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

Jakob Buchanan: Requiem

Read "Requiem" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 27, 2015

One of the defining characteristics of mankind is the awareness of death as a part of the human condition. We all know that we are going to die. This awareness has been an inspiration to many artists and it could be said that art itself is a way of coming to terms with death. This is especially true with a requiem, which is defined as a musical composition in honor of the dead. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem is perhaps the ...

Album Review

Scott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio: Live In Bern

Read "Live In Bern" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 27, 2015

Scheduled to play at the International Jazz Festival in the city of Bern, Switzerland in 2014, festival founder Hans Zurbrugg asked drummer Jeff Hamilton to bring his trio as the center-piece of the festivities that week. Also there the same week was saxophonist great Scott Hamilton adding another master of the jazz idiom to the lineup of jazz stars. Interestingly enough, the two Hamilton's had never recorded together and as fortune would have it, the saxophonist was not under a ...

Album Review

Guapo: Obscure Knowledge

Read "Obscure Knowledge" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 27, 2015

This British band sports a colossal sound as they merge discrete flavors and variations of progressive rock into a singular or rather idiosyncratic group focus on its tenth release and third production for Cuneiform Records. With mesmeric minimalism, doomsday crescendos and certain movements built on math rock, the coalescence of keyboardist Emmett Elvin with guitarist Kavus Torabi spawns devastating overtures, evidenced on this one-track extravaganza that is sectioned into contrasting passages. The frontline launches the assault with howling ...

Album Review

Orrin Evans: The Evolution Of Oneself

Read "The Evolution Of Oneself" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 27, 2015

Simply put, if there was no Philadelphia sound, there would be no Orrin Evans. The pianist, hailing from The City of Brotherly Love, finds plenty of Philly passion on this busy trio recording, his 25th as a leader or co-leader. Here he teams up with Detroit drummer and former roommate (back in the day) Karriem Riggins, and Philly's go-to bassist Christian McBride. His amazing career has developed from the early post-bop Criss Cross recording days to his neo-soul ...

Building a Jazz Library

AACM - The Association of the Advancement of Creative Music

by Hrayr Attarian
October 26, 2015

The Association of the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) was created 50 years ago in Chicago to give voice to adventurous African American musicians and to express the political turmoil of the era. As this is the anniversary year of this revolutionary collective here are ten essential classic AACM recordings that belong in any collection, regardless of genre. Roscoe Mitchell Sound Delmark 1966 The first ever release by a member ...

Musings of a Jazz Piano Teacher

Teaching the blues

by Paul Abrahams
October 26, 2015

A moment after writing the title of this article, up popped an image of John Lee Hooker smiling and shaking his head. “Nobody can teach you the blues. Blues is a feeling, something you have to live." I tried explaining that I'm a jazz piano teacher and that it's part of my job but the image faded. So where do we start? If you've read my previous articles or are one of my students, the following message will ...

Album Review

Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra: Prime Time

Read "Prime Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 26, 2015

Composer / arranger Alan Baylock seems to have a penchant for time. Prime Time is the Baylock Jazz Orchestra's third album, following Two Seconds to Midnight (2003) and Eastern Standard Time (2008). This time (no pun intended), Baylock, who doubles as chief arranger for the U.S. Air Force's premier jazz ensemble, the Airmen of Note, has enlisted the services of the seemingly ageless trumpet master Doc Severinsen (of Tonight Show Band fame) who pays Father Time no heed while shining ...

Album Review

Brian Eisenberg Jazz Orchestra: Sense of Gratitude

Read "Sense of Gratitude" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 26, 2015

Offering a palette of eight new originals and one cover tune, Sense of Gratitude is the very impressive debut album from the Brian Eisenberg Jazz Orchestra performing a session of modern jazz music that's challenging and engaging from beginning to end. Los Angeles-based composer/arranger and band leader, Brian Eisenberg is a graduate of San Diego State University and an award-winning composer (Downbeat Magazine and ASCAP) whose talents as a writer are clearly evident after one sample of this music. There ...

Album Review

Konstantin Ionenko Quintet: Deep Immersion

Read "Deep Immersion" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
October 26, 2015

The dark-toned, subtle, inviting and yet vaguely dangerous Deep Immersion represents electric bassist Konstantin Ionenko's project as a leader (and sole composer), the other being Flow from the Deep Tone Project, which he co-leads with guitarist Alexandr Pavlov. Ionenko does not hide this music's antecedents, which are sixties hard bop, complete with the two-horn front line declaiming the theme in unison, supported by a piano trio. However, this is no slavish copy of that era's aesthetic, nor even ...

Album Review

Howard Riley: 10.11.12

by John Sharpe
October 26, 2015

English pianist Howard Riley has found a late career champion in the Lithuanian No Business imprint. 10:11:12 constitutes his fourth release in as many years. In the liner to his previous album Live With Repertoire (2013), the pianist explained that he likes to characterize his gigs into with/without repertoire. As such this outing falls mainly into the latter camp, comprising as it does five inventions and a standard. Over the decades Riley has shown himself to be a master of ...