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

Matt Ridley: Mettã

by Roger Farbey
February 26, 2016

A graduate of London's Trinity College of Music, this is in-demand bassist Matt Ridley's second album as leader. On “Music To Drive Home To" Jason Yarde plays a repeated plangent melody on soprano saxophone followed by John Turville elegantly soloing on piano. As its name implies “Lachrymose" is something of a tear-jerking exercise with Yarde squeezing out a poignant melody from the soprano and a searching bass solo from Matt Ridley.A morse code-like bass pulse opens “Mental Cases" ...

Album Review

Alon Yavnai - Jesper Riis: Reconnect

Read "Reconnect" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 26, 2016

A first meeting can be something special. Perhaps, a certain chemistry is present. Perhaps, there is feeling of immediate communication. Sometimes these first meetings evolve into long-term friendships and relationships, but other times, people just drift apart again for no particular reason. In a way, being a jazz musician could be characterized as a series of first meetings. In rock music, people often stay together in the same band for many years, but it is different with ...

Interview

Alicia Hall Moran: Feeling Blue

by Tyran Grillo
February 26, 2016

Alicia Hall Moran has been stealing--if not steeling--hearts and minds since she first opened her mouth to sing. Over a career spanning as many years as genres, Alicia has plugged her vocal cords into an ever-expanding circuitry of creative electricity. Whether in solo recital at the MoMA, reinventing Motown classics with guitarist Thomas Flippin, or nationally touring on stage as Gershwin's Bess, she brings her apparent all to any given project so that she might become aware of what's left ...

Extended Analysis

Jon Benjamin: Well I should have...

by Tyran Grillo
February 26, 2016

"Jazz is the ocean... I am just one wave forming one curl, crashing once onto some remote beach somewhere in time. And that wave makes a small imperceptible change in the slope of the sand, upon which at some point in time a baby turtle will walk across, leaving his trail for just an instant, before the tide washes it clean. That's a pretty cool analogy. More to the point, I do not play piano and I made this jazz ...

Album Review

Robin Eubanks Mass Line Big Band: More Than Meets The Ear

Read "More Than Meets The Ear" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
February 25, 2016

More Than Meets the Ear is Robin Eubanks' first foray leading a big band in his three decades as a performing musician. The date features compositions spanning Eubanks' entire career, artfully embellished and re-arranged for a formidable 19-piece ensemble. The key difference between this lineup and a conventional unit--other than Mike King's bluesy organ and Boris Kozlov's intermittent use of electric bass--is the leader's occasionally electrified trombone. Eubanks has long augmented his horn with effects pedals, but this is the ...

Album Review

Yvonnick Prene: Breathe

by Dan Bilawsky
February 25, 2016

Yvonnick Prene has called New York home since 2007, but jazz fans in and around the Big Apple and beyond can be forgiven if they lacked awareness about his harmonica skills until more recent times. His first album--the inviting Jour de Fête (SteepleChase Records, 2013)--took a while to arrive, so the only way to learn about Prene prior to 2013 was through word of mouth or a chance live encounter. Now, judging from his recent output, it appears that he's ...

Album Review

AERIE: Hatch and Host

Read "Hatch and Host" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
February 25, 2016

Band names whose meanings are obscure and whose pronunciations are uncertain can be annoying, so to clarify, an aerie is the nest of a bird of prey. It can be pronounced 'airy' or 'eerie," though the music on the debut of this multi-national quintet is neither. Instead, this overtly contemporary jazz veers between bucolic at one extreme and visceral at the other, with flowing improvisations contained within bold compositional frameworks that evolve organically this way and that. The eight compositions, ...

Album Review

Ari Erev: Flow

by Edward Blanco
February 25, 2016

Flow is the third recording as leader from prominent Israeli pianist Ari Erev and follows the themes of “time" and “change" that titled his previous albums. On this endeavor, Erev designs a project that reflects his affinity for the percussive Latin sound by including a touch of Afro-Cuban rhythms as one of the elements in a generally post-bop environment of rich harmonic flavor. The Tel-Aviv-based pianist delivers a primarily original selection with the exception of a few cover tunes in ...

Album Review

Stanley Clarke/Biréli Lagrene/Jean-Luc Ponty: D-Stringz

Read "D-Stringz" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
February 25, 2016

As sometimes happens in life, the best experiences are those that come as an unexpected surprise. The formation of the acoustic trio D-Stringz, featuring violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, guitarist Bireli Lagrene, and bassist Stanley Clarke, was almost by accident, as they were all on the same bill back in 2012, in Paris, playing with different ensembles. As luck would have it, the sparks and mutual interest was there and guided by producer Francois Lacharme, this project came to light.

Album Review

Jae Sinnett: Zero To 60

Read "Zero To 60" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 24, 2016

The title of this record is something of a double entendre, referencing both the arrival of a milestone birthday for drummer-composer Jae Sinnett and the specific decade that helped influence his outlook on music, art, and life in general. But don't let that information fool you. This isn't some nostalgia-filled date with flower power filigree. This is modern jazz that sells itself through the marriage of sophistication and accessibility. And while those two might seem like strange bedfellows, they shouldn't. ...