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

Ralph Alessi: Quiver

by Mark Sullivan
February 24, 2016

Quiver finds trumpeter Ralph Alessi and his quartet in a lyrical, reflective mood. Alessi describes the atmosphere in the recording studio as “pensive," a quality that imbues this music. The group includes most of the players from Alessi's acclaimed ECM leader debut Baida (2013). Drew Gress (double-bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) return, with Gary Versace taking the piano chair in place of Jason Moran. Tempting to ascribe the differences between the two sessions to the pianists, but I think it ...

Album Review

Roberto Magris: Need to Bring Out Love

Read "Need to Bring Out Love" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 24, 2016

Italian jazz pianist and maestro Roberto Magris follows up his highly-regarded Enigmatix (JMood Records, 2015) with the sequel Need to Bring Out Love delivering the same type of modern-styled contemporary sound that made the first album, so enticing. Known as a proponent of the straight ahead mainstream side of jazz and a lover of the standards, Magris shifted gears on the first recording deciding to showcase his talents as a composer by offering fresh new charts. On this sensational sequel, ...

Album Review

Patrick Cornelius: While We’re Still Young

Read "While We’re Still Young" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
February 24, 2016

An alumnus of Berklee School of Music, saxophonist Patrick Cornelius has now released his sixth album containing a very fine suite of his own compositions, inspired by the poetry of A.A. Milne, the British children's author of When We Were Very Young. A brief horn introduction, reminiscent of the slow movement in Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 opens “Sand Between The Toes," rapidly ensued by a lively full ensemble section, and solos by Gerald Clayton on piano, Patrick Cornelius on alto ...

Album Review

Fernanda Cunha: Olhos De Mar

Read "Olhos De Mar" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 24, 2016

While vocalist Fernanda Cunha might seem to be a newcomer here in the States, Olhos de Mar is actually her sixth release dating back to 2002. Samba, bossa nova, the Brazilian ethos itself, including the language, all have a sensuousness which soothes life's troubles, and from this point of view, Olhos de Mar is way too short in the best way. Cunha's lovely and emotionally subtle voice, when coupled with the simple but effective accompaniment and arrangements sweeps ...

Live Review

Tommy Halferty Trio With Seamus Blake at JJ Smyth's

by Ian Patterson
February 23, 2016

Tommy Halferty Trio With Seamus Blake JJ Smyth's Dublin, Ireland February 13, 2016 The great thing about jazz clubs the size of your living room is that nearly every night is a full house. Within minutes of JJ Smyth's opening its doors it was standing room only for Tommy Halferty's Trio featuring Canadian tenor player Seamus Blake. The Saturday night crowd of regular patrons and fun-seeking tourists responded to an animated set with enthusiasm ...

Album Review

Kevin Kaska Jazz Orchestra: Shades of Rio

Read "Shades of Rio" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 23, 2016

Seductive melodies and danceable rhythms carry the day on Shades of Rio, a tasteful debut recording by the southern California-based Kevin Kaska Jazz Orchestra, which earns the name by using a full string section on most numbers to complement its well-upholstered twenty-three member core ensemble anchored by master drummer Harvey Mason. Kaska, a story unto himself, wrote eight numbers and all the arrangements, many with a Latin flavor, thus playing to the strength of special guest Arturo Sandoval, a nine-time ...

Album Review

Michel Benita Ethics: River Silver

Read "River Silver" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 23, 2016

The Algerian born bassist, Michel Benita, has been an active presence on the European jazz scene for three decades. Now Paris-based, he has played with guitarist Marc Ducret, Dino Saluzzi and Archie Shepp among many other well known artists. At the end of the 1990s he cofounded the ELB Trio with French guitarist Nguyên Lê and drummer Peter Erskine. With River Silver, Benita's group, Ethics, brings a global flavor that aligns with his past musical career choices as well as ...

Album Review

Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet: Intercambio

Read "Intercambio" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
February 23, 2016

The music that commenced as accompaniment to ancestral rituals and gained its popularity in dancehalls and ballrooms, has come of age. Latin infused jazz, has been steadily evolving since the African drums came to the Caribbean, and melded with European musical influences. Trombonist, composer, arranger, and producer Wayne Wallace is aptly tuned into this evolutionary process and presents Intercambio, a cross cultural interaction of musical counterpoint. With his Latin Jazz Quintet--and its exemplary members--Wallace has taken a sophisticated ...

Album Review

Simon Phillips: Protocol 3

Read "Protocol 3" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 23, 2016

This is the 3rd installment of all-universe drummer Simon Phillips' (The Who, Toto, Hiromi...) Protocol band. And he imparts a commanding presence via lyrically charged fills and mesmeric polyrhythmic flurries amid the resonating output from his large rock kit. Akin to the previous albums, the quartet intertwines jazz fusion, jazz rock and progressive rock into a unified entity, backed by tuneful hooks and the musicians' tightknit interactions. Moreover, keyboardist Steve Weingart and guitarist Andy Timmons infuse an array of multihued ...

Rediscovery

Nils Petter Molvaer: Khmer

by John Kelman
February 23, 2016

Nils Petter Molvær KhmerECM Records 1997 At a time when, with the sheer volume of music vying for attention it's almost an impossibility to release a recording that actually shakes the foundation of what music is and what it can be, there was a time, in 1997-98—and in, perhaps, the most unlikely of places—when four albums changed the course of music...particularly in their native country, to be sure, but also on an international scale. Out ...