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

Clipper Erickson: My Cup Runneth Over: The Complete Piano Works of R. Nathaniel Dett

Read "My Cup Runneth Over: The Complete Piano Works of R. Nathaniel Dett" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 3, 2016

It is infrequent that I hear music by an unfamiliar composer that is so fantastically beyond anything I have heard before that when it happens, I am convinced of the Divine. So it is with the piano music of one R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943). Dett was an African-American polymath who was the first black to graduate from Oberlin College with a BA in piano and composition in 1908 and then achieved a Master's Degree from the Eastman School of Music ...

Album Review

Fred Hersch: Sarabande

Read "Sarabande" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
March 3, 2016

Sarabande is a re-mastered reissue of a recording done in 1986, and should be welcomed with open arms. Those who know pianist Fred Hersch get to hear the early work of an now-acknowledged master; those who do not can hear timeless playing from thirty years ago. In the notes, Hersch has dedicated this reissue to bassist Charlie Haden with a back story which can be summarized as follows: in 1984, Hersch began playing with Haden, and in 1986 ...

Building a Jazz Library

Stan Getz

by Mark Barnett
March 2, 2016

The story of Stan Getz (1927-1991) has to begin with Lester Young. Before Young, tenor sax players seemed awash in testosterone. Their sound was full, rich, deep, blown hard out of the instrument's lower registers, with emotion pouring out in lavish swoops and honks. Then along came Lester. In the post-war 1940s, he invented a new way to play the tenor sax: softly, effortlessly, with no wasted notes, and above all, without drama. There was emotion, of course, but it ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Hank Mobley: Soul Station - 1960

by Marc Davis
March 2, 2016

Hank Mobley is a mystery to me. On the one hand, I mostly love his relaxed style of bop. Sometimes it's round and smooth, sometimes rock hard, sometimes full of soul and funk. What's not to like? On the other hand, the same relaxed style can sometimes seem lazy. Critics sure thought so. At his peak in the 1950s and '60s, Mobley was pretty widely ignored by critics. His playing seemed effortless and lacking innovation. At ...

Album Review

Chris Klaxton: Collage

by James Nadal
March 2, 2016

With each release, the current crop of young lions demonstrate they have what it takes to come up with novel ideas, keeping the music renewed. Since his 2014 debut of “Starcode,"--a foray into cosmic jazz--trumpeter Chris Klaxton has remained perpetually engaged and appears not to slow down on Collage , a patchwork of progressive jazz injected with futuristic nuances. Backed by most of the musicians from his first record, Klaxton's compositions are conceptual and focused. “Arise Automation," opens ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Garden 2nd Set

Read "Garden 2nd Set" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 2, 2016

Years after this 1981 performance at a Swiss venue, pianist Cecil Taylor advised producer Werner X Uehlinger that this was his best solo concert, as the 2nd Set chronicles the order of performance and follows up the 2015 reissue of Garden 1st Set (hatOLOGY, 2015). And to cite the often-used movie critic adjective, this concert was truly riveting. Taylor performs on a 92-key Bosendorfer piano, providing extra bass keys to bottom F. Taylor proffers a detailed soundstage amid ...

Album Review

Kim Nazarian: Some Morning

Read "Some Morning" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
March 2, 2016

Kim Nazarian is one of a kind. Sure, there are other singers with lovely voices, great ears and impeccable time, but not many as warm and open on stage; there are even fewer who can phrase a lyric the way she does, so that you believe every word. A founding member of the New York Voices, Nazarian supplies the sweet soprano at the top of their peerless blend, as well as most of the bubbly, joyful energy that makes the ...

Album Review

Larry Young: In Paris: The ORTF Recordings

Read "In Paris: The ORTF Recordings" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 2, 2016

You may know organist Larry Young from his work in The Tony Williams Lifetime band (with John McLaughlin) and later with Jimi Hendrix, and Carlos Santana or you may just be hip to his Blue Note 1960's years. Nonetheless, you would certainly be surprised to learn that he lived to be just 38 years old, passing away in 1978. As the philosopher Lao Tzu said, “The flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long" Born Larry ...

Album Review

Danny Green Trio: Altered Narratives

Read "Altered Narratives" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 2, 2016

Pianist Danny Green took a big step up in the piano trio rankings with 2014's After The Calm (OA2 Records). The San Diego-based group focused in on a distinctive and beautiful set of Green originals and recorded them with a continuity of mood and an ebullient brio--like three guys who knew what they were doing in an art that demands nuance and delicacy sitting beside--in time's flow--a rise and fall of robustness of approach that just might evolve, when the ...

Live Review

Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Bird Calls at The Wexner Center for The Arts

by Mark Corroto
March 1, 2016

Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa brought his quintet to the Wexner Center at The Ohio State University February 27, 2016, to play his book of original compositions precipitated by the music of Charlie Parker. The audience to this sold out show was left with the proverbial question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did they come to hear the music of alto saxophonist and originator of bebop, Charlie “Yardbird" Parker's music? Or, were they in the audience ...