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.

Drum Addiction

Getting The Hi-Hat Sound

by Mat Marucci
November 8, 2015

The hi-hat sound is possibly the most used and abused part of the drum set. While other parts of the instrument are generally played with the hands or the feet, the hi-hat is played with both--the hands for a “ride" effect, the feet for the “chick" sound and with both for “barks." The focus of this article is achieving the “chick" sound. Many drummers play the hi-hat with a heel-down rocking motion, using the foot much in the ...

Album Review

Mats Gustafsson & Nu Ensemble: Hidros 6: Knockin'

Read "Hidros 6: Knockin'" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 8, 2015

An avant-garde jazz composition based on the songs of '50s rocker Little Richard. Really? Yep, that's the premise behind Swedish reedman Mats Gustafsson's large scale work recorded at the Krakow Jazz Autumn in 2013. Although best known for his small group output with The Thing and Fire!, Gustafsson has regularly assembled bigger groupings during his career, most recently his Fire! Orchestra. Through a festival commission, Gustafsson was granted the opportunity to convene the 12-strong all star Nu Ensemble which rehearsed ...

Album Review

Tarana: A Fire Of Flowers Grows Around Us

Read "A Fire Of Flowers Grows Around Us" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
November 8, 2015

Musical explorations never cease. Jazz musicians are, by nature, curious and intelligent people who listen to and--for more than just economic imperatives--play all sorts of music. The farther musicians stray from their “home base," be it jazz or whatever, the deeper and richer their music becomes. The members of Tarana, Ravish Momin and Rick Parker, are a case in point. Jointly, they've gigged and/or recorded with Tim Berne, Sabir Mateen, the Mingus Big Band, and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre. They've also ...

Album Review

Keefe Jackson/Josh Berman/Jon Rune Strøm/Tollef Østvang: Southern Sun

Read "Southern Sun" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 8, 2015

Americans have discovered Norwegian jazz artists through several sources. Manfred Eicher's ECM label has produced music by the now famous artists: Arild Andersen, Jan Garbarek, Tord Gustavsen, Terje Rypdal, Trygve Seim and Nils Petter Molvaer. Their success bled into the modern sounds of Bugge Wesseltoft, Per Zanussi, Håvard Wiik, and Hakon Kornstad. Perhaps the closest connection to American jazz has been the acceptance and integration of drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten into the ensembles of Ken Vandermark ...

Live Review

Oliver Lake and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound at the Painted Bride

by Victor L. Schermer
November 7, 2015

Bobby Zankel's Warriors of the Wonderful Sound Special Guest Oliver Lake The Painted Bride Philadelphia, PA November 4, 2015 This was the second of three events in which Philadelphia's Warriors of the Wonderful Sound brought on musically diverse special guest artists to perform with them, following a highly successful similar series last season. The first concert of the present series featured tenor saxophonist Odean Pope and multi-talented entertainer and artist Raphael ...

Album Review

Sam Sadigursky: Follow The Stick

Read "Follow The Stick" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 7, 2015

It's a new day for multi-reedist Sam Sadigursky. After spending many a year focusing on The Words Project--a well-balanced exploration of the relationship between poetry and music that yielded four recordings on the New Amsterdam imprint--Sadigursky is focusing on a different project, recording for a different label, and emphasizing his work on clarinet. The music presented on this album straddles a variety of worlds and styles, bringing chamber-esque angles, dance forms, metric twists, outré ideals, minimalistic thoughts, ...

Extended Analysis

Grateful Dead ‎– Dick's Picks Volume Four: Fillmore East 2/13-14/70

by Doug Collette
November 7, 2015

Quite apart from the the scintillating performances spread over (the first ever release of) three CD's on the Grateful Dead's Dick's Picks Volume 4, this title has all the earmarks of a classic entry into this seminal archive series. It was recorded at the fabled Fillmore East, the now defunct New York City venue operated by the late rock impresario Bill Graham and was recorded by Owsley Stanley, aka Bear, the early mentor of the band who helped usher in ...

Album Review

Al Di Meola: Elysium

Read "Elysium" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 7, 2015

Virtually all of guitarist Al DiMeola's recordings since the days of Return to Forever are listenable to a greater or lesser degree, but his last couple have been truly exceptional. A genuine affection for the Beatles permeates All Your Life (In-Akustik, 2013) and the comparably deep, lush textures of the ever-so-appropriately titled Elysium are rooted in a spontaneity that is unusual for a musician so technically adept he sometimes has to fight to play with genuine abandon. Not ...

Album Review

M'Balia: Halfway There

Read "Halfway There" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 7, 2015

Halfway There is the debut recording of one Philadelphia- native M'Balia Singley, a talented singer matriculating from Yale with a degree in history and Temple with one in law. That is an embarrassment of riches. But can counselor Singley translate all of this brain power into music? Her life arc had her practicing law and raising a family before returning to music. When she did return, she did so in the company of New York pianist Orrin Evans whose influence ...

Album Review

Dwiki Dharmawan: So Far So Close

Read "So Far So Close" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
November 7, 2015

With the release of So Far So Close by keyboardist Dwiki Dharmawan, MoonJune Records continues their inconceivably fruitful collaboration with the cream of Indonesia's jazz crop. The first non-guitarist to be featured as a leader on the label, Dharmawan nevertheless drafts countrymen (and label mates) Tohpati and Dewa Budjana to provide 6-stringed excitement, while US-based superstars Jimmy Haslip and Chad Wackerman (also featured on Tohpati's own stellar fusion set Tribal Dance, MoonJune Records, 2014) provide their huge--but not overwhelming--skill sets ...