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

Karolina Strassmayer and Drori Mondlak: Of Mystery and Beauty

Read "Of Mystery and Beauty" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 21, 2016

Over the past decade and a half Austrian saxophonist Karolina Strassmayer has established herself as a superbly consummate musician. Her multifaceted compositions are always subtly, engagingly inventive and brim with brilliant wit and lyricism. As an improviser she plays with a reserved intensity and a captivating and suave spontaneity. Her seventh release Of Mystery and Beauty showcases again her unique style that has matured and ripened without losing any of its vibrant energy. Like all of Strassmayer's previous ...

Album Review

Greg Abate & Phil Woods: Kindred Spirits: Live at Chan's

Read "Kindred Spirits: Live at Chan's" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 20, 2016

The legendary alto saxophonist Phil Woods' (1931-2015) health was failing at the time Kindred Spirits: Live at Chan's was recorded, but you never know it by listening to the crisp delivery, the vitality of a hot bebop band playing in the mode of the iconic altoist Charlie Parker. Saxophonist Greg Abate joins Woods in the front line, and the Tim Ray Trio backs them up. It's not a first teaming for Abate and Woods. A student/mentor relationship exists ...

Extended Analysis

Weather Report: The Legendary Live Tapes 1978-1981

by Doug Collette
January 20, 2016

The Legendary Live Tapes 1978-1981 is a stellar package of Weather Report concert recordings focusing on that phase of this groundbreaking group's career where they were truly rock stars visiting from a jazz world. It stands as further affirmation of the constant change implied in their name as much as their continual transcendence of the jazz-rock fusion genre. The unusual size and shape of the 5.5 x 6 inch package thus stands as a very metaphor of Weather ...

Album Review

Myra Melford + Ben Goldberg: Dialogue

Read "Dialogue" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
January 20, 2016

In their first duo release Dialogue avant-garde jazz pianist Myra Melford and clarinetist Ben Goldberg's two instruments move in tandem yet independently, complimenting one another while exhibiting distinct qualities. At the forefront of open-minded music, the two have worked together in other ensembles yet performed sporadically as a duo since 2008. A 2013 Guggenheim Fellow, Melford is a fearless improviser and bandleader of several groups with exceptional recordings The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12, 2010) and Snowy Egret(Yellobird,2015). A consummate ...

Rediscovery

John Scofield: Live

by John Kelman
January 20, 2016

John Scofield LiveEnja Records1977 After a lengthy hiatus, Rediscovery returns with an album that may not have represented the first time I'd heard John Scofield...but it was certainly the album that cemented my already firm impression that this was a guitarist on whom I'd have to keep a close watch. Nearly forty years later he remains a personal favourite, and while he's released a gaggle of terrific records, including last year's stellar Past Present (Impulse!), ...

Album Review

Javier Vercher: Wish You Were Here

Read "Wish You Were Here" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
January 20, 2016

Pushing the limits of jazz is where saxophonist Javier Vercher resides, creating in a world full of experimentalism and melodicism, but creativity and heartfelt music is the unifying thread. On Wish You Were Here (MUSIKOZ), customary jazz is given an overhaul, flirting with dissonant or uneasy textures. In other words, it actually tosses jazz back into the groundbreaking sonic landscapes that once enabled it to light the world on fire. Wish You Were Here is visionary work, one that stands ...

Album Review

Sean Sonderegger's Magically Inclined: Eat The Air

Read "Eat The Air" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 20, 2016

New York City-based saxophonist, composer Sean Sonderegger's Magically Inclined unit consists of artists he performed with for late composer, conductor Butch Morris' ensembles amid other regional jazz and improvisation units. Perhaps his involvement with Morris and studies with multi-reedman, composer Anthony Braxton among other notables, spawned the genesis for these rather complex works, often modeled with weaving and odd-metered unison phrasings. Moreover, Areni Agbabian harmonizes with the frontline during many choruses as an instrumental voice via these disparate motifs, riding ...

Live Review

NYC Winter Jazzfest 2016

by Dan Bilawsky
January 19, 2016

NYC Winter JazzfestNew York, NYJanuary 13-17, 2016 If you make the rounds in New York City on any night of the week, during any week of the year, there's always an abundance of quality jazz to hear. But when NYC Winter Jazzfest takes hold, the cup truly runneth over. This massive annual event amplifies this already-vibrant scene, bringing it to critical mass while drawing in jazz fans, musicians, and industry members from near and far. ...

Album Review

Hannes Riepler: Wild Life

Read "Wild Life" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 19, 2016

Austrian-born guitarist and composer Hannes Riepler moved to the UK a decade ago, releasing debut album The Brave (Jellymould Jazz) in 2012. Wild Life is his second album: with a new and slightly stripped-down line-up (no keyboards this time around) it's an equally impressive outing.Most of the tunes are Riepler's originals--there's also experienced saxophonist and new band member Chris Cheek's “Sailing Ships" and a cover of Beck's “Modern Guilt." The tracks are all between four and eight minutes ...

Album Review

Swiss Jazz Orchestra: Pools: Live at Jazzfestival Bern

Read "Pools: Live at Jazzfestival Bern" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 19, 2016

As if a new CD by the superlative Swiss Jazz Orchestra weren't enough to start New Year 2016 on a high note, Pools presses home the considerable talents of the orchestra's special guests, vibraphonist Mike Mainieri and drummer Peter Erskine, in a dynamic performance taped live at the Hotel Innere Enge on April 10-11, 2015, as part of Jazzfestival Bern. Besides playing with his usual aplomb, Mainieri wrote five of the session's eight numbers and solos on every one save ...