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

Yaniv Taubenhouse Trio: Moments In Trio, Volume One

Read "Moments In Trio, Volume One" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
December 17, 2015

Pianist Yaniv Taubenhouse presents his second album as leader with the bold Moments In Trio, Volume One providing another fresh set of innovative new originals continuing the personal musical journey he began documenting with his highly-acclaimed debut Here From There (Fresh Sound Records, 2015). Together with new fellow band mates Jerad Lippi on drums and Rick Rosato on bass, this Tabenhouse Trio glide gently through nine original compositions of classically-tinged modern jazz and one re-imagined standard delivering several balladic and ...

Live Review

Jazztopad 2015

by Henning Bolte
December 17, 2015

National Music Forum Jazztopad 2015 Wroclaw, Poland November 21-25, 2015 The city of Wroclaw by the Odra River in the southwest of Poland has occupied a pre-eminent position throughout its long, turbulent history, and it still does. Wroclaw's Jazztopad festival is a relatively young one. This year celebrated had its 12th edition. The first things to mention are the Wroclaw C's: a brand-new concert hall and its context, commissions and collaborations, one (vertical) ...

Live Review

Live From Old York: Michael Messer, Faris, Blazin' Fiddles & Söndörgő

by Martin Longley
December 17, 2015

Michael Messer & Faris Pocklington Arts Centre November 21, 2015 The acoustic blues weekender at Pocklington Arts Centre has become a regular fixture, led by the English guitarist Michael Messer. He combines daytime tutorial workshop sessions with a Saturday night performance that features guest appearances by the attending players, some of whom have their own recording careers long in place. This year, Messer also invited Faris, an Italian-Algerian singer and guitarist of Tuareg ...

Live Review

The Indigo Girls at South On Main, Little Rock, Arkansas

by C. Michael Bailey
December 12, 2015

The Indigo Girls South On Main 2015--2016 Oxford American Concert Series South on Main, 1304 South Main St, Little Rock, AR 72202 Thursday, December 3, 2015 “I'm gonna clear my head..." The Little Rock, Arkansas restaurant and performance stage, South on Main, represents an effort on the part of the Oxford American magazine to unite the elements of Southern food, music, film and writing into a single experience. The venue has become ...

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Live Review

Roy Ayers at Yoshi's

by Walter Atkins
December 12, 2015

Roy Ayers is Everywhere Yoshi's Oakland Oakland California November 27, 2015 The venerable vibraphonist Roy Ayers and his seasoned band performed during a sold out weekend at the East Bay's popular Yoshi's in Oakland's Jack London Square. The exuberant 75-year-old composer /musician opened the exciting second show with “Sweet Tears." Ayers surprised the full house by taking his band into his arrangement of Rick James' funky number one RB hit “Give It To Me Baby" ...

Multiple Reviews

Playing It Forward: A Pair From Vibraphonist Anthony Smith

by Dan Bilawsky
December 11, 2015

There are two ways to look at the vibraphone: as an instrument with constructional properties that limit those who stand before it or as a portal to possibility that challenges players to rise above those limitations. Anybody with a pragmatic bone in their body understands and accepts the former as a truth of sorts, as yarn (or rubber) on metal can only do so many things. But every vibraphonist who's made their mark tends to lean toward the latter line ...

Year in Review

Mark Sullivan’s Best Releases of 2015

by Mark Sullivan
December 11, 2015

This is my first year end list as an AAJ contributor, hopefully the first of many! I reviewed a lot of great music, major label and independent productions alike. Here's the ten that rose to the top of my list of favorites, in no particular order. Eberhard Weber Hommage à Eberhard Weber (ECM Records) Terrific tribute to bassist Eberhard Weber, anchored by Pat Metheny's title composition for big band, soloists, and ...

Book Review

Chuck Anderson: My Life in Music

by Victor L. Schermer
December 11, 2015

My Life in Music Chuck Anderson 180 PagesISBN: #9781483440804 Lulu 2015 Chuck Anderson is not your ordinary jazz musician, and this book is not a typical biography of an entertainer or jazz artist. Anderson is a consummate master of the guitar in jazz, classical, and world music idioms, a composer, performer in diverse settings, educator, and leader of his own working trio. The book is not the typical reminiscence of hard times, ...

Bailey's Bundles

Christmas 2015 III: All That Jazz

by C. Michael Bailey
December 10, 2015

Barbara Dennerlein Christmas Soul MPS Records 2015 Christmas Soul is a swinging little jazz party fueled by Barbara Dennerlein's Hammond B3. Now, if the listener is expecting some Jimmy Smith smoky grease or Larry Young radioactivity, you will be disappointed. Dennerlein is known for using rare analog effects pedals for chorus, vibrato, and reverb together with a percussion register conceived in the mid-1930s. The result is an organ that sounds very organic. ...

Year in Review

Dan Bilawsky's Best Releases Of 2015

by Dan Bilawsky
December 10, 2015

A theme for this year's list? How about “Jazz Unbound?" I initially planned on placing my picks into different categories, as I've often done in the past. But I thought better of it. The releases that caught my ear in 2015 cover the entire spectrum of possibility--winning straight-ahead outings, audacious affairs, dynamic debuts, intimate encounters, stellar suites, extravagant aural feasts, sublime solo statements, everything else in between--so why box them all up in separate places? I had the pleasure of ...