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

Daniel Schlaeppi/Marc Copland: More Essentials

Read "More Essentials" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
January 14, 2016

More Essentials is just that, a continuation, after much touring, of the partnership between bassist Daniel Schlaeppi and pianist Marc Copland. The extremely high standards set by its predecessor, Essentials are more than met by this second release. The structure of this release is the same as before: tunes, some more, some less well known (including one original by Copland) are connected by “Essentials," which are short improvisations, mostly by Schlaeppi, with one duo effort. These are numbered ...

Live Review

Ed Palermo Big Band at the Iridium

by Bob Kenselaar
January 13, 2016

Ed Palermo Big Band Featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock Iridium New York, NY January 8, 2016 You can just about always count on a number of things in any show by the Ed Palermo Big Band: the music of Frank Zappa; inventive arrangements, richly crafted; tight, stellar playing by the ensemble; a nearly non-stop pace; and--maybe above all--a lively sense of humor. Not one to disappoint, the leader started off the first set of Friday's show ...

My Blue Note Obsession

In Praise of Liner Notes

by Marc Davis
January 13, 2016

Joni Mitchell was onto something. You don't miss liner notes until you don't have them. I admit: Many liner notes leave me cold, for two reasons. First, they're way too detailed, especially in jazz. Every take has to be scrupulously annotated. Who played third trumpet in that big band? Was that Bird's second or third take? Was that recorded in 1943 or 1944? Phooey. Second, the actual commentary tends to be syrupy. Has anyone ...

Album Review

Susie Arioli: Spring

by Edward Blanco
January 13, 2016

Canadian Jazz singer from Montreal and multiple Juno-Award nominee Susie Arioli, presents another spectacular rhythm-based recording on Spring, a spectacular blues and soul-influenced vocal project combining four fresh originals with a selection of vibrant standards for a very spicy and rousing good time. Under the direction of multi-instrumentalist/arranger and multiple Juno-Award winner Don Thompson, Arioli fronts a nine-piece ensemble that, on various occasions, sounds like a big band machine. With this superb support, the songstress delivers warm ballads, moving blues ...

Album Review

Mo' Blow: Live In Berlin

Read "Live In Berlin" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 13, 2016

It's over a decade since funk quartet Mo' Blow formed and those ten years have given the band ample time to develop its skills as a tight, dynamic, outfit. Live In Berlin is the band's first live album and its third album on Germany's ACT label. The live situation is where Mo' Blow clearly flourishes, as it revisits its back catalog to deliver a punchy set of tunes. With the exception of Adele's “Rolling In The Deep" the ...

Album Review

Evan Parker/John Russell/John Edwards, Pat Thomas, Alison Blunt/Benedict Taylor/David Leahy, Kay Grant/Alex Ward: Making Rooms

Read "Making Rooms" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
January 13, 2016

Originated by guitarist John Russell and pianist/trumpeter Chris Burn, Mopomoso is an improvised-music organisation that has run a series of monthly concerts in London ever since 1991, making it the longest-running such series in the UK. Between April 23rd and 30th 2013, Mopomoso embarked on a tour of England which visited seven cities outside London. At each stop, local improvising musicians supported the core group of musicians--Russell, saxophonist Evan Parker, bassists John Edwards and David Leahy, pianist Pat Thomas, violinist ...

Album Review

Yago Vazquez/Scott Lee/Jeff Hirshfield: Stream

by Budd Kopman
January 13, 2016

The “New Talent" on the very fine Fresh Sound New Talent release, Stream, is pianist Yago Vazquez, who hails from Spain, but who moved to NYC in 2008 to study at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where he graduated with honors in 2010. His band mates in this cooperative piano trio are long time partners bassist Scott Lee and drummer Jeff Hirshfield, both of whom would be familiar to anyone who has followed saxophonist Loren Stillman.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Mario Duenas

by AAJ Staff
January 12, 2016

About Mario Dueñas: Mario Dueñas was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He was introduced to the piano at the age of 5, developing a special interest in harmony, and soon began a self-teaching process through record transcribing and bibliographic studies. Years later, Mario established a variety of ensembles to further explore both the languages of composition as well as performance. Instrument(s): Piano Teachers and/or influences? I began discovering harmony at approximately the ...

Multiple Reviews

David Bowie and His Legacy

by Nenad Georgievski
January 12, 2016

Very few musicians can boast to having an artistic career that changed the course of music history in the way singer David Bowie has had. A legend in his lifetime, he had a more varied and influential career than any other single performer in popular music. Bowie was an example of what an artist should be--brave, creative, mischievous, charismatic, mysterious, endlessly curious, unpredictable, and several steps ahead of the pack. Rarely anyone has embraced so many changes of style and ...

Album Review

School Of Music Graduate Ensemble: Like No One Else

Read "Like No One Else" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 12, 2016

The University of the Arts in Philadelphia (UARTS) has one of the premier jazz education programs in the USA. This excellence is apparent in the exceptional careers of some of their alumni, such as bassist Stanley Clarke and trombonist Robin Eubanks. It is also documented well in the many recordings that the university's various ensembles release. Under the attentive guidance of the head of graduate jazz studies, pianist Don Glanden and through his tireless mentorship the students have many superb ...