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.

Live Review

Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya at the Michigan Theater

by C. Andrew Hovan
October 30, 2015

Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya Michigan Theater University Musical Society 22nd Annual Jazz Series Ann Arbor, Michigan October 21, 2015 The opportunities to hear some of the remaining jazz legends outside of their home environs are becoming increasingly rare these days. In the case of pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, it is downright miraculous that this international icon left his home in Cape Town to make a rare stateside appearance. Add to that the fact that he ...

Live Review

Al Di Meola at the Soiled Dove Underground, Denver

by Geoff Anderson
October 29, 2015

Al Di Meola Soiled Dove Underground Denver, CO October 19, 2015 Jazz and rock began their courtship in the late 1960s. For a while, it seemed like they would never get together. From the beginning of rock 'n' roll in the '50s, the two genres had kept their distance from one another, each professing its distaste for the other. Yet despite their initial antipathy, despite their feelings that they had nothing in common, that they ...

Album Review

Matt Mitchell: Vista Accumulation

Read "Vista Accumulation" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 29, 2015

You never really know what's up pianist Matt Mitchell's sleeve. As a sideman he's constantly adapting and growing, creating different palettes and situations that expand the color and content in the music of the Dave Douglas Quintet, Tim Berne's Snakeoil, John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble, Rudresh Mahanthappa's Bird Calls quintet, and other high profile outfits; as a leader, there's less output to go on, but Mitchell's first two releases--Fiction (Pi Recordings, 2013) and this double-disc album--serve as demonstrations of his significant ...

Album Review

Lars Fiil: Frit Fald

Read "Frit Fald" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 29, 2015

All musicians work with sound, but their approaches are different. To some, it starts with a melody, to others it begins with a groove and then there are those who are simply interested in sound. Danish pianist Lars Fiil, who has previously based his compositions around melodies and grooves, is starting to move in a direction where he has become more of a sound explorer. Fortunately, he has not shunned the idea of rhythm and melody completely. ...

Album Review

Nick Freer: The Unsuspecting

Read "The Unsuspecting" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
October 29, 2015

The euphonious start to “Glyph" on The Unsuspecting gives no clue as to the surprising guitar solo that ensues. This surely is Allan Holdsworth, no? Actually it isn't. Australian guitarist Nick Freer is an unashamed devotee of Holdsworth. He's currently embarking on a PhD entitled The Improvisational Process of Guitarist Allan Holdsworth: Ontology and Analysis of Selected Works at Monash University's Faculty of Arts in Melbourne. But crucially, here's someone who can not only talk the talk, but also walk ...

Live Review

Badi Assad at Iridium Jazz Club

by Ernest Barteldes
October 29, 2015

Badi Assad Iridium Jazz Club New York, NY October 20, 2015 Backed solely by her nylon-string electric guitar, Brazilian singer and guitarist Badi Assad took to the stage in her first U.S. tour since 2007 in support of her 2015 release Hatched (Quatroventos, 2015). Before playing, she spoke of her mixed heritage coming from Lebanon, Italy, Portugal and Brazil, kicking off the set with “Eu Vim Daquele Lugar," whose lyrics emphasize ...

Album Review

Karl Berger/Kirk Knuffke: Moon

by John Sharpe
October 29, 2015

Cornetist Kirk Knuffke joins veteran German vibraphonist Karl Berger for a poised meditative duet on Moon. The origins of the set lie in a meeting at a concert celebrating drummer Ed Blackwell in New York City after which Berger invited Knuffke to his Creative Music Studio to teach. So successful was the endeavor that the duo was born. Each of the principals contributes half a dozen pieces supplemented by four joint ventures in a program comprising eighty minutes of music ...

Album Review

Linda Dachtyl: A Late One

Read "A Late One" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 29, 2015

Organist/drummer Linda Dachtyl, by virtue of her percussion-keys intersection, makes a fitting and insightful interpreter of the jazz organ repertoire. She displayed considerable command of this on her recording, For Hep Cats (Summit, 2008). On the present A Late One, Dachtyl steps out of the organ grinder box to expand her pedal palette in to areas less greasy than Jimmy Smith and more user-friendly than Larry Young. Dachtyl opts for a larger band on this recording, taking ...

Live Review

Skopje Jazz Festival 2015

by Nenad Georgievski
October 28, 2015

Skopje Jazz Festival 2015 MOB Skopje, Macedonia October 15-18, 2015 Always in the news and perennially in either political or economic turmoil, Macedonia is not the easiest place to live. Conflicts, poverty, crisis. Even now in 2015 it was not spared from problems as it was on a trail of hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the troubles in Syria and Iraq. Amidst all of these circumstances, problems and troublesome ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Lee Morgan, Volume Three - 1957

by Marc Davis
October 28, 2015

In jazz, as in rock, there's a tendency to overlook composers. Performers get all the nods. Consider Duke Ellington. One of the greatest bandleaders and composers of all time. But Billy Strayhorn? Not as famous--even though he wrote some of Duke's best pieces: “Take the A Train" and “Lush Life" and “Chelsea Bridge." Or consider Dave Brubeck. Justly renowned as a leader, pianist and experimenter of odd tempos. But Paul Desmond? A pretty nifty saxman, but ...