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.

Live Review

Dave Liebman at Whelans

by Ian Patterson
February 8, 2016

Dave Liebman Whelans Dublin, Ireland January 31, 2016 It was a full house at Whelans for NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman, and, it has to be said, an especially attentive crowd. In fact, the bar of this famous Dublin venue can rarely have had such a quiet evening, during the two plus hours of boldly improvised music. And the relative silence of the crowd throughout the concert was not so much the in-the-church-of-jazz reverence ...

Album Review

Bob DeVos: Six String Solos

Read "Six String Solos" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
February 8, 2016

It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Bob DeVos' work as a leader that, in the absence of a band, the guitarist's virtues remain intact and shine even brighter. One goes to DeVos' gigs--mostly in and around northern New Jersey, usually in trio and quartet formats--with high expectations. Encompassing the simultaneous employment of a number of skills rendered in a straightforward, unassuming manner, on these occasions DeVos always delivers the goods. A distinctive, full-bodied tone stings and ...

Album Review

Sitting Bull: Sitting Bull

Read "Sitting Bull" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 7, 2016

The piano and percussion duo may be two-thirds of that most ubiquitous trio formation, but it is not often heard. Among those who have tackled this duo format are former Yes members, keyboardist Patrick Moraz and drummer Bill Bruford--both with solid jazz credentials--who had been down this road more than twenty years back with two E.G. Records releases, Flags and Music for Piano and Drums (1983, 1985) but with multiple keys and percussion instruments, their efforts were technologically embellished. Pianist ...

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Live Review

Marina Crouse At The Sound Room

by Walter Atkins
February 7, 2016

Marina Crouse The Sound Room First Time Out Oakland, CA January 30, 2016 Talented East Bay vocalist Marina Crouse and her superb band lit up the intimate Sound Room with her distinctive brand of rhythm and blues on this chilly Saturday evening. The night was filled with a soulful blend of funky blues, ballads and original music with a few surprising twists thrown in. Guest vocalist Will Russ Jr. also contributed to the memorable ...

Album Review

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra: Rotterdam 1969

Read "Rotterdam 1969" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
February 7, 2016

Right up to the end Duke Ellington maintained an ability to surprise lesser mortals with his impish wit. In 1969 he visited the White House to celebrate his 70th birthday and kissed President Richard Nixon on the cheek four times. When Nixon asked why four times, Ellington replied, “One for each cheek." Tricky Dicky was--as they say nowadays--totally gobsmacked but regained his composure in time to present Ellington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest ...

Album Review

Larry Brown Jr.: The Music and The Moment

Read "The Music and The Moment" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
February 7, 2016

With his second release as a leader The Music and the Moment guitarist Larry Brown Jr. deviates stylistically from his debut, the delightful and stimulating There Can Only Be One (Self Produced, 2011). While the previous record was firmly rooted in the hard bop mainstream spiced by various influences, the current one is an amalgam of popular genres delivered with jazz inspired sensibility. For instance, the R & B-ish, undulating “The Return of the Gentleman" coalesces around Brown's ...

Album Review

Samo Salamon: Unity

by Edward Blanco
February 7, 2016

Veteran Slovenian jazz guitarist Samo Salamon has little use for the standards or contemporary traditional jazz music preferring instead, the more creative challenging landscape of today's modern jazz. With his nineteenth album as leader, the young guitarist explores the edges of the genre venturing into uncommon territory once again on Unity, where he continues employing his bass less trio format for the fourth time in his recording career. On tap here is Salamon joining forces with two world-class ...

Jazz Near Me

At Mara's... Sweet, Savory and Seasoned with Jazz

by Gloria Krolak
February 7, 2016

On a Friday night at Mara's Café and Bakery in Berkeley Heights, you can satisfy several cravings at once: Answer the dinner bell, soothe a sweet tooth and hear eight New Jersey locals wail at some not-so-standard jazz tunes. The octet is Jazz Lab 6+2, which began as a sextet, then added two more players. These are serious and gifted multi-instrumentalists who burn to share what they've concocted in their laboratory. Jackson Liu, Mara's owner, gave them free rein over ...

Jazz Near Me

Ruby Lee's Dishes up Blues, Jazz and Soul Food

by Gloria Krolak
February 7, 2016

Three-year-old Ruby Lee's, on the quieter north end of Hilton Head Island, SC, serves up the blues, jazz and soul food. That mix helps set the venue apart from more than 300 restaurants vying for the patronage of the resort town's 39,000 residents and some 2.5 million annual visitors. Proud matriarch and head chef Deborah Govan, who offered these stats, told me that since she founded the place named after her mother in 2013, Ruby Lee's has climbed ...

Album Review

Russ DeFilippis: The Sorcerer's Accomplice

Read "The Sorcerer's Accomplice" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 6, 2016

Jazz guitarist and educator Russ DeFilippis from Stony Point, New York delivers his second album as leader with the appropriately titled The Sorcerer's Accomplice, a ten-piece project of smooth-styled jazz with a Brazilian flair. Why is the album title so apropos? In 2012, DeFilippis met fellow educator, composer and pianist Richard Sorce at a rehearsal of Sorce's Latin-jazz compositions which, eventually became part of Sorce's recording A Place I've Never Been (Ever Jazz Records, 2015). For this ...