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

Stockholm Jazz Orchestra: Today

by Jack Bowers
March 10, 2016

Before proceeding, three cheers and a hearty round of applause are in order, as Today, the fifteenth album recorded by the impressive Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, helps mark the thirtieth anniversary of one of Scandinavia's most celebrated big bands. This truly is an ensemble with no discernible weaknesses: sharp soloists in almost every chair, a remarkable adeptness to blend as a unit, and, above all, an unequivocal commitment to the music, much of which has been written and / or arranged ...

Album Review

Los Hacheros: Bambulaye

Read "Bambulaye" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
March 10, 2016

New York City is the birthplace of salsa, a rhythmic combination of traditional Cuban son and Puerto Rican dance music, defined by a syncopated five stroke clave (pattern) beat. Developing during the sixties, it's popularity rose to international prominence during the early seventies. Through time, as the music became more homogenized, the term “salsa gorda," has come to identify the authentic structure and intention of those who still perform it as no-nonsense dance music. From the heart of Brooklyn, Los ...

Album Review

Gary Monheit and Dan Krimm: New Shoots

Read "New Shoots" reviewed by Mike Oppenheim

by Mike Oppenheim
March 10, 2016

New Shoots , recorded in January 2015, is the most recent offering from fretless bassist Dan Krimm, featuring pianist Gary Monheit with drummer Scott Amendola filling out the trio. New Shoots features eight original tracks, all of which are composed either by Krimm or Monheit. The two share a compositional vision, which lends a great unity to the album. Their style of jazz is modern, drawing influences from the pioneers of modality, Latin American Montuno vamps, and the ...

Album Review

Leslie Pintchik: True North

Read "True North" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 10, 2016

Leslie Pintchik's music has a magical draw to it. Perhaps it has to do with her pearly and softly pronounced piano work, at once circuitous and direct in the way it shapes and navigates expressive pathways. Or maybe it has to do with her compositional acumen. Her pieces, after all, have a way of registering and resonating both with the pleasure center of the brain and the heart. Those are the most admirable qualities connected to Pintchik's art, and they ...

Live Review

Nicholas Payton Trio at Dazzle

by Geoff Anderson
March 9, 2016

Nicholas Payton Trio Dazzle Denver, CO March 5, 2016 Payton or Peyton? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. They're both from New Orleans. Both Payton and Peyton are in the entertainment business. They've both recently wrapped up brief stays in Denver. And they are (or in the case of Peyton, were) a couple of the best in their respective businesses. Payton played is last gig in Denver Sunday night as part two ...

Multiple Reviews

Harp Happenings: Brandee Younger And Pacific Harp Project

by Dan Bilawsky
March 9, 2016

Harp happenings are relatively rare in jazz, but they are there. And when two highly agreeable and strikingly different harp-centric affairs appear on your doorstep around the same time, it really makes you stop and take notice of the instrument, its potential, and the players who are moving it forward and outward in various directions. Both of the releases under discussion here take cues and inspiration from specific styles and/or role models, but neither one is easily categorized. Each of ...

Album Review

JMancera: Mancera #5

Read "Mancera #5" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 9, 2016

Contemporary jazz can't compare to its straight-ahead and left-of-center relatives in terms of complexity, weight, and scope, but that doesn't mean it has absolutely nothing to give. The masses who are taken with this form of music are well aware that it offers an escape, giving off thoughts of sunny days, sandy beaches, and starry nights. It's certainly not for everyone, but the relatively simple hooks, buoyant grooves, and generally pleasant atmospheres that are endemic to the universe of smooth(er) ...

Album Review

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke

Read "A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 9, 2016

In the liner notes for A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke, pianist Vijay Iyer notes that he and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith would often become a sub-segment of the quartet in which the two played. Following their collaboration in New York City in 2015, ECM chief Manfred Eicher brought the two master artists together to make their unique chemistry a matter of record. At its core, the album is a suite dedicated to the late, influential Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi ...

Album Review

Vitor Pereira Quintet: New World

Read "New World" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
March 9, 2016

This is Portugal-born, now London-based Vitor Pereira's second album for the F-IRE label which again features alto saxophonist Chris Williams, already renowned in the UK for his stellar work with Led Bib and Let Spin. It takes just a few plays but once you “get it," the albums starts to fall into place as something quite remarkable. The chief asset of this quintet is the employment of the two saxophones, playing the ensemble passages alternatively in unison or harmony. This ...

Album Review

Apartment House: Joseph Kudirka: Beauty and Industry

Read "Joseph Kudirka: Beauty and Industry" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 9, 2016

Joseph Kudirka is a Michigan-born composer who studied at Northwestern University--where he met Michael Pisaro who was teaching there at the time--before following Pisaro to California Institute of the Arts, and then crossing the Atlantic to study for his PhD at Huddersfield University. Prior to composing, Kudirka's own musical history was as a bassist in local youth orchestras and bands. This album consists of recordings of eight Kudirka compositions dating from the years 2005 to 2011. They are exquisitely played ...