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

Hendrik Meurkens: Harmonicus Rex

Read "Harmonicus Rex" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 17, 2016

While the swing side of harmonica master Hendrik Meurkens' personality has basically been dormant for the past fifteen years, it hasn't disappeared. After highlighting his Brazilian jazz bona fides on record after record, Meurkens now returns to straight-ahead jazz on this instantly pleasing date. Harmonicus Rex, despite it's humorously monstrous title, isn't a roaring beast. There are no high speed scenarios to speak of and no bash-and-crash displays to witness. This record's strength is in its ability ...

Album Review

Misha Tsiganov: Spring Feelings

Read "Spring Feelings" reviewed by Andrew Luhn

by Andrew Luhn
March 17, 2016

Those who appreciate and follow the art of arranging and orchestration in jazz often point to big band and large ensemble arrangements as examples of excellence, while the art of arranging jazz for the small ensemble is frequently overlooked. Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, and Andrew Hill are a few who have achieved recognition for their intelligent small-group arrangements, and with his newest release, Spring Feelings, pianist Misha Tsiganov brings his talent to this under-appreciated art. For his second ...

Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Bring Their ‘A’ Game

Read "Bring Their ‘A’ Game" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 17, 2016

Bring Their 'A' Game is the second of guitarist Jon Lundbom's Big Five Chord, four-part series of 2016 EPs which will be offered as individual discs and as a box set. Each of the releases, on Moppa Elliott's Hot Cup Records label, runs approximately one half-hour and like the preceding entry, Make Magic Happen, the three long tracks make for adventurous listening. The group radiates with hard bop sensibility and a methodical madness that's almost impossible to turn away from.

Album Review

Ola Onabulé: It's The Peace That Deafens

Read "It's The Peace That Deafens" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
March 17, 2016

Success in the music business can offer the artist several choices, to continue doing what is popular, or decide to take music in a personal direction. With a respected discography going back to 1995, and having pushed the edge of soul-pop in the UK and Europe, versatile vocalist Ola Onabule opts for expanding upon his diverse bi-cultural heritage in It's The Peace That Deafens. Creating a dramatic departure from his previous releases, Onabulé explores jazz inclinations, world influences, and personal ...

Album Review

Henry Kaiser/Steve Parker/Damon Smith/Chris Cogburn: Nearly Extinct

Read "Nearly Extinct" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 17, 2016

The title of this improvising free jazz quartet's release Nearly Extinct, is a reference to the current state of instant composing. The cover lists various players (Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane), Bands (ICP Orchestra, SME, AMM, AACM, ISKRA 1903), and refers to differing scenes from San Francisco to London and Wuppertal. That title is certainly a misnomer. If we think of it in terms of popular music, free jazz or free improvisation was a stillborn child back ...

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Interview

Joe Ascione and His Brave New World

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
March 16, 2016

Author's Note: All About Jazz is sad to report the passing of spirited drummer Joe Ascione who battled Multiple Sclerosis for 20 years. In this encore presentation of a 2004 interview, Joe talks about the challenges of his new reality and shows his courageous determination to fight through them. Joe Ascione is a first-call, universally-respected drummer who has been on about 70 records to date. In one of their frequent bizarre choices, the All Music Guide to Jazz ...

Album Review

Harry Allen: Something About Jobim

Read "Something About Jobim" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
March 16, 2016

Back in 1964, saxophonist Stan Getz made one of those perfect albums. He teamed up with famed Brazilian songwriters and guitarists, João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and delivered one of the best records in his career: Gezt/Gilberto (Verve, 1964). The combination of the wistfully vibrant bossa nova and the sensual saxophone sound of Getz proved to be irresistible. History has a way of repeating itself and now it is time for yet another crucial meeting between ...

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Profile

Roberto Bonati: Macbeth and the Whale

by Duncan Heining
March 16, 2016

Italian bassist-composer Robert Bonati is one of the most ambitious and literate composers in contemporary jazz. Between 2000-2006, he released four ground-breaking extended works with the ParmaFrontiere Orchestra. While they attracted notice in Italy, they seemed to pass by the wider jazz audience in Europe, North America and the Far East. If at one level, the issue was one of a lack of exposure, at another, the twin curses of conservatism and localism in jazz no doubt applied. The history ...

Album Review

Philip Thomas / Jürg Frey: Circles and Landscapes

Read "Circles and Landscapes" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 16, 2016

When the Swiss clarinetist and composer Jürg Frey was celebrated as Composer in Residence at the 2015 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, pianist Philip Thomas wrote of him, “Jürg Frey the composer is inseparable from Jürg Frey the composer. To understand his music is to know that underlying each event, each phrase, each rest, each relationship, is the beating heart of a performing musician." If Thomas needed to cite musical evidence in support of those words, an ideal choice would be ...

Album Review

Moken: Chapters Of My Life

Read "Chapters Of My Life" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
March 16, 2016

It is a long way from the seaside city of Limbe, in Cameroon, to the tough streets of Detroit, in search of a dream. Singer/songwriter Moken Nunga made this journey to attend designer school, and wound up in Atlanta, making music as Moken. Chapters Of My Life, is his story, dealing with adversity en route, and remaining optimistic and creative through it all. Combining a myriad of influences ranging from the local Bassa and Duala tribes of Cameroon, ...