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.

Extended Analysis

Earl Hines: Piano Genius At Work

by Chris Mosey
February 19, 2016

This boxed set of seven CDs and one DVD pays tribute to Earl “Fatha" Hines, one of the most influential pianists in the history of jazz. From 1928, when he took over the piano stool in Louis Armstrong's band, through to the birth of bebop and modern jazz in the 1940s, when he fronted a big band that featured both Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Hines was up there on the cutting edge. He defied categorization, his ...

Catching Up With

Ben Monder: Amorphous Music

by Nenad Georgievski
February 18, 2016

Ben Monder is a guitarist with a singular and influential voice. While he has received a great acclaim for his multifaceted work and unparalleled technical facility, Monder has also demonstrated remarkable breadth both as a bandleader and composer. His debut album for ECM Amorphae is a kind of a movie for one's ears. Amorphae consists of a set of beautiful compositions that orchestrate kind of sounds beyond the imagination. Monder's distinctive guitars create a wide range of colors, dynamics and ...

Live Review

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble at The Center for New Music

by Harry S. Pariser
February 18, 2016

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble Center for New Music San Francisco, CA February 15, 2016 San Francisco's Tenderloin District is a down-and-out area which wags have christened “Twitterloin," (owing to the proximity of Twitter and other tax companies given tax subsidies to erect their palatial edifices in this culturally diverse neighborhood). And the Center for New Music, on Taylor Street, is a gem in its heart. While the arrival of the tech industry, and ...

Album Review

Ed Cherry: Soul Tree

Read "Soul Tree" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
February 18, 2016

Like any jazz recording worth its salt, Ed Cherry's Soul Tree, his second release for the Posi-Tone imprint, impresses on more than one level. Cherry's interpretations of often performed jazz standards--Mal Waldron's “Soul Eyes," Dave Brubeck's “In Your Own Sweet Way," Horace Silver's “Peace," among others--are exceptionally well drawn and stand up nicely in comparison to other versions. The disc's ten tracks include two of the leader's original compositions. For the most part Cherry keeps things relatively simple, illuminating the ...

Album Review

Jake Hertzog: Well Lit Shadow

Read "Well Lit Shadow" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 18, 2016

A suite for solo electric guitar that takes inspiration from images of particle collisions isn't exactly your garden-variety jazz release. But, then again, Jake Hertzog isn't your garden-variety jazz guitarist. Over the course of the past decade, Hertzog has established himself as a powerful and unique voice on his instrument. He's worked out his own brand of fusion, made his mark in jazz settings, crossed into rock realms with The Young Presidents, served as musical director and lead guitarist for ...

Album Review

The Great American Music Ensemble: It's All in the Game

Read "It's All in the Game" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 18, 2016

While those of a certain age may reasonably presume that It's All in the Game refers to a hit song from 1958 by Tommy Edwards ("Many a tear has to fall, but it's all in the game . . ."), the “game" in this case is actually an acronym for conductor / arranger Doug Richards' Great American Music Ensemble, or GAME, formed in the mid-80s when Richards was director of Jazz Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. All in ...

Album Review

Keith Tippett: Mujician Solo IV – Live in Piacenza

Read "Mujician Solo IV – Live in Piacenza" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
February 18, 2016

From its opening notes, it is apparent that Keith Tippett's first solo recording in fifteen years is something very special indeed. Tippett has always been a player with a talent for musical pyrotechnics, cascades of notes--triplets, trills, mordants and arpeggios-colliding with mighty tone clusters. But equally, he has also been an artist of great emotional subtlety and depth. Both these qualities are in evidence here. For much of the record, the sense is less that of Rachmaninov, more that of ...

Album Review

The Empresarios: The Vibes

Read "The Vibes" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 18, 2016

Even though they're based in Washington, DC, every piece of music from The Empresarios--either their own or in collaboration with others--sounds like you've just rolled into a torrid party on tropical Miami Beach. And even though they're based in Washington, DC, Empresarios bandleader Javier Miranda and lead singers Frankie Rosado and Felix Perez all hail from Puerto Rico, and the colorful tropicaliente sound of that sunny island comes through in the band's unique blend of salsa, reggae, cumbia, dub and ...

Record Label Profile

Inner Circle Music: Creativity and Community Spirit

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 17, 2016

The music industry today is defined by a strange paradox: there are too few labels and too many. On the one hand, the major labels have merged and sign less jazz artists, meaning the dream of a company with plenty of promotional muscles becomes harder to achieve. On the other hand, more and more musicians have started releasing their own music, but their labels are often one-man operations with none of the benefits that come with a true label: a ...

Music and the Creative Spirit

Rita Draper Frazão: A Fine Artist's Representations Of Creative Processes In Music (Part 1)

by Henning Bolte
February 17, 2016

Part 1 | Part 2 This portrait of Portuguese fine artist Rita Draper Frazão is related to the recent Carte Blanche of percussionist Hamid Drake's that took place at the Amsterdam Bimhuis (read my February 2016 review). As a collaborative follow-up this article is published together with a series of portraits Rita Draper Frazão created of musician and others involved in or related to the Carte Blanche of Hamid Drake: From Chaos To A Dancing Star. Rita Draper ...