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.

Multiple Reviews

Three Views of Jaco: Weather Report: The Legendary Live Tapes 1978-1981 / JACO: The Film & Original Soundtrack

by John Kelman
November 18, 2015

It's hard to believe that, despite being gone for 28 years, bassist/composer Jaco Pastorius remains not just an important figure in the world of jazz, but beyond its broadest purview as well. His seemingly sudden appearance on a series of four albums in 1976 demonstrated that this was an artist with virtually no restrictions. In addition to his first contributing to two tracks on fusion supergroup Weather Report's Black Market (Columbia)--leading to his replacing former band bassist Alphonso Johnson through ...

Album Review

Sonic Communion: Sonic Communion

Read "Sonic Communion" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 18, 2015

In one of the more appropriately titled releases, three French improvisers encounter two Americans in concert, captured during a short tour of France. Heading up the US contingent is underexposed AACM stalwart reedman Douglas Ewart, accompanied by another Windy City denizen in drummer Michael Zerang. Bassists Joelle Leandre and Bernard Santacruz thicken the ensemble sound, while trumpeter Jean Luc Capozzo completes the unit. Ewart's instrumental choices and Zerang's percussive nous mean a world music feel pervades the five selections from ...

Album Review

Youssou N'Dour: Fatteliku

Read "Fatteliku" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
November 18, 2015

The mysterious rhythms and melodies which constitute the music of Africa, has been, and continues to be, a vital source of influence and inspiration to the rest of the world. Though African artists have always been active and recognized in their homelands, it was through the phenomenon of what is termed “world music" in the 1980's, that African music reached a global audience. In the forefront of this movement was Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, who transformed the native resonances of ...

Album Review

Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet: 10

by Chris M. Slawecki
November 18, 2015

10 celebrates the ten-year anniversary of the Afro-Peruvian Sextet founded and simultaneously led by horn player Gabriel Alegría from New York City (where Alegría serves as Professor of Jazz Studies at New York University) and Lima, Peru. “It's a concept album," Alegría shares. “For our tenth anniversary, we wanted to give special care to American and Peruvian standards. It all comes together in the arrangements in the Afro-Peruvian style. We've incorporated many guest artists, people who have helped us along ...

Album Review

Food: This Is Not a Miracle

Read "This Is Not a Miracle" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
November 18, 2015

British/Norwegian experimental jazz group Food have done something a little different with each album, especially since downsizing from a quartet to the duo of Iain Ballamy and Thomas Stronen (plus guests). For this one they are joined again by Austrian guitarist and electronics player Christian Fennesz--but Strønen has taken the lead. He explains “With Food, it's democracy all the way, as far as Iain and I are concerned, but with this record I had the time and the will and ...

Album Review

Vlad West: Green Light

Read "Green Light" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
November 18, 2015

Green Light finds pianist/composer Vlad West (aka Vladimir Sermakashev) working in the same mode as his previous release In My Corner, so much of the “shock of the unexpected" is gone. Furthermore, that which was shocking before (the very high level of keyboard technique, musicianship and advanced harmony, contrasting with a quite harsh electronic rhythm section) has been intensified, so it must now be heard as West's modus operandi --at least for recording. Since “the unexpected" ...

Talking 2 Musicians

Carl Mörner Ringström

by Alan Bryson
November 17, 2015

Sweden's Carl Mörner Ringström is not the first musician I've interviewed whose parents were music teachers, but there the similarities end. He got his first electric guitar at the age of seven, and although his father is a classical guitarist, the son was determined to master the instrument on his own. He spent the next four years in his room with the door closed learning to tune and play guitar by listening to Eddie van Halen--a decision which gave him ...

Album Review

Erroll Garner: Erroll Garner: The Complete Concert By the Sea

Read "Erroll Garner: The Complete Concert By the Sea" reviewed by David Rickert

by David Rickert
November 17, 2015

Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea was a huge hit when it was released in 1956 and became one of the few jazz records that everyone seemed to own. One listen is all it takes to understand the wide appeal of this live date from the Sunset Center in Carmel, California. Garner, the happiest and most extroverted of pianists, works through a program of well-known standards with technical brilliance and dazzling wit in a tour-de-force of stride, boogie-woogie, ragtime, and ...

Extended Analysis

Charles Owens Trio: A Day With Us

by David A. Orthmann
November 17, 2015

Even when factoring in the vital contributions of bassist Andrew Randazzo and drummer Devonne Harris, there's no denying Charles Owens' firm hold on the nine tracks of A Day With Us. Throughout a program consisting largely of standards, the music is ruled by the broad, resonant sound of the leader's tenor saxophone and the dogged persistence that characterizes everything he plays. As if building something momentous on the spur of the moment with his wits and the force of his ...

Album Review

Luis Munoz: Voz

by Dan Bilawsky
November 17, 2015

There's selfless, and then there's really selfless. This vocal-centric album of original compositions written and arranged by drummer Luis Muñoz falls into the latter category. Instead of using this as a platform to promote his own playing, which wouldn't necessarily be frowned upon considering the fact that it's his album, Muñoz's contributions on the performance end--drums, Rhodes piano, percussion, keyboard, and melodica--are strictly about sonic enhancement and support. He even sits out three of these nine tracks, proving that the ...