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

William Hooker: Light The Early Years 1975-1989

Read "Light The Early Years 1975-1989" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 23, 2016

The good news is that record executives are no longer the gatekeepers of taste and style in music today. Inexpensive recording equipment and the advent of digital music allow the artist, and the audience to cast a wide net these days. This wasn't the case forty years ago, especially for the improvised jazz scene. Studio time was expensive and the production of vinyl LPs, in the quantities free jazz sold, was cost prohibitive. Documents of the time, when improvised music ...

Interview

David Gibson: Propelling The Story Forward

by Dan Bilawsky
February 22, 2016

It's late morning on Sunday, January 17, 2016--a wintry New York day that will later see snow--and much of Brooklyn seems to be in a state of hibernation or hiding. There are few signs of life on the streets, but there's no shortage of action in the basement of the former Public School 9 Annex. That's where the studio known as Acoustic Recording is situated, and that's where trombonist David Gibson has come to record what will be his fourth ...

Album Review

Tord Gustavsen with Simin Tander & Jarle Vespestad: What was said

Read "What was said" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
February 22, 2016

What was said introduces a new trio from Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen, featuring German-Afghan vocalist Simin Tander, with the support of longtime collaborator drummer Jarle Vespestad (who has played on all of Gustavsen's previous ECM recordings). The inspiration for the program was the tradition of Norwegian church music, but it is explored in a most untraditional way. The most obvious difference is the polyglot approach to the sung languages. Gustavson's interest in Sufi poetry and enjoyment of the sound of ...

Album Review

Adison Evans: Hero

by Hrayr Attarian
February 22, 2016

In the span of mere 5-6 years saxophonist Adison Evans has forged a versatile career. Her approach to all genres of popular music and jazz has the same exuberant spirit and impeccable musicianship. Hence she embodies the oft quoted, or rather misquoted, genre defying adage “There are only two kinds of music good and bad" and she definitely plays the good kind. Evans' debut Hero is a solidly bop based record with a definite soulfulness and an organic ...

Album Review

Klimaforandringer: Ånder

Read "Ånder" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 22, 2016

Klimaforandringer (climate change) is a new project from experimental guitarist Lars Bech Pilgaard. Throughout his career, he has moved in many different musical directions, but this project is perhaps his most accessible yet. Here, he has enlisted the talent of drummers Rune Lohse and Anders Vestergaard, bassist Peter Skibsted, fellow guitarist Taus Bregnhøj Olesen and keyboard-player Rasmus Kjær Larsen. Lil Lacy also contributes with her ethereal voice and cello. Ånder (Spirits) is an album that relies on ...

Album Review

Camila Meza: Traces

by Dan Bilawsky
February 22, 2016

Try to process and pin down the meaning of Camila Meza's mien in any number of pictures included in this package and you may come up empty. But it's not for lack of expression there. It's for the exact opposite reason. Meza projects countless thoughts and moods--both complementary and contradictory in nature--within a single image, and it's the same with her music. She's extremely colorful in her methods and means of expression, creating rich and enchanting concoctions that project longing, ...

Album Review

Axel Dörner/Franz Hautzinger/Mazen Kerbaj/Carl Ludwig Hübsch: Ariha Brass Quartet

Read "Ariha Brass Quartet" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 22, 2016

The visual component of music has seemingly always been given short shrift by critics, and for that matter, listeners too. Except for the rare instances where a person is born with an acute synesthesia, or the ability to see musical notes as colors or shapes, perception of sound is limited to emotion and the sensation of movement i.e. dance music. Improvised music, especially minimalist improvisation practiced by the Ariha Brass Quartet maybe the best avenue for a listener to develop ...

Profile

Barry Guy: Back to the Drawing-Board (Part 3)

by Duncan Heining
February 22, 2016

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 One of the things which may strike the listener on hearing the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra for the first time is just how much volume Guy is able to draw from just seventeen to twenty players. Some other big bands sound almost insipid in comparison. There is something about the way the composer is able to harness the power of his individual musicians and magnify it to something of symphonic ...

Extended Analysis

Michel Benita Ethics: River Silver

by John Kelman
February 22, 2016

It's no secret that music is something that can dissolve borders, transcend cultures, and speak with a language understood by all. That the decreasing size of the world has made it possible for artists from disparate countries to collaborate and create music that is truly greater than the sum of its parts--imbued not just with the qualities that each musician brings from his/her own culture, but from ones beyond their own as well--is also a given in the 21st century. ...

Album Review

Thomas Albæk Jakobsen's Flux: Voyager

by Dan Bilawsky
February 21, 2016

Tranquil tidings, flowing gestures, sweeping statements, curious encounters, and triumphant displays are all incorporated into the music of Danish drummer Thomas Albæk Jakobsen's FLUX. For the band's second album, following Relationships (Self Produced, 2013), Jakobsen sought to highlight the group's development during the two year span between records. That aspect of the work is something that musicians in the band and their longtime fans will likely appreciate. But for those unfamiliar with this outfit and its debut recording, Voyager is ...