hal Leonard 2015 Saxophonist Robert Rawlins, who is also Professor of Music Theory at Rowan University (New Jersey) has done jazz a great service by producing The Real Dixieland Book and Tunes Of The Twenties. While they obviously serve different audiences, and can be enjoyed separately, they are really meant to supplement each other. Jazz is a living art, and ...

Album Review

Michael Dease: Father Figure

Read "Father Figure" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 3, 2016

Paying it forward is simply a given in jazz. Long before the music was welcomed in ivory tower institutions and codified for classroom consumption at all levels, seasoned musicians were sharing their hard-earned knowledge with aspiring youngsters on bandstands and in basements, serving as guides, exemplars, nurturers, and teachers all at once. Those experienced players were musical father figures, helping the next generation(s) along on their quest to join them, and that's a role that trombonist Michael Dease aspires to ...

Album Review

Andreas Loven: District Six

Read "District Six" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
April 3, 2016

Norwegian pianist/composer Andreas Loven has an especially compelling personal history. In his early twenties he left Oslo and an engineering career to move to South Africa to pursue jazz. Based in Cape Town, he has since performed extensively all over South Africa. This dual background gives his music a unique voice, one with both European and African flavors. He leads a South African quartet here, recorded in Cape Town, released by a Norwegian record label: his story in a nutshell. ...

Album Review

Evan Parker / Seymour Wright: Tie the Stone to the Wheel

Read "Tie the Stone to the Wheel" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
April 3, 2016

The five tracks on Tie the Stone to the Wheel were recorded at two duo gigs which saxophonists Evan Parker and Seymour Wright played in London and Derby, on consecutive Sundays in October 2014, at the Kernel Brewery and the Derby Theatre Studio. Remarkably, at the Derby gig, it was revealed that when Parker had played a previous gig at the venue, several decades before, Wright had been in the audience--as a six-month-old baby! While it is never ...

Album Review

Avi Darash: Impermanence

Read "Impermanence" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 3, 2016

Pianist Avi Darash, home-based now in the Netherlands, broods beautifully on “The Day After," the third tune on his CD Impermanence. His trio mates--bassist Avri Borochov and drummer Ofri Nehemya--offer an intricate yet subtle accompaniment, on a sound that brings the Brad Mehldau Trio to mind, with its floating momentum, cerebral atmosphere and subtle melodic development. Impermanence features the young pianist in trio, solo, trio-with-strings mode. Ambitious? Yes, but Darash is inspired and adept. “Happiness," the disc's opener ...

Album Review

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: EARS

by Rob Caldwell
April 3, 2016

In trying to describe Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's music it occurred to me that it sounds like music that would be made by computers if computers ever evolve to posses their own intelligence and emotions. But that doesn't quite hit it... perhaps a better way would be to say that it's some of the most organic electronic music I've ever heard, vibrant and full of life. In a recent interview, Smith describes the music made by some of her influences as ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Quanta April – Five Women I: Lina Orfanos, Wendy Pedersen, Joyce Moreno, Letizia Gambi, and Mala Waldron

by C. Michael Bailey
April 2, 2016

April Showers Bring May Flowers and it's raining.... Women singers...yes it is. Lina Orfanos Essentially Ella Babinis Productions 2016 Ella Fitzgerald is HOT, HOT HOT!. And if Jane Monheit's The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald (Emerald City Records, 2016) was just the beginning, then Lina Orfanos' Essentially Ella indicated the start of a trend. Orfanos' approach differs from that of Monheit's in that she sticks strictly to the middle-of-the-road, giving perfectly ...

Album Review

Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Musings

by Dan Bilawsky
April 2, 2016

If you open the packaging for this album, you'll encounter a picture of Christopher Zuar that initially seems to touch on a theme of isolation. Shadows and light play against the wall behind him, but it's Zuar himself, sitting and staring into the distance over his piano, that really draws the eyes in. After looking at the photo for several moments, the pixels, forming a black and white visual cipher, finally choose to reveal the truth: This isn't a portrait ...