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.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown: Jazz Impressions and Good Sport
by Mark Sullivan
Everyone knows the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack A Charlie Brown Christmas (Fantasy Records, 1965). However, Guaraldi composed and performed music for many other Peanuts-related projects, two of which have been recently released. They represent the beginning and end of the journey: Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown was recorded in 1964, one year before the broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas; 1975's You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown was the penultimate soundtrack Guaraldi recorded before he died in 1976. ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Ângelo Trio: Distopia
by Andrew Hunter
Portuguese double-bassist Miguel Ângelo is a busy guy. He leads a quartet, with which he has released three records, as well as the trio he appears with here. He is also a member of several other small groups and has, fairly uniquely, released a record of solo double bass--the splendidly titled I Think I'm Going To Eat Dessert (Creative Sources Recordings, 2017). It is more engaging that you might imagine and establishes beyond doubt that we are hanging with a ...
Continue ReadingLatin Sounds from the Catskills + New Releases
by David Brown
First up, Sonny Rollins our man in jazz, a live free-form date recorded 63 years ago this week at the Village Gate, NYC; from there, we move into a summer set of sounds from the NY Catskill mountains via the 50s Latin jazz craze with Johnny Conquet and his Orchestra, vocalists Ruth Wallis and Abbe Lane followed by Machito & His Afro-Cubans and Tito Puente His Orchestra. Then, we continue celebrating Anthony Braxton's 80th birthday year with works showcasing his ...
Continue ReadingIvo Perelman: Armageddon Flower
by John Sharpe
Pianist Matthew Shipp serves as the fulcrum of Armageddon Flower, a riveting quartet date that unites two longstanding units: the duo with tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, and his String Trio with violist Mat Maneri and bassist William Parker. However, no-one is confined by past roles. Each of these four players has collaborated in multiple configurations over the last three decades. So four known quantities perhaps, but the familiarity here breeds neither complacency nor predictability. What emerges is a daring, combustible ...
Continue ReadingNew releases from around the world, for at home and the club
by Andy Crowther
Covers and originals from Japan, Hawaii, Brazil, Ethiopia, Finland and more. Into the club and on to the dancefloor in the second hour. Playlist Kyoto Jazz Sextet “Dosojin No Uta" from Dosojin No Uta EP (Lawson Entertainment Japan) 00:00 The Waitiki 7 “China Clipper" from Exotica Reborn (Waitiki International) 06:25 Roger Glenn “Zambo's Mambo" from My Latin Heart (Patois Records) 12:12 Eddie Daniels “Rio Vermelho" from To Milton With Love (Resonance Records) 18:31 Richard D. Johnson “1324 Broadway" ...
Continue ReadingForgotten Jazz Musicians On Their Centennial, Part 2:
by Larry Slater
As we look back on jazz history, we all have a tendency to focus on the giants: Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.Many other talented artists from the past decades have been forgotten, but many of their recordings have stood the test of time. The musicians featured in this hour were born in 1925, and this hour-long program pays tribute to them on the centennial of their birth.June Christy is best remembered for ...
Continue ReadingListening To Music On Its Own Terms Fallacy
by Robert J. Lewis
It is an all-too common complaint. The under-appreciated or ignored composer/songwriter accuses the listener of not engaging with the work 'on its own terms.' It sounds straightforward, but the accusation is packed with all sorts of tangled ideas about what a listener's job is, and whether art has some kind of fixed value. When the composer speaks of having to listen to music on its own terms, he invariably conjures a specific, often rigid, paradigm of ...
Continue ReadingFabia Mantwill Orchestra: In.Sight
by Neil Duggan
Slow, haunting strings usher listeners into Fabia Mantwill Orchestra's ambitious album In.Sight. This bold statement involves a 32-piece orchestra with six virtuoso soloists, performing compositions co-written by Mantwill, Snarky Puppy's Michael League and Greek composer Magdalini Giannikou. The album opens with “Satoyama," where those melancholic strings gradually bloom into bright melodic passages. The piece moves through a soundscape that weaves together jazz, classical and cinematic drama before Mantwill's expressive tenor saxophone emerges as the leading voice. Each composition ...
Continue ReadingMajid Bekkas, Nguyên Lê, Hamid Drake: Boom Boom
by Ludovico Granvassu
At a time of daunting provincialism and tribal regression, jazz remains one of the few welcoming oases for the globally minded. If you're one of then, enjoy this track, feauturing a Moroccan oud and guembri player--and vocalist--Majid Bekkas, a Franco Vietnamese guitarist, Nguyen Le, and a living legend of the Chicago scene like drummer Hamid Drake, playing in Germany--at the Berlin Philarmonie--a cover of John Lee Hooker's “Boom Boom"--just one of the many highlights from their latest album, ...
Continue ReadingWilliam Carn's Choices: The Unburdening
by Dan McClenaghan
The Covid pandemic allowed Canadian trombonist William Carn to push toward electronics, to move in the direction of going remote with his fellow players for the process of putting a set of sounds together. His debut album, 2023's self-produced Choices (review here) started the process. He doubles down (a much-heard phrase in the 2020s, thanks to a certain politician) on the do-it- at-home mode for his second recording, The Unburdening. The previously mentioned politician's 'double down' means doing something cruel ...
Continue Reading
