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

Doug Mosher / John Estes: Southern Lights

Read "Southern Lights" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 20, 2015

After listening to Southern Lights, a series of extremely low-key tone poems by tenor saxophonist Doug Mosher and bassist John Estes, two questions spontaneously arise: first, where is the audience for an album that glides gently along on an unflagging current of somnolence? (the term “smooth jazz" springs to mind, but even that genre produces an occasional spark). And second, what did Mosher and Estes have in mind when planning what is basically a procession of pleasantly unremarkable themes which, ...

Album Review

Ella Fitzgerald: Live at Chautauqua: Volume 1

Read "Live at Chautauqua: Volume 1" reviewed by James Doherty

by James Doherty
November 20, 2015

Live at Chautauqua, Volume 1 (Dot Time Records) captures Ella Fitzgerald in concert in July 1968. Accompanied by the Tee Carson trio, the eclectic programme ranges from her 1938 breakthrough hit “A-Tisket A-Tasket" through to contemporary pop and Broadway tunes, taking in some selections from her famed songbook series along the way. As Ella explains on her introduction to “Sunny," her intention is “to do something for everyone." While her forays into contemporary pop would sometimes prove unwise, the blend ...

Album Review

Ithamara Koorax: All Around the World

Read "All Around the World" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
November 20, 2015

All Around the World represents several milestones for firebrand Brazilian vocalist Ithamara Koorax: It marks her twentieth release as a leader, celebrates the 25th year of her career, and, just like her first official release (Ithamara Koorax Live in Rio [1993, JVC]), All Around the World comes digitally straight from the soundboard, with no overdubs or other studio corrections. Just as importantly, All Around the World truly embodies the global state of modern jazz. Koorax's band features many ...

Book Review

Way Down In Louisiana

by James Nadal
November 19, 2015

Way Down In Louisiana Todd Mouton 302 Pages ISBN: # 978-1-935754-73-2 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press 2015 Of all the states which comprise America, Louisiana is one of the most diverse when it comes to acculturation, specifically when applied to music. With the convergence of Spanish, French, and African settlers in an area already populated by indigenous people, a new regional identity through the process of creolization, was established. Acadiana, the region ...

Album Review

Elif Çağlar: Misfit

by Dan Bilawsky
November 19, 2015

Elif Çağlar sure knows how to put together a band. For her sophomore release, this Istanbul-based vocalist--a former pupil of Sheila Jordan--enlisted three modernist luminaries to help light the way: drummer Eric Harland brings his usual rhythmic ingenuity, energy, and play-for-the-song perspective to the production; bassist Harish Raghavan--Harland's bassist of choice for his own Voyager project--is locked in from the get-go, helping the music to pivot, shift, and groove as needed; and pianist Aaron Park--Harland's band mate in the collective ...

Live Review

2015 Voodoo Music + Arts Experience: Fun in The Wind, Mud & Rain

by Mike Perciaccante
November 19, 2015

2015 Voodoo Music + Arts Experience City Park New Orleans, LA October 30-November 1, 2015 Each year the city of New Orleans melds its mythology, mysticism, religious practices and musical history with the traditions of Halloween when it hosts The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. The three-day festival, formerly known as The Voodoo Music Experience, given the moniker of the Ritual by some folks, and most-often referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo ...

Album Review

Rich Halley 4: Eleven

by Mark Sullivan
November 19, 2015

Saxophonist Rich Halley again leads his empathetic quartet through eleven new compositions on this thoroughly engaging session. It's the sixth album by the group (Halley on tenor saxophone, trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Carson Halley) and they display a remarkable chemistry throughout. Halley provides very distinctive compositions as starting points--he gives a brief overview of the structure of each of them in his liner notes--then gives the band freedom to move. As he describes the working method, ...

Album Review

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra: Big Band Holidays

Read "Big Band Holidays" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 19, 2015

The holiday season has its ups and downs on Big Band Holidays, recorded live over two Decembers (2013-14) by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, which is without a doubt one of the finest big bands money can buy. Even though the most recent number on the album ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas") was recorded almost a year ago, several clues indicate that the album was more or less rushed to market in time for this year's festivities. For ...

Album Review

Lou Volpe: Remembering Ol' Blue Eyes

Read "Remembering Ol' Blue Eyes" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 19, 2015

The year 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's birth (December 12th 1915) and as expected, there have been many tributes to the Chairman of the Board but perhaps, none as unique as the instrumental homage by guitarist Lou Volpe on the splendid Remembering Ol' Blue Eyes: (Songs of Sinatra). Why? Because Volpe's finger-picking lyrical style and expressive phrasings succeeds in presenting a vocal instrument of sorts as the guitar “sings" the melody in the same fashion Sinatra voiced ...

Album Review

Chico Trujillo: Reina de Todas Las Fiestas

Read "Reina de Todas Las Fiestas" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
November 19, 2015

As the late 1990s transitioned into the early 2000s, in the small Chilean town called Villa Aleman, singer Aldo “Macha" Asenjo and other members of the local punk-ska group LaFloripondio would gather around and jam for fun on old classics from the Chilean and Columbian cumbia traditions. After fifteen years, six albums, and a few world tours together as Chico Trujillo, the band remains true to these roots: Their newest title, Reina de Todas Las Fiestas, translates as The Queen ...