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

Dave Liebman: Expansions: The Puzzle

Read "Expansions: The Puzzle" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
March 16, 2016

The Puzzle is the terrfic follow-up recording by David Liebman's new group, Expansions, the first being Samsara. No sophomore jinx here; if anything, the group has coalesced further and is even tighter. To throw out a (perhaps meaningless) label, this music could be called hyper-bop in its mix of well-placed dissonance, rhythmic displacements and the pure joy of blowing. Yes, it can get heady, but this music is anything but sterile and passion, of either high or low ...

Album Review

Ingrid James and Alexis Tcholakian Trio: Trajectoire

Read "Trajectoire" reviewed by Barry O'Sullivan

by Barry O'Sullivan
March 16, 2016

Trajectorie is a collaboration between the French pianist composer Alexis Tcholakian and the Queensland based vocalist Ingrid James. Their paths crossed in France when she was performing in a Paris jazz club when he approached her to write lyrics to some of his melodies as part of a vocal project with other singers in France. After completion of several songs together it felt right for them to do an album and in June 2014 Trajectorie was recorded in Paris.

Live Review

Dave Liebman Expansions at Chris’ Jazz Café

by Victor L. Schermer
March 15, 2016

Dave Liebman Expansions Chris' Jazz Cafe Philadelphia, PA March 11, 2016 The pleasure of hearing Dave Liebman with his personally honed groups is that despite or because of personnel changes, they never stop transforming and expanding in scope and depth. In this incarnation of Liebman's now legendary groups, in addition to perennial sidekick bassist Tony Marino, his crew consists of younger musicians who are nevertheless quite capable of engaging on an equal level with Liebman, ...

Book Review

What Happened, Miss Simone?: A Biography

by Nenad Georgievski
March 15, 2016

What Happened, Miss Simone? Alan Light 320 Pages ISBN: 1101904879 Atria 2016 It was singer and poet Gil Scott-Heron who said that Nina Simone was black way before it was fashionable to be black. A controversial and indisputable music icon and celebrity, her unique blend of jazz, pop and soul made her one of the most compelling voices in music history. She was equally known for her interpretations of other people's songs, that ...

Album Review

Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra: Back Home

Read "Back Home" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 15, 2016

Back Home, the debut recording by composer / arranger / musicologist Socrates Garcia's Latin Jazz Orchestra, combines the best of two worlds: ardent Latin jazz that never forswears its roots, and emphatic American-designed big-band swing that provides a solid framework for Garcia's picturesque Latin / American excursions. Garcia, who was born in the Dominican Republic, is director of Music Technology at the University of Northern Colorado, and Back Home, it seems, represents more a state of mind than any physical ...

Album Review

Fire!: She Sleeps, She Sleeps

Read "She Sleeps, She Sleeps" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 15, 2016

She Sleeps, She Sleeps is the fifth album release from Fire! (yes, that exclamation mark is an integral part of the name), the Swedish supergroup trio of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin. It sees the three return to duty as a trio following the distraction of recording and touring with the Fire! Orchestra, with its membership of about thirty. Away from the orchestra, past Fire! albums have seen the trio collaborating with other musicians such ...

Album Review

Eliane Correa & En El Aire Project: Rumba Con Flores

Read "Rumba Con Flores" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
March 15, 2016

Short--at just 32 minutes and eight tracks--and straight to the point, Rumba Con Flores is an assured debut from Eliane Correa. The young keyboardist, composer and arranger recorded the album in Havana and London over a three year period (then mixed and mastered it in Madrid), working with a fine array of musicians who prove themselves to be truly in sympathy with her musical ideas. Correa wrote and arranged all of the songs as well as playing piano, ...

Album Review

George Walker Petit: Emergence

Read "Emergence" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
March 15, 2016

Guitarist (and bassist) George Walker Petit originally got into the recording side of the music business (in 1979) because he was not hearing in playback or the final product that which he had heard in his mind while he was playing. Along the way he built up quite a reputation as the “go-to" guy who, since he was originally a player himself, could work with the musicians in capturing what they were hearing. Eventually, in 2001, he opened a recording ...

Album Review

Konono No.1: Meets Batida

Read "Meets Batida" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
March 15, 2016

The city of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the home of Konono No.1, a band which has taken the African likembé (thumb piano) from a folkloric instrument, into the electronic age. Back in the sixties, it's founder Mingiedi Mawangu figured out how to amplify the likembé, using salvaged car parts, and wired it through a guitar amp. Though he passed in 2015, his son Agustin Makuntima Mawangu carries on as leader, maintaining the amplified likembé as ...

Interview

Peter Erskine: Paging Dr. Um

by R.J. DeLuke
March 14, 2016

There's not much ground drummer Peter Erskine hasn't covered. He's said to have appeared on more than 600 albums. He has won two Grammys and holds an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music. He's been a part of the big bands of Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson, and has played with the likes of Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, the Brecker Brothers, John Abercrombie, Bob Mintzer, Eliane Elias and many more. Then there's ...