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

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Read "A Charlie Brown Christmas" reviewed by Marc Davis

by Marc Davis
December 19, 2015

A Charlie Brown Christmas is the corniest jazz-Christmas album ever made. And that's OK. It's even good. I know the dig. What Vince Guaraldi played wasn't jazz, it was lounge music. It was sentimental. It was lightweight. It was sappy. Yep. All of that. So what? Christmas time is about memories. That's what the smells, the sights, the tastes and the music are about. Some are family memories, some are communal memories. A Charlie Brown Christmas ...

Extended Analysis

Bob Dylan: Bootleg Series Volume 12, The Cutting Edge

by Nenad Georgievski
December 19, 2015

The Bob Dylan's ongoing bootleg series have proven to be a real treasure trove for fans of this renowned singer and songwriter. Not even his most optimistic and devoted fans could have foreseen the breadth and depth of his past catalog which so far has brought to the light things buried deep in the vaults. After all, Dylan is the second most bootlegged artist after Grateful Dead and obviously for a good reason. Thanks to the ongoing multi-disc box set ...

Album Review

Ellen Bødtker / Jan Erik Vold: Sommeren Der Ute

Read "Sommeren Der Ute" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
December 19, 2015

A poem called “Hokusai, The Old Master," by the Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold, tells about the understanding of art and life as a process that deepens with old age: “so when I turn 100 / I shall produce / praiseworthy things." Even though Vold has not turned 100 yet, he has reached what you might call the age of maturity and true to the wisdom of the poem, he has created one of his greatest works ...

Bailey's Bundles

Christmas 2015 V: A Concord Christmas – David Benoit, Jane Monheit and the Count Basie Orchestra

by C. Michael Bailey
December 19, 2015

Well, it ain't over 'til it's over...The Concord Music Group issued two notable Holiday releases. The David Benoit Trio with Jane Monheit and the All American Boys Chorus Believe Concord 2015 What Believe is, is a slick updating of Vince Guraladi's A Charlie Brown Christmas (Fantasy, 1965), which celebrates its Golden Anniversary this year. There is good, as well as bad, in that statement. The newly-minted holiday compositions “Believe" and ...

Album Review

Miho Hazama: Time River

Read "Time River" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 19, 2015

Composer, bandleader and pianist Miho Hazama's second release for Sunnnyside Records, Time River, is a uniquely thrilling album. The sublimely variegate harmonic color, the gripping, dramatic atmosphere and the dynamic musical ideas result in a cohesive and impeccably crafted album that is alive with spontaneity. Each of the nine original and distinctive pieces is perfectly constructed with room for individuality, raw emotion and expressive intelligence. Hazama deftly conducts the musical whirlwind “Dizzy Dizzy Wildflower" to create a provocative ...

Album Review

Claudia Franco: Soul Dance

Read "Soul Dance" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
December 19, 2015

Claudia Franco, one of the most promising of the new generation of Portuguese jazz vocalists, is concentrating for the moment on building up a following in the jazz clubs and nightspots of Lisbon, where she teaches music. “I haven't really considered the possibility of playing outside of Portugal," she says, “I'm focused on establishing myself here." Occasionally however she allows herself to fantasize about playing international venues, in particular the Blue Note Club in New York City: ...

Bailey's Bundles

Christmas 2015 IV: (Almost) Christmas

by C. Michael Bailey
December 19, 2015

While there is a Holiday Music Canon, there are always pieces of music that lie just outside the periphery of definition. That, and I like to be liberal in what I consider holiday fare. Here are the stragglers this year, just making in beneath the wire. Winchester Cathedral Choir, Martin Neary Christmas Pentatone 1973/2013 This recording of carols is special as it was originally recorded in 1973, intended for playback ...

Bailey's Bundles

Christmas 2015 VI: A Gospel Afterthought

by C. Michael Bailey
December 19, 2015

This article is less a holiday piece than a generally informative one. As Christmas is often lost in the Holiday, it is worthwhile to consider the story that started everything traditionally. There has been a renewed interest in Gospel music that has been typified in a number of recent and not-so-recent releases. These are worth consideration as a sustained part of our national and cultural fabric. Various Artists Anthology of American Folk Music Edited by Harry ...

Building a Jazz Library

AMM at 50

by John Eyles
December 18, 2015

The group that would evolve into AMM was formed in 1965, making it one of those rare ensembles to have survived fifty years of continuous existence--in common with The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones. Just like those two bands, along the way AMM gained and lost members at regular intervals. Across some thirty AMM albums, well over twenty musicians have been involved, including guests. Through it all, the only founder member of AMM who has been there for the ...

Album Review

Edith Piaf: 1915-2015

Read "1915-2015" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 18, 2015

2015 is the centenary of one of the best-loved, most charismatic singers of the twentieth century. For some that singer is Billie Holiday, for others it's Frank Sinatra: but for many more, especially in the French-speaking world, it's the legendary Edith Piaf. 1915-2015, a vinyl-only Best Of collection, establishes the case for Piaf's status beyond doubt.This album is just one of a series of releases that celebrate this great singer's centenary. A double CD collection, five classic Piaf ...