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.

Multiple Reviews

Cowboy: Reach for the Sky & 5'll Getcha Ten

by Doug Collette
January 22, 2016

The one act on Phil Walden's Capricorn Records that did not sound at all like the Allman Brothers Band, Cowboy didn't just boast a down-to-earth charm all their own. This loose aggregation led by Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton predates the Americana genre by some four or five decades and functions without any of the self-conscious attention to roots of much contemporary work in the somewhat contrived genre. With the emphasis Cowboy placed on vocal harmonies, it begs credulity they ...

Film Review

Rolling Stones From the Vault: Live at Leeds Roundhay Park 1982

by Doug Collette
January 22, 2016

Rolling Stones From the Vault: Live at Leeds Roundhay Park 1982 Eagle Vision 2015 Since they began to suck in the Seventies, the Rolling Stones have turned the concept of a band hiatus into an effective modus operandi for consistent rediscovery. And that, in turn, has presented an opportunity they've maximized with a increasingly high-tech stage production that presents perfect fodder for their archiving series. The steady stream of From the Vault releases ultimately ...

Album Review

Gilad Hekselman: Homes

by Mark F. Turner
January 22, 2016

The “heir apparent" concept does not exist in jazz. Younger artists seeking status and respect must earn it through the rigors of performing and creating music through their own voice and merit. While the talented Israeli-born New York-based guitarist Gilad Hekselman's skill has been likened to Pat Metheny and Kurt Rosenwinkel, he's doing just that with impressive work--tours, dates and a number of fine recordings such as 2013's This Just In (Jazz Village). His release as leader, ...

Album Review

Veryan Weston / Jon Rose / Hannah Marshall: Tuning Out

Read "Tuning Out" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
January 22, 2016

There is a very interesting project awaiting some lucky (and patient) individual, researching the role that churches played in the spread of improvised music in Britain. To clear up any ambiguity, that “churches" refers to the buildings themselves rather than their human members. Any devotee of improvised music in Britain will probably have spent far more time in church than many (so-called) devout Christians, as churches are frequently used to host gigs and also as recording spaces. That has nothing ...

Album Review

Kaja Draksler / Susana Santos Silva: This Love

Read "This Love" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 22, 2016

Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler and Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva came together at Lisbon's Culturgest in March 2015 to create This Love. While it's their first duet album, they've been making music together in various groups since 2008, first in the European Movement Jazz Orchestra, an international big band of young up-coming musicians, and later in short-lived units like Cows in Trees. Apart both boast burgeoning discographies with Draksler's solo The Lives Of Many Others (Clean Feed, 2013) attracting favorable ...

Album Review

Nicolas Bearde: Invitation

Read "Invitation" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 22, 2016

Bay-area vocalist Nicolas Bearde belongs to an exclusive club: male jazz singers. I suspect, being scientifically minded, that submissions from male jazz singers make up approximately 10% of the music I receive for review. While in may be impolitic to discuss, it remains a fact. Not only are there few male jazz singers, there a fewer good male jazz singers...and that number continues to dwindle. Gratefully, Bearde has emerged follow the release of four previous recordings on his own Right ...

Album Review

Ronan Guilfoyle: Hands

by Ian Patterson
January 21, 2016

In a thirty-year career as a leader, Irish bassist Ronan Guilfoyle has built an international reputation as a rhythmically advanced musician and a sophisticated, challenging composer. From indo-jazz suites to contemporary classical music (composed and improvised) and from extended works inspired by the writings of Samuel Beckett and James Joyce to suites for jazz guitar trio and string quartet, Guilfoyle's music draws from a large and diverse vocabulary. His small jazz ensembles, however, often provide the setting for his most ...

Album Review

Raya Brass Band: Raya

by Mark Sullivan
January 21, 2016

From the sound you would probably place Brooklyn's Raya Brass Band in some other Brooklyn--one located somewhere in the Balkans. Their bright, joyful music is never far from the traditional wedding music of the Balkans and Greece. It's dance music, grooves like crazy, and is just plain fun. You may not spontaneously jump up and dance, but I defy you to not tap your foot or nod your head while listening. Greg Squared (saxophone), Ben Syversen (trumpet), and Don Godwin ...

Album Review

Glauco Lima: Once Upon A Time

Read "Once Upon A Time" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
January 21, 2016

Brazil, perhaps more than any other country, has embraced jazz, the sound of 1950s jazz or the cool school as some like to call it, and the music world has benefited from this love affair. This music has had a huge influence on the evolution of the bossa nova, and now latin jazz has cemented itself to the vocabulary of modern jazz. The combined evolution of the music and the love of rhythm that both styles share has opened the ...

Multiple Reviews

Jeff Beck Group: Rough and Ready & Jeff Beck Group a/k/a 'The Orange Album'

by Doug Collette
January 21, 2016

The early phases of iconic British guitarist Jeff Beck's solo career proceeded in fits and starts, due in no small part to his admittedly temperamental nature, but also via twists of fate that, in fairly quick succession, stymied his progress then accelerated it proportionately. The original Jeff Beck Group, including vocalist Rod Stewart, bassist Ronnie Wood, drummer Mick Waller and, in later stages, pianist extraordinaire Nicky Hopkins, might've established a breakthrough at their appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 ...