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

We Float: Silence

Read "Silence" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 28, 2015

Silence, the debut album from the Norwegian-Swedish, Malmö-based quartet We Float, offers well-crafted, dreamy and intimate jazz songs with a pop sensibility, characterized by a hypnotic, infectious pulse. This kind of aesthetic may sound to some as treading in the sonic territory of the Swedish-Danish trio Nuaia, but this first impression is deceiving --there is more from this fine group in Silence. We Float, whose name is inspired by PJ Harvey song (taken from Harvey's White Chalk album, ...

Book Review

Free Jazz / Black Power

by Ian Patterson
December 27, 2015

Free Jazz / Black Power Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli 256 Pages ISBN: ISBN 978-1-62846-039-1 University Press of Mississippi 2015 Forty four years after its publication in French, Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli's thought-provoking, fiercely intellectual book Free Jazz/Black Power finally finds its way into English, thanks to Grégory Pierrot's translation and the good folk at University Press of Mississippi. The four words of the title reference four histories that ...

Album Review

Adam Pieronczyk & Miroslav Vitous: Wings

Read "Wings" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 27, 2015

Based in Krakow, Poland, saxophonist Adam Pieronczyk crafted, in 2010, perhaps the finest recorded tribute to his countryman, Krzysztof Komeda, with Komeda: The Innocent Sorcerer (Jazzwerkstatt). Komeda was a seminal Polish jazz man who shifted his focus to soundtrack work, most famously with film maker Roman Polanski, and most notably on the 1968 psycho-horror movie, Rosemary's Baby. Pieronczyk took on the tribute task with a two-saxophone-out-front, bass/drums/guitar rhythm section that captured Komeda's spirit to perfection. So how do ...

Album Review

Oscar Perez: Prepare A Place For Me

Read "Prepare A Place For Me" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
December 27, 2015

The heart of this album is found in pianist/composer Oscar Perez's trio with bassist Thomson Kneeland and drummer Alvester Garnett. Their four tracks showcase the cohesive sound they have developed together, Perez's elegant pianism matched by his empathetic partners. It's a modern piano trio, with a conversational style and all members contributing. There's enough trio music here to give a well-rounded picture of what they can do. “Just Everything" opens the set with a trio version ...

Album Review

Tomeka Reid: Tomeka Reid Quartet

Read "Tomeka Reid Quartet" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 27, 2015

As an accomplished composer and improviser, cellist Tomeka Reid, is an integral part of Chicago's creative music scene. In addition to being an educator, Reid is a versatile and tireless performer both in her hometown and beyond. Moreover her unique style graces the works of such luminaries as flutist Nicole Mitchell, multireed player Anthony Braxton as well as her own collaborative trio albums. The tense and thrilling Tomeka Reid Quartet is her first release as a leader. The, ...

Album Review

Bobby Bradford / Frode Gjerstad Quartet: The Delaware River

Read "The Delaware River" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 27, 2015

This live date from Philadelphia in 2014 forms the seventh in a string of releases by the Bobby Bradford and Frode Gjerstad quartet. Their association dates back to 1986 when cornetist Bradford first encountered Norwegian reedman Gjerstad as part of co-operative group Detail, convened by drummer John Stevens. All of that experience shows in the relaxed but practiced concision as they navigate through four seat of the pants negotiations on this limited edition LP. It's one of their best showings ...

London Calling

The People Band: Back and playing again

by Sammy Stein
December 27, 2015

46 years after their previous release, the People Band are putting out a new CD. Paul Jolly is producing the project and releasing it through his record label, 33JAZZ records. Jolly is also a member of the band. He says, “The reason for a new album is that our last one, released on the Emanem label, covered material from 1969 / 70 and there was nothing current to show that the band is still alive (mostly) and still creating." In ...

Album Review

Tom Matta Big Band: Standards

Read "Standards" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 26, 2015

What's in a name? After all, a big-band jazz album by any other name would sound the same. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that as the versatile Tom Matta has chosen the name Standards to define his second album as leader of the Chicago-based Tom Matta Big Band, only three of the eight selections (maybe four, if one counts Bernstein / Sondheim's “Somewhere" from West Side Story) qualify as such under the definition “a tune or ...

Album Review

Bob Downes: Bob Downes and The Alphorn Brothers

Read "Bob Downes and The Alphorn Brothers" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
December 26, 2015

This surely must be one of the strangest team-ups in jazz? A trio of German alpine horn players and British expatriate and jazz phenomenon Bob Downes. It may be an unconventional alliance, but somehow this album works at a very convincing level. Recorded in 2004 in his adopted home country of Germany, Downes wrote and arranged all the music and lyrics presented here. The almost surreal photomontage cover enhances the attractiveness of the CD but gives no adequate clue as ...

Live Review

Grace Potter at the Paramount

by Mike Perciaccante
December 26, 2015

Grace Potter The Paramount Huntington, NY December 10, 2015 Grace Potter's performance on Thursday, December 10th at the Paramount in the tony Long Island town of Huntington, NY was a high energy performance much akin to a tent show revival. The audience members all came to worship and by the end of the evening they were all sweaty, exhausted and yet completely galvanized. As the fired-up crowd poured from the mid-sized theater the buzz was ...