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

Zane Rodulfo: Pathways

by James Nadal
February 29, 2016

If a record cover can be any indication of the content of the music it encases, then Pathways, by drummer/composer Zane Rodulfo, has the perfect depiction. It shows Rodulfo walking along a well-worn rainforest trail, drumsticks in hand with a look of absolute confidence that he knows where he is going. Hailing from Trinidad, he has been in the states since his teens, and after some serious education and training, has released his first recording as leader. In ...

Album Review

Dave Bryant: The Garden of Equilibria

Read "The Garden of Equilibria" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
February 29, 2016

As one of the few keyboardists to perform and record with Ornette Coleman on a consistent basis, Dave Bryant stands alongside the likes of Geri Allen and Paul Bley. Yet, Bryant is not nearly as well-known. A Berklee graduate who studied privately with Coleman starting in 1983, Bryant's first appearance on record was with the trio Shock Exchange (self produced, 1986) which also featured drummer Chris Bowman and bassist John Turner (who later appeared on recordings by Either/Orchestra and Charlie ...

Album Review

Nolatet: Dogs

by Doug Collette
February 28, 2016

The wit in the name of Nolatet finds a direct reflection in the music they make. Yet together as a four piece unit, keyboardist Brian Haas (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey), vibraphonist Mike Dillon (Critters Buggin,' Garage A Trois), bassist James Singleton (John Scofield, John Medeski) and drummer Johnny Vidacovich (Charlie Hunter, Robert Walter), create a seamless sound that transcends comparisons to their previous work. No question Dogs is steeped, and deeply so, within the grand tradition of New Orleans, but ...

Album Review

Mats Gustafsson: Piano Mating

Read "Piano Mating" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 28, 2016

Sure, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson is a rock star. A star in the same sense that Thurston Moore is a jazz artist or Merzbow generates ambient sounds. It's not so much that we would expect to see those three gentlemen receiving a Grammy Award, but that imitators of their styles will. Someday. In other words, innovators pioneer sounds, take Charlie Parker of instance, that others capitalizes on. If you follow Gustafsson's career, you must always expect the unexpected. Early ...

Album Review

Juhani Aaltonen & Iro Haarla: Kirkastus

Read "Kirkastus" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
February 28, 2016

On the sublime Kirkastus saxophonist & flutist Juhani Aaltonen and pianist & harpist Iro Haarla engage in a series of intimate and impressionistic duets that brim with lyricism and spontaneity. A definite spirituality marks all ten of Haarla's compositions and, although various Psalms inspired most, the sacred nature of the music goes beyond strict religious boundaries to a universal and timeless devotional state. The ethereal “Long Sole Sound," for instance, has a Zen serenity. Haarla's strummed, sparse harp strings form ...

Album Review

Wendy Pedersen & Jim Gasior: We Two

by Edward Blanco
February 28, 2016

Long-time friends and two of South Florida's most enduring and favorite performers for a decade and more, vocalist Wendy Pedersen and pianist Jim Gasior present a session of light vocal jazz on We Two, their first solo album together offering new interpretations of the music from Rodgers & Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, the Gershwin brothers and many others. Two Educators and graduates from the University of Miami Frost School of Music, the duo have been musical collaborators ...

Album Review

Peter Brötzmann: Münster Bern

Read "Münster Bern" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 28, 2016

One indisputable fact, there cannot be enough Peter Brötzmann solo recordings in this world. Okay, for those that might disagree, there are a few choice solo Brötzmann sessions that are a must. Count Münster Bern in that category. The saxophonist, a leader of the 1960s European free jazz movement and a Fluxus artist had released several solo studio sessions fifteen and twenty years ago. It has only been recently that he has allowed live dates to filter out. Prior to ...

Live Review

LiV Warfield At the Iridium

by Mike Perciaccante
February 28, 2016

LiV Warfield the Iridium New York, NY February 20, 2016 Once upon a time LiV Warfield was a backup singer. That's not a condemnation. That's a fact. And, it's not a bad thing. Once upon a time Tom Brady was a backup quarterback. That is also a fact. And, no matter how you feel about Brady, you cannot argue with his four Super Bowl championships. It has worked out pretty good for Tom Brady. When ...

Live Review

Daryl Hall and John Oates at Madison Square Garden

by Mike Perciaccante
February 28, 2016

Daryl Hall and John Oates with special guests Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Mayer Hawthorne Madison Square Garden New York, NY February 19, 2016 It was soul night at Madison Square Garden. The evening began with Detroit Soul-pop as supplied by Mayer Hawthorne. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings brought its own patented version of soul-funk. And to top it off, the evening's headliners, Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Famers Daryl Hall and John Oates ...

Live Review

The 26th Annual Tibet House Benefit Concert

by Christine Connallon
February 28, 2016

The 26th Annual Tibet House Benefit Concert Carnegie Hall New York, NY February 22, 2016 The grand stage at Carnegie Hall created the proper ambiance, as it does each year, for the Tibet House benefit concert. The perfect mix of musicians representing a vast array of genres from around the world, hand-picked by composer and vice president of Tibet House, Philip Glass, filled the venue with their talents, culminating in a musical celebration that echoed ...