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

Josh Berman Trio: A Dance And A Hop

Read "A Dance And A Hop" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 18, 2015

There is a permanent exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago of 68 miniature rooms. These dollhouses for adults recreate American, French, and English rooms from last century and three centuries ago at a scale of 1 inch to a foot. Visitors lean in to marvel at the amazing detail. Drapery, carpets, and tea cups are reproduced with uncompromising skill. Same can be said for A Dance And A Hop from cornetist Josh Berman. His vest-pocket music approach invites you ...

Album Review

Vlad West: Say Hello To Russia

Read "Say Hello To Russia" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
October 18, 2015

Pianist/saxophonist/composer Vlad West could possibly be the best known unknown musician in jazz, at least in the U.S. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan as Vladimir Sermakashev, his first instrument was piano, and as a child prodigy, outgrew his teachers by the age of nine. He then switched to saxophone and jazz, becoming the top player in Baku and later Moscow by the age of eighteen. Defecting to the United States, he became the inspiration for the 1984 movie Moscow ...

Album Review

Shawn Colvin: Uncovered

Read "Uncovered" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 17, 2015

There are two trends occurring in popular music that are both equally welcome to “those of a certain age." These are classic rock titans or their later devotees, performing their landmark albums, from beginning to end, in concert. The Rolling Stones performing Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones, 1971) in its entirety at Los Angeles' Fonda Theater, May 20, 2015 and Phish's “Musical Costume" presenting Little Feat's monumental Waiting for Columbus (Warner Bros., 1978) immediately come to mind. The ...

Multiple Reviews

Dave's Picks Volume 15 & Dick's Picks Volume 5

by Doug Collette
October 17, 2015

It's been said before but it's worth saying again: if the coincidental Grateful Dead archive releases on Real Gone Music and Rhino Records are meant to complement each or not, they end up doing so. Significant changes in the band's personnel took place in the fifteen months between the April 22, 1978 show captured on Dave's Picks Volume 15 and and Dick's Pick's Volume Five comprised of 12/26/79. it'd be just another instance of innovative marketing arising from the grateful ...

Extended Analysis

Sexwitch: Sexwitch

by Phil Barnes
October 17, 2015

With Natasha Khan, the singer of Bat for Lashes and now Sexwitch, you can never be quite sure what is coming next. On the one hand her trademark experimental pop has progressively reached out to a more mainstream audience in the years between 2006's Fur and Gold and 2012s The Haunted Man, yet there remains the impression that something more radical is being reined in, being held in reserve. Perhaps Khan feels that we, her audience, couldn't cope with the ...

Album Review

The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers Live

Read "Sticky Fingers Live" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 17, 2015

Orbiting somewhere close to the 45th anniversary of the release of Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones, 1971) the “Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World" opened their 2015 “Zip Code" tour on May 20th at Los Angele's intimate 1,300 seat Fonda Theater where, in the middle of a standard Stones show, the band played the entire Sticky Fingers for their first time. It has recently become fashionable for bands to perform in their entirety recordings deemed seminal by the passage ...

Film Review

Fathom Events Presents The Who in Hyde Park

by Doug Collette
October 17, 2015

The Who The Who in Hyde Park Fathom Events: Palace 9 Cinema South Burlington, Vermont October 8, 2015 As presented by cinema entrepreneurs Fathom Events in selected cities the fall of 2015, Chris Rule's film of The Who in Hyde Park is ideally suited for viewing in theaters, particularly those like South Burlington's Palace 9 where the Grateful Dead's annual Meet-up at the Movies as well as the July 4th 2015 Fare Thee ...

Album Review

Renee Yoxon: Impossible: Live at Musideum

Read "Impossible: Live at Musideum" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 17, 2015

Where her previous recording, Here We Go Again (Self Produced, 2014) was a voice-piano recital of inventive original compositions, Canadian singer Renee Yoxon returns with an equally inventive collection of “standards," though these are not one's typical standards in any sense. Yoxon again opts for a voice-piano format, this time picking the talent of Chad Linsley for her recording. Like Here We Go Again, Yoxon offers a sophisticated ambiance to her performance that is classy and artful, ...

Album Review

Carrie Wicks: Maybe

Read "Maybe" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 17, 2015

Vocalist Carrie Wicks is three albums into her recording career with the release of Maybe, a collection heavy on smartly composed and sung originals. Wicks has previously released I'll Get Around to It (A2 Records, 2010) and Barely There (OA2 Records, 2012). She enjoyed the same rhythm section so much on both recordings, pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Jeff Johnson, and drummer Byron Vannoy that she uses them with no additional solo instruments on Maybe. Wicks is a ...

Inside AAJ

To 20 More Years! Help us build a bigger and better All About Jazz

by Michael Ricci
October 16, 2015

In celebration of All About Jazz's 20th anniversary, we're asking for greater participation from our readers. Taking a page out of Wikipedia's book, we're looking for our friends and our long-time readers to pitch in and help: from submitting an article, to helping with other sections of the website including Jazz Near You. Kinda like this... Love Jimmy Smith's music? Then help us complete his musician profile and his discography. or, this...