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

John Wojciechowski: Focus

by Dan Bilawsky
November 5, 2015

Every now and then you encounter a musician who has it together in so many ways, yet has largely managed to avoid national recognition. Saxophonist John Wojciechowski is one such player. While those with strong enough memories might recall that the Michigan-bred Wojciechowski took third place--behind Jon Gordon and Jimmy Greene--at the 1996 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, those same people may come up empty on this figure after that. But that's not because there's nothing ...

Multiple Reviews

Two Releases From Wolfgang Seligo

by Budd Kopman
November 5, 2015

Below are two releases from pianist Wolfgang Seligo, who has eclectic influences, boundless energy and technique, with a flair for self-promotion in the best sense. Wolfgang SeligoWolfgang Seligo Jazz Trio Self Published 2015 The four tracks presented here, all composed by Seligo and totaling under sixteen minutes, present a very tight, stylistically varied mainstream piano trio. The first tune, “Major Max" has much going for it in ...

Album Review

Timme Rosenkrantz: Timme's Treasures

Read "Timme's Treasures" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
November 5, 2015

Danish nobleman Niels Otte Timme Baron Rosenkrantz could trace his ancestry way back to the Anglicized Rosencrantz in Shakespeare's Hamlet. He became a journalist and was the first European to report on the jazz scene in Harlem, writing for Scandinavian publications and for Downbeat, Metronome and Esquire in the United States and Melody Maker in Britain. Doug Dobell, proprietor of a London jazz record store, who was a friend, called upon the shades of ...

Album Review

Vlad West: In My Corner

Read "In My Corner" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
November 5, 2015

Everyone evolves as life proceeds, and musicians are no exception. However, In My Corner, recorded in 2011, almost twenty years after Say Hello To Russia, is so different from the latter as to give one pause. Vlad West is back on the keyboard, which was his first instrument, and it sounds electronic, but those are not the main differences. Besides piano, West also plays what sounds like electronic drums and bass, but that is also not the main ...

Album Review

Austin Piazzolla Quintet: APQ

Read "APQ" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 5, 2015

Bandoneon player and tango composer Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (1921- 1992) is to Argentina what guitarist and bossa nova composer Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (1927-1994) is to Brazil. Both men essentially defined a style of music unique to their regions, styles of music immediately identifiable and iconic. Each comes into and out of vogue periodically, always maintaining a low hum of a creative presence in world music. Piazzolla has been enjoying a recent good stretch, with his music as ...

Album Review

Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra: Joyful Jazz

Read "Joyful Jazz" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 5, 2015

One way in which to launch an appraisal of this outstanding seasonal album, the first ever by the world-class Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, is to check out its candid--and uncommonly accurate--title. Joyful? Most definitely. Jazz? Without a doubt. For five years, the orchestra's annual holiday celebration has been a welcome tradition for families in the greater Pittsburgh area; now, the ensemble has decided to spread the good cheer to a wider audience by re-creating its exhilarating brand of Joyful Jazz in ...

Multiple Reviews

A Pair From Pascalito: Citizen Chanteur and Forbidden Colours

by Dan Bilawsky
November 4, 2015

You have to give credit where credit is due: when it comes to turning multicultural pastiche into a unified musical statement, few people can match Pascalito. This light-voiced singer--"world chanteur" by his own definition--effortlessly shifts gears, switches passports, and blurs lines, moving comfortably from bossa nova to chanson to swing to tango with nary a problem. With his first two albums--Le Blues d'Orphée (Self Produced, 2006) and Neostalgia (Self Produced, 2010)--this Paris-born, New York-seasoned singer established himself ...

Album Review

Fred Randolph: Song Without Singing

Read "Song Without Singing" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 4, 2015

In demand San Francisco Bay Area-based educator, composer and bassist Fred Randolph unveils his third album as leader, Songs Without Singing containing ten innovative originals and one cover tune recorded with his working quintet and other Bay Area musicians. A fixture in San Francisco's vibrant jazz scene and a member of Orquesta Dharma, the Melanthium Ensemble and the premier Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, this full-time high school teacher is one of the busiest artist on the West coast. His extensive musical ...

Bailey's Bundles

Girl Talk: Saxophonists Nicole Glover and Kirsten Edkins

by C. Michael Bailey
November 4, 2015

The universe of horn players ceased being a “boys club" about thirty years ago. Women have taken commanding roles in both the trumpet (Carol Morgan, Ingrid Jensen, Saskia Laroo) and saxophone (Sharel Cassity, Alisha Pattillo, Nancy Wright, Virginia Mayhew, Pattie Cossentino, Jane Ira Bloom, Claire Daly). Add to these lists two new names, Nicole Glover and Kirsten Edkins, who are debuting with new recordings coming from very different parts of the jazz spectrum. Nicole Glover ...

Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock: Ubatuba

Read "Ubatuba" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
November 4, 2015

It's hard to believe that German born saxophonist and composer Ingrid Laubrock has been recording since the late 1990s, perhaps because there is a distinct newness to every project she releases. Although she trained with Jean Toussaint in London for a short time and later with Dave Liebman, Laubrock is very much a self-made artist with a style that is plainly her own. She came to wider recognition with her self-titled Sleepthief trio debut (Intakt, 2008) and more so with ...