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.

Take Five With...

Lola Danza on her Evolver Label and Evolver Fest

by AAJ Staff
October 7, 2015

Event Alert! Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 at 8 pm at the Roulette. Special guests include Matthew Shipp, Fung Chern Hwei, George Spanos' Quartet, Lola Danza “Korean Shaman Rites" and Ben Stapp: Myrrha's Red Book Act II will perform their latest works. About Lola Danza: Exquisite, Unique, Extraordinary, Honest and Passionate are the ways to describe Lola Danza as a vocalist and composer. Ms. Danza's music is innovative and the result is the creation of a new ...

Live Review

European Jazz Conference 2015: Hungarian Showcases

by Henning Bolte
October 7, 2015

Budapest Music Center European Jazz Conference Hungarian Showcases Budapest, Hungary September, 24-27, 2015 The European Jazz Conference is a step forward for pan-European cooperation and collaboration. What was formerly the General Assembly of the Europe Jazz Network (EJN), became the European Jazz Conference from 2014. It is now also opened to external participants upon registration. The Conference with its lectures, panels, working sessions, musical showcases and its rich possibilities to exchange is an important annual ...

Drum Addiction

The Jazz Instrument

by Mat Marucci
October 7, 2015

As the old saying goes, “You have to go back before you can go forward." And that means you should learn the tradition of the instrument to gain greater knowledge and bring more depth to your playing. Let's start at the beginning. Bear in mind that the drum set is the only instrument that was specifically created to play jazz. Originally, the various components of the jazz drum set were used in various ways in marching, concert, and symphonic bands. ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Fusion

by Todd S. Jenkins
October 7, 2015

This article was originally published in 2003. Since the early 1970s, fusion music has served as an appreciable back door for people seeking an entry into the complexities of jazz. The term “fusion" refers to the blending together of jazz, rock, world music, classical, or other influences into a concrete whole. Most often it's applied to a form of music also known as “jazz-rock," which first gained wide popularity with Miles Davis' electric-jazz experiments in the late 60s. ...

Album Review

Michael Dease: Decisions

Read "Decisions" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 7, 2015

When it comes to decision-making, not everything is black and white or right and wrong. On occasion there are multiple paths that can be seen as the correct choice, and trombonist Michael Dease truly understands that. Dease came to a significant fork in life's road when he found himself in a position to decide whether to remain a first-call New York-based player or move to Michigan. He ultimately chose the latter option and it hasn't hurt him one bit, as ...

Album Review

Jacob Garchik: Ye Olde

Read "Ye Olde" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
October 7, 2015

In Ye Olde, trombonist Jacob Garchik uses progressive rock, jazz and plenty of imagination to create what might be a mashup of Game of Thrones and 21st century music. He's performed with Henry Threadgill and Lee Konitz and produced the outstanding 2012 solo project The Heavens: The Atheist Gospel Trombone Album (Yestereve Records). These proclivities continue in his fourth date as a leader about an imagined faux-Gothic Flatbush/ Brooklyn architecture brought to fruition by a forward thinking band who handle ...

Album Review

Michael McNeill Trio: Flight

Read "Flight" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 7, 2015

On his second release as a leader Flight pianist Michael McNeill elegantly embellishes his own intricate compositions with bold spontaneity. He imbues the melodic elements of the album with subtle angularity and maintains a strong lyrical sense even while flirting with dissonance.The contemplative “Za," for instance, has a crystalline harmonic structure within which McNeill has carefully woven silent pauses that enhance its intimacy. His sparse chiming keys and drummer Phil Haynes' low rumble support bassist Ken Filiano's eloquent ...

Album Review

Christian Vuust & Aaron Parks: Storytelling

Read "Storytelling" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 7, 2015

"You're technically hip. But what is your story?" This quote from the famous saxophonist and storyteller Lester Young is used in the Danish saxophonist Christian Vuust's introduction to his album Storytelling. The context of the quote is Lester Young teaching a group of young musicians the importance of being able to tell a story with music. This is a lesson that Vuust learned a long time ago and on this album, he shares some of his favorite ...

Album Review

Oscar Perez: Prepare A Place For Me

Read "Prepare A Place For Me" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 6, 2015

If Oscar Perez hadn't taken to the piano, he might've had a promising career in music journalism. In the concise and profound liner essay for this album, Perez intelligently considers the meaning of music, the struggles and joys connected to the art of creating and performing, and the way an individual's very being seeps into the sounds they make and vice versa. His carefully chosen words say far more than most, but he needn't have penned the essay at all ...

Album Review

Geof Bradfield Quintet: Our Roots

Read "Our Roots" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 6, 2015

Discussing “roots" in the context of jazz, a good starting point is the Mississippi delta, down in New Orleans, where the music of trumpeters King Oliver and Louis Armstrong grew strong. And then there's the rich earth of the delta in north western Mississippi, up near Clarksdale, where the blues grew and blossomed. The roots from both these areas were, of course, transplanted from Africa. Chicago-based saxophonist Geof Bradfield follows up his marvelous Melba! (Origin Records, 2013) with ...