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

Lajos Dudas: Radio Days: The Music of Lajos Dudas

Read "Radio Days: The Music of Lajos Dudas" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 16, 2016

It is always a nice surprise when someone pops up who is new to you, but who, it turns out, has been playing for decades, has an extensive discography, and who has been reviewed quite a few times here at All About Jazz. That someone is clarinetist Lajos Dudas, and with Radio Days, celebrates his seventy-fifth birthday and a fifty-five year career with tracks recorded over a twenty year period, starting in 1984. The immediate impression ...

Album Review

Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages

Read "Ask the Ages" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 16, 2016

In 1994, guitarist Sonny Sharrock died from a sudden heart attack at age 53, leaving behind a body of cutting-edge jazz guitar compositions and recordings that still sounds ahead of its time.Ask the Ages (1991, Island), Sharrock's last official release, literally was one for the ages, recorded with an amazing quartet which teamed the guitarist with bassist Charnett Moffett and two powerhouse musicians greatly influenced by the sturm und drang of John Coltrane, drummer Elvin Jones and reedman ...

Extended Analysis

Ryan Keberle & Catharsis: Azul Infinito

by Dan Bilawsky
February 15, 2016

While the blues is a distinctly American creation, formed, fueled, and furthered by the African diaspora, the United States holds no ownership on blue-streaked sounds. They exist beyond our borders, and Azul Infinito makes that case in artful fashion by simultaneously tapping into various South American musical forms and cultures, reshaping them, and highlighting the color scheme(s) endemic to each one. It's a strikingly original album that's influenced by the work of specific figures and set cultural norms, but shaped ...

Album Review

The Empire Jazz Orchestra: Out of the Mist

Read "Out of the Mist" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 15, 2016

Out of the Mist is the sixth album (and first in a studio) recorded by the Empire Jazz Orchestra, a professional repertory ensemble founded in 1992 and in residence since then at Schenectady County (NY) Community College. While there is no comprehensive theme underlining its latest enterprise, the EJO's stated purpose is to perform music from the earliest days of jazz to its most contemporary manifestations. In that spirit, Out of the Mist embraces compositions and arrangements from Chick Corea, ...

Extended Analysis

GoGo Penguin: Man Made Object

by Phil Barnes
February 15, 2016

Its stick or twist for GoGo Penguin as they release this, their Blue Note debut and the first of a reputed three album deal. Do they push ahead, expanding their palette of electronica seen through the prism of acoustic jazz, or retreat a tad in deference to their new paymasters by emphasising the more traditional jazz elements of their sound. Should we be concerned that the two years since their breakthrough v2.0 album suggest a creative block or difficulty coping ...

Album Review

Masahiro Shimba & Bill Laswell: Dubopera

Read "Dubopera" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 15, 2016

Recently, researchers with the Ligo Collaboration reported that they had detected gravitational waves (predicted by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity 100 years ago) resulting from the collision between two black holes a billion years ago. Bassist and provocateur Bill Laswell has made a career of doting the same thing with musical genre, creating new and different forms with lasting consequences. Most notable has been Laswell's application of Dub, an electronic progeny of Reggae, to different styles of music ...

Album Review

Oddjob: Folk

by Karl Ackermann
February 15, 2016

Having been commissioned by Swedish Radio in the early 1960s, Jazz på Svenska (Jazz in Swedish) (Megafon Records, 1964) became--and remains--the best-selling jazz recording in that country. The spare interpretations of early Swedish folk tunes was rendered by pianist Jan Johansson and bassist Georg Riedel. More than fifty years later, that country's quintet, Oddjob, mines those historical records once more on Folk. Not widely recognized in the US, Oddjob's personnel are not without ties to well-known western artists. ...

Album Review

Artie Roth: Discern

by Budd Kopman
February 15, 2016

It has been quite a while since we have heard from bassist Artie Roth, as almost ten years have elapsed since Parallels. 2013 saw the current quartet on Currently Experiencing, clips of which can be found here. Discern, this quartet's latest offering is a dark, moody and powerful set of compositions brought to life by Roth and band members reedman Mike Filice, guitarist Geoff Young and drummer Anthony Michelli. The quartet plays as a single unit, creating a ...

Album Review

Jeremy Danneman: Help

by Glenn Astarita
February 15, 2016

New York City resident, reedman and pianist, Jeremy Danneman is the founder of the Parade of One Project, an organization that “engages the international community with a unique blend of performance in public spaces, recording, and educational programming." He's also an educator and lecturer. On his second release for Ropeadope as a leader he garners the estimable talents of bassist and supreme improviser, William Parker along with progressive jazz, improvising guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer Tim Keiper. Besides his commendable ...

Live Review

Keith Jarrett at Carnegie Hall

by Tyran Grillo
February 14, 2016

Keith Jarrett Carnegie Hall New York, NY February 9, 2016 Watching fans eagerly photographing a player-less piano, as if in hopes of visualizing forces only Keith Jarrett can translate at the keyboard, I couldn't help wondering what it was all for. Neither could he. Anticipations were nevertheless high as the audience prepared for a night of fully improvised music by that format's most widely heard practitioner. Jarrett took to the stage ...