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

Filip Jers Quartet: Filip Jers Quartet Plays Swedish Folk

Read "Filip Jers Quartet Plays Swedish Folk" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
November 30, 2015

A difficult one, this: harmonica player Felip Jers and his quartet the latest in a long line of artists attempting to put a jazz slant on Swedish folk music. It all started in the 1960s when pianist Jan Johansson scored a massive hit with an EP and later an LP titled Jazz På Svenska (Jazz In Swedish). Johansson's name is repeatedly invoked in the sleeve notes. His bassist, Georg Riedel, even contributes a whimsical foreword and two ...

Album Review

Beat Funktion: Olympus

Read "Olympus" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
November 30, 2015

The seventies brought many things: bell-bottoms, Lee Majors, Farrah Fawcett, Disco, Nixon and Carter, The Godfather, the Ramones; Billie Jean King and Phyllis Schlafly to NOW and the ERA; from the Energy Crisis to Roe v. Wade. The Seventies is an incisively provocative and commonly misunderstood era. Is it an eminently forgettable period in our American culture? Well, that is for another article, but one positive note that has grown from that time period is that danceable beat that finds ...

Live Review

Tony Bennett at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
November 30, 2015

Tony Bennett NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY November 20, 2015 At 89-years of age, Tony Bennett has seen and done it all. He also is the owner of one of the most distinctive voices in all of music. In fact, it has been documented that Frank Sinatra said, “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's ...

Live Review

Live From Birmingham: Partisans, Rascals Of Rhythm, Amok Amor, John McEntire & Schneider Kacirek

by Martin Longley
November 29, 2015

Partisans Wolverhampton Arena Theatre November 14, 2015 Partisans have now been playing together for two decades, in a completely unchanging four-piece configuration. Bonds have been formed, lines have intertwined, rapport greases repertoire negotiation, and comfort encourages greater risk-taking. The band made several comments about savouring the Arena Theatre's vibrations, and well they should, given that its acoustics are paramount, imbued with a softly glowing warmth and closeness. The auditorium size is also just ...

Album Review

Georgia Mancio: Live At ReVoice!

Read "Live At ReVoice!" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 29, 2015

The name at the top of the cover of Live At ReVoice! is that of Georgia Mancio, the London-based vocalist who appears on every one of the 12 tracks. A quick glance lower down the cover adds a dozen more names--a list of Mancio's accompanists that reads like a veritable “Who's Who" of the UK jazz scene. A baker's dozen of talented performers, twelve beautifully performed songs, captured with exceptional sound quality. Mancio has organised the ReVoice! festival ...

Album Review

Didier Verna: Roots and Leaves

Read "Roots and Leaves" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
November 29, 2015

Don't judge a book a book by its cover or a recording by its first track. “Old Times" is certainly that, a paean to the swinging age of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France and guitarist Didier Verna displays his considerable talent with a nimble solo, as do each of the other members of the quartet. In the true tradition of Mony Python, “Circulocentrique" is something completely different. This is a tasteful funky blues workout, again ...

Live Review

King Crimson at Theatre St-Denis

by John Kelman
November 29, 2015

King Crimson Théâtre St-Denis Montréal, Canada November 16-17, 2015 When King Crimson's only original member and co-founder, guitarist Robert Fripp, announced unexpectedly that the band was coming out of retirement in 2013, other than the unconventional lineup nobody had any idea what to expect other than the brief snippets being released at the band's DGM Live site, which suggested that this “seven-headed Beast of Crim," in addition to new material, would be revisiting songs not ...

Album Review

Matthew Muneses: Threshold

Read "Threshold" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
November 29, 2015

The fast-paced “Speech Perception" offers a dramatic and modal introduction to this album. Tenor sax and trumpet play vibrant solos all underpinned by the rhythm section and solid piano chords, redolent of McCoy Tyner. The mood changes with “Simple Times" which presents an ensemble opening to this pastoral piece embellished by Matthew Muneses sensitive tenor sax solo. The angularity of “Liminality" conveys a pronounced feel of Steve Coleman's M-Base sensibility, unsurprisingly so, since Muneses has recently had occasion ...

Album Review

De Beren Gieren: One Mirrors Many

Read "One Mirrors Many" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 29, 2015

Still looking to breathe life into the venerable piano trio format, Belgian threesome De Beren Gieren (The Bears Shriek would be one translation) present their fourth album following The Detour Fish (Clean Feed, 2014), A Raveling (De Beren Records, 2013) and Wirklich Welt So (El Negocito, 2012). Leading the charge pianist Fulco Ottervanger helms an unchanged lineup comprising bassist Lieven Van Pée and drummer Simon Segers. Unsurprisingly after such consistent output, they exhibit a robust ensemble concept which avoids emphasis ...

Album Review

Joe McPhee / Jamie Saft / Joe Morris / Charles Downs: Ticonderoga

Read "Ticonderoga" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 29, 2015

The premise for this get together commenced with discussions by pianist Jamie Saft and bassist, guitarist Joe Morris who plotted to meld their influences from John Coltrane's Live at the Village Vanguard Again (Impulse, 1966) album, along with celebrated artists, trumpeter, reedman Joe McPhee and drummer Charles Downs. Moreover, the band moniker Ticonderoga is a Mohawk Indian word that translates into “junction of two waterways," signifying the transition from the artists' collective impressions and groupthink of the Coltrane set with ...