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.

Interview

Wardell Gray, "Forgotten Tenor:" An Interview with Filmmaker Abraham Ravett

by Victor L. Schermer
December 8, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [This is one of two interviews and an article intended to bring readers' attention to the revered but neglected tenor saxophonist, Wardell Gray, whose brief career spanned the transition from swing to bebop and whose life was cut short by sudden and tragic circumstances.] Swing and early bebop saxophonist Wardell Gray, despite exciting beginnings, had for all practical purposes vanished from the jazz radar until filmmaker Abraham Ravett ...

Year in Review

Dan McClenaghan's Best Releases of 2015

by Dan McClenaghan
December 8, 2015

My search for the best jazz recordings of 2015 led me to these marvelous CDs. Yelena EckemoffLions L&H Productions Pianist Yelena Eckemoff, originally from Russia, and originally a classical player, has driven deep into her quest to create first rate jazz. This ambitious two disc set, featuring Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen and American drum legend Billy Hart, is an exceptional example of the art of the piano trio. Juhani Aaltonen & Iro ...

Album Review

Jon Armstrong Jazz Orchestra: Farewell

by Dave Wayne
December 8, 2015

I am beginning to wonder if every jazz musician has, in some dark corner of their psyche, a suppressed ambition to lead a big band. Economically unfeasible, logistically impossible--but artistically gratifying--a big band is perhaps the ultimate way to make manifest one's greatest musical ambitions. You get to conduct, pick your own solos, compose and arrange on a grand scale, and luxuriate in the pure sound power of a couple of dozen other great musicians playing your compositions and arrangements. ...

Album Review

Freddie Hendrix: Jersey Cat

Read "Jersey Cat" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
December 8, 2015

Though the state of New Jersey has been the birthplace and residence of luminous jazz musicians, it has never garnered a reputation for being a jazz haven, arguably due to its proximity to New York City, where the action has always been. Trumpeter Freddie Hendrix is on a mission to change all that with Jersey Cat, a labor of love spotlighting the talent in his native state. Assembling a distinguished roster of locals anchored by drummer Cecil Brooks ...

Live Review

Kenny Barron’s Platinum Trio with George Mraz and Lewis Nash

by Patricia Myers
December 8, 2015

Kenny Barron's Platinum Trio with George Mraz and Lewis Nash The Nash Third Anniversary Concert Phoenix, Arizona November 17, 2015 Pianist Kenny Barron brought his Platinum Trio with bassist George Mraz and drummer Lewis Nash to perform two classy concerts as part of the third anniversary celebration of The Nash, a jazz venue named for the Phoenix-born musician. This trio, formed in 2013 at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Netherlands, ...

Profile

Why the World Should Remember Wardell Gray

by Victor L. Schermer
December 7, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [This article is a commentary to accompany All About Jazz interviews about Wardell Gray with filmmaker Abraham Ravett and biographer Richard Carter, all of which are intended to bring readers' attention to this outstanding but under-recognized tenor saxophonist whose brief career spanned the transition from swing to bebop and whose life was cut short by sudden and tragic circumstances. In the interviews, filmmaker Abraham Ravett and biographer Richard Carter provide ...

Year in Review

Troy Collins' Best Releases of 2015

by Troy Collins
December 7, 2015

2015 was an eventful year for jazz and creative improvised music. A decade and a half into the new century found rising young artists revisiting, reevaluating and reinterpreting standards from the jazz canon in surprisingly creative ways. Many of the albums listed below are conceptual efforts dedicated to the advancements of revered masters, ranging from pre-war and post-war innovators to contemporary stylists. The remainder of these recordings highlight the near-clairvoyant interplay found between kindred musicians who hail from myriad backgrounds ...

What is Jazz?

Jazz and Moral Theory: Swinging the Right Way

by Douglas Groothuis
December 7, 2015

Morality matters to all of us. We protest when we are robbed or defrauded. We praise heroes and heroines. We condemn moral monsters. We laud a Mother Teresa and condemn a Ted Bundy. We recognize good and bad habits. We rebuke those who do evil; we praise those who do good. We attempt to honor our conscience and call others to do so. Morality matters to music as well. Consider piracy, contractual obligations, fair compensation for work, plagiarizing ...

Album Review

Ariel Pocock: Touchstone

Read "Touchstone" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 7, 2015

What are the touchstones of jazz? Harmonic acuity? Internalization of swing aesthetics and advanced rhythmic language(s)? The ability to quickly parse a composition in real time? An understanding of the historical framework of the music? The ability to create and speak one's own mind using any number of vocabulary sets? Yes. Each of those elements are touchstones in jazz, but they're meaningless when viewed separately. Jazz requires musicians to synthesize all of those skills and more while finding something meaningful ...

Album Review

Philip Clouts Quartet: Umoya

by Bruce Lindsay
December 7, 2015

The Philip Clouts Quartet's Umoya, a follow-up to The Hour Of Pearl, (Point Records, 2013) is named for the Zulu word for Life Force. It's a positive title for an album filled with positive sounds. Bass guitarist Alex Keen remains from those The Hour Of Pearl sessions. He's joined by saxophonist Samuel Eagles and drummer Dave Ingamells. Pianist and composer Clouts was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to the UK as a young child. African ...