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

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

Read "A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 6, 2016

The expansion of the mind, or better yet, consciousness, can come from multiple approaches. Prayer, physical activity, hallucinogenic substances, and mathematics are but a few routes. All seem to distillate to one essence, that is quiet, the emptiness of silence. For prayer or meditation, the quiet is obvious. But also, great scientists and athletes tell us in the vacuum of space, problems are solved, and the game winning jump-shot is made in an almost slow-motion stillness. That same ...

Album Review

Tom Collier: Across The Bridge

Read "Across The Bridge" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 5, 2016

Ruminations on the past, musical or otherwise, are often weighed down by the sediment of sentiment. But it certainly doesn't have to be that way. Looking back can provide an outlet for the imagination to take control, and vibraphonist Tom Collier seems well aware of that. On Across The Bridge, Collier revisits his youth, delivering nine original numbers that touch on a childhood spent on the opposite side of the West Seattle Bridge from where he currently resides. It's a ...

Album Review

Eric Platz: Life After Life

Read "Life After Life" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
March 5, 2016

Since the late 1990s, percussionist Eric Platz has maintained a busy performance schedule working in a variety of musical genres. He has served as a sideman to such luminaries as Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano and Lucinda Williams, co-led the improvised music trios Fat Little Bastard and FourMinusOne, and is a member in both the world music ensemble Asefa and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez's band. Despite his extensive and eclectic discography, Life After Life is his first recording as a bandleader. ...

Album Review

Julian Lage: Arclight

Read "Arclight" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
March 5, 2016

Anyone who saw guitarist Julian Lage in concert with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen in 2015 will be equally surprised and delighted by Arclight. On his Mack Avenue label debut: Lage proves himself not just a student of his instrument--as if that needed further affirmation given his previous solo work and collaborations with vibraphonist Gary Burton and guitarist Nels Cline--but an exceedingly fast learner in the art of studio recording. No question he benefits from ample ...

Album Review

Todd Rundgren & Utopia: Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf

Read "Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 5, 2016

Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf San Francisco venue is a continuation of the Todd Rundgren archive series by UK- based Esoteric Recordings. Previously unreleased, the engineers' remastering effort seems to have paid off, as the overall sound is acceptable; although, the lower-end bass response is a bit weak. This concert was originally recorded for a broadcast by local radio station K-SAN and includes pieces culled from Rundgren's solo albums and Utopia's body of work. Rundgren's pop legacy ...

Film Review

Frank Zappa: The Lost Broadcast - The Full Performance

by Glenn Astarita
March 5, 2016

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention The Lost Broadcast -The Full Performance Gonzo Multimedia 2016 There aren't many videos floating around of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, but The Lost Broadcast should be received with welcome arms by loyal Zappa enthusiasts and others who still have a burning interest in his legacy. Recorded in 1968 at the Beat Club in Bremen, Germany, and broadcasted for a German TV station in 1970, the ...

Multiple Reviews

Ruben Machtelinckx & Linus: Belgian Experimental Music, Strings Attached

by Mark Sullivan
March 5, 2016

Belgian guitarist/composer Ruben Machtelinckx has built an impressive catalog of recordings as a leader since graduating from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp in 2010. He tends to work in groups with no drummer, a chamber jazz approach that suits his lyrical, sometimes minimalist compositions well. His guitar style is tasteful and devoid of flashy pyrotechnics: even as leader he will sometimes choose not to take a solo on some tunes, concentrating on accompaniment. Electronic effects are used sparingly, and over ...

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Album Review

Mark Hetzler: Blues, Ballads, and Beyond: Influences Outside the Concert Hall

Read "Blues, Ballads, and Beyond: Influences Outside the Concert Hall" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 5, 2016

The trombone has proven not so an elusive lead instrument in jazz. But what of moving beyond jazz. There is classical literature addressing the instrument. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's bastardly father, Leopold, composed the first classical trombone piece, Concerto for Alto Trombone in 1756. Josef Haydn's brother, Michael, composed Concerto shortly after in 1764. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Jan Sandstrom, Arvo Part, Ernst Block, they all tried their hand at taming the beast so masterfully wielded by Ory, Teagarden, Johnson, and Fuller in ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Andreas Loven

by AAJ Staff
March 4, 2016

About Andreas Loven: Andreas Loven is a pianist and composer from Oslo, Norway, and is currently signed to the acclaimed Norwegian jazz label Losen Records. He departed from his career in engineering, moved to South Africa and ventured into jazz in his early twenties. He has since performed extensively in South Africa with artists such as Shane Cooper, Mandla Mlangeni, Buddy Wells, Keenan Ahrends, Jonno Sweetman, Nick Williams, Romy Brauteseth, Clement Benny and others. Recent performances in ...

Album Review

Julian Lage: Arclight

Read "Arclight" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
March 4, 2016

Julian Lage's star has been on the rise since the premiere of Julian at Eight--the award winning 1997 documentary short about the precocious guitar prodigy's childhood years. Since then, Lage has become a key collaborator to modern masters like Gary Burton, Jim Hall and Fred Hersch. Lage's widely acclaimed virtuosity is uncontestable, yet he remains a tonal traditionalist--an aspect reinforced on Arclight, the first recording to feature him exclusively playing a solid body electric guitar. Despite the overdriven twang of ...