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.

Interview

Miles Comes To The Big Screen; Nephew Vincent Wilburn Approves

by R.J. DeLuke
October 19, 2015

Sometimes a comment made without serious intent can start the wheels of fate. Many Miles Davis fans know there has been a Miles Davis movie in the works for some time. Different proposals emerged over the years, none of them coming to light for varying reasons. Now, however, all Miles fans know that it's here. The movie, filmed in Cincinnati, is complete and ready for release. It debuted in New York City the second weekend in October. The ...

Live Review

Melody Gardot at the Merriam Theater

by Victor L. Schermer
October 19, 2015

Melody Gardot Merriam Theater Philadelphia, PA October 9, 2015 In this highly touted concert, Philadelphia born and bred vocalist Melody Gardot made a return visit to her home town after several years on the road in Europe and other destinations where her stunning voice and soul-stirring original songs have grabbed the world's attention. Her loyal fans know her life-changing story of a bicycle accident and the severe brain trauma it inflicted, with music playing ...

Album Review

Matthew Shipp Trio: The Conduct of Jazz

Read "The Conduct of Jazz" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
October 19, 2015

One of today's foremost pianists, Matthew Shipp has demonstrated the breadth of his artistry in numerous settings over his three decade career, including genre-defying electro-acoustic experiments. Recent years have found him narrowing his focus to concentrate on intimate acoustic efforts however, especially in one of the jazz tradition's most venerable formats--the classic piano trio. The Conduct of Jazz is the fifth trio recording to feature Michael Bisio as Shipp's principal bassist since 2011's The Art of the Improviser ...

Album Review

Mia Zabelka: Monday Sessions

Read "Monday Sessions" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
October 19, 2015

Live in concert, Austrian violinist Mia Zabelka is an electrifying performer, whether appearing solo or with others. In any context, she has the uncanny knack of commanding the stage and always being the centre of an audience's attention, achieved by the intensity and focus of her performances, rather than any gratuitous showmanship. (For a typical example, see the YouTube clip below of Zabelka in Trio Blurb with Maggie Nichols and John Russell, neither of whom is renowned as a shrinking ...

Album Review

Jen Shyu and Jade Tongue: Sounds and Cries of the World

Read "Sounds and Cries of the World" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 19, 2015

Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu's Sounds and Cries of the World is both raw and sophisticated, fiercely compelling yet intimately fragile and, above all, terrifyingly beautiful. Her sixth album as a leader, it is a collection of seven original compositions and three folk melodies all inspired by the traditions of Korea, Indonesia and East Timor. The exquisitely realized music balances the spontaneous and the choreographed resulting in a superbly dramatic effect. On the dreamlike “Moxa," for instance, Shyu ...

Album Review

Sigudur Rögnvaldsson: Kisima

by Anthony Shaw
October 19, 2015

If this Icelandic guitarist's music was once described as frenetic and insistent (see http://www.allaboutjazz.com/exploding-head-equally-stupid-eclipse-music-review-by-anthony-shaw.php?width=1024) this latest recording does nothing to undermine that classification. If anything the new line-up, known as Dark Forest and featuring Johannes Sarjasto sparring opposite Rögnvaldsson on saxophone, is even more genre bending than the previous work, including pieces which are almost placid, and at least reflective. Alongside the bassist from Sarjasto's own quartet Eero Tikkanen, Rögnvaldsson has got himself a powerful, tight rhythm section with drummer ...

Book Review

Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald

by C. Michael Bailey
October 18, 2015

Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties Elijah Wald 368 Pages ISBN: #978-0062366689 Dey Street Books 2014 Critic Elijah Wald might best be termed a critical anthropologist/archeologist of American Music, reexamining what has previously been written, seeking that which has not, and, by widening his net of inquiry, providing a new and broader musical landscape from which to draw previously unconsidered conclusions. Wald is the author ...

Album Review

Michael Sarian & The Chabones: The Escape Suite

Read "The Escape Suite" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 18, 2015

When he was all of one year of age, trumpeter Michael Sarian relocated from his birthplace in Canada to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Learning from some of that country's top musicians, Sarian began touring in Europe while still a teenager. Having worked in rock, disco and big bands, he eventually moved to New York where he studied jazz at NYU. While enrolled in that program he played and recorded with Joe Lovano and fusion guitarist Wayne Krantz among others.Sarian's ...

Album Review

Lou Volpe: Remembering Ol' Blue Eyes

Read "Remembering Ol' Blue Eyes" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 18, 2015

Ol' Blue Eyes, of course, is the late Frank Sinatra, arguably the greatest interpreter of popular American music who ever lived. Guitarist Lou Volpe (who doesn't sing) remembers Sinatra on this entertaining assortment of thirteen tunes associated with the Chairman of the Board (and leader of the Rat Pack) plus a special tribute, “Europa," which closes the album. Why the guitar, and not the voice? As noted, Volpe's no singer, and the reasoning behind the encomium is ...

Live Review

Warren Haynes and the Ashes & Dust Band at The Space at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
October 18, 2015

Warren Haynes and the Ashes & Dust Band with special guest Justin Townes Earle The Space at Westbury Westbury, NY October 7, 2015Warren Haynes is a musician's musician. He just loves to play. At one point, he was managing not only his solo career but the lead guitar seat in two major bands--the Allman Brothers Band and Gov't Mule. That's a heavy schedule. That's a lot of music.Haynes has also ...