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.

652

Building a Jazz Library

Duke Ellington

by John Eyles
October 6, 2015

This article was first published in 2005. Building a jazz library? Then you'll definitely need some Duke Ellington as a cornerstone of it. The Duke is frequently cited as the greatest jazz man of them all, with his main rivals for the crown being Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Ask ten Ellington fans to list their ten favourite Ellington albums and the chances are you'll end up with at least 60 albums to choose ...

133

Album Review

Gabriel Vicéns: Days

by Edward Blanco
October 6, 2015

Young Puerto Rican-born guitarist Gabriel Vicens unveils his second album as leader with the audacious Days documenting a nine-piece program of infectious modern jazz with a touch of the Latin flavor to make it interesting and quite appealing. A graduate from the Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico, the twenty-seven-year old musician is currently professor at the Universidad Interamericana in San Juan and is widely recognized as one of the Island's up and coming rising jazz stars. Featured here are ...

Live Review

European Jazz Conference 2015

by Ian Patterson
October 6, 2015

European Jazz Conference Budapest Music Centre Budapest, Hungary September 24-27, 2015 In times when war and poverty are provoking large-scale migrations to Europe, the responses both individually and collectively of the European nations have raised important questions concerning responsibility, human rights, humanitarian aid and trans-national collaboration. In the light of Orwellian fences, jazz--that most trans- national of all music--provides a prism through which it's possible to re-examine our capacity to work and play together despite ...

Album Review

Romain Collin: Press Enter

Read "Press Enter" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 6, 2015

On his way to creating this extraordinary album, French pianist Romain Collin had the opportunity to chat with Wayne Shorter about those who delay and defer their aspirations. Shorter's two word strategic summation would become the title for this project, Press Enter. Now a New York City resident, Collin did not begin his musical journey through the customary club circuits of Europe or New York, instead touring India and Vietnam with players from the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz. His ...

Album Review

Tom Hewson Trio: Treehouse

Read "Treehouse" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 5, 2015

Treehouse, album number two from the young British pianist Tom Hewson, finds him working in a trio (which is also known as Treehouse) alongside two more of the brightest young players on the UK jazz scene--bassist Calum Gourlay and vibes player Lewis Wright. It's a lyrical and engaging collection--mostly of Hewson's own compositions--with the relatively rare pairing of piano and vibes giving the music an added frisson of interest. Hewson's debut, Slightly Peculiar (Self Produced, 2012), was a ...

Album Review

Igor Osypov Quintet: I

by Dave Wayne
October 5, 2015

A native of Ukraine currently studying at Jazz Institute Berlin under Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitarist Igor Osypov was initially drawn to the guitar as a pre-teen via rock and punk-rock. Osypov's debut album I is, on the surface, the type of sunny, moderately complex, indie-rock inflected jazz that's the stock-in-trade of guys like Brian Blade, David Binney, Torben Waldorff, and, of course, Rosenwinkel himself. Happily, there's a lot of blood and guts evident in Osypov's playing and in his tunes. Dark ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Newport Jazz

by Nathan Holaway
October 5, 2015

This article was first published in 2005.The summer seeks scintillating sounds from the jazz sectors. Indeed, it is at this minuscule place that massive talents come together. Who could possibly hypothesize that such a small stretch of land could be the breeding ground for new ideas, the ideal place for musical re-unions, or the pre-destined landmark for one of the greatest comebacks in jazz history. Whether you have actively been in the crowd, heard the crowd on record, ...

Album Review

Adam Scone: I Scream Scone!

Read "I Scream Scone!" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 5, 2015

Organist Adam Scone has played many styles of music throughout his career, from funk, rock, blues, other styles to yes, jazz and in 2013 after performing as a sideman on a saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith recording, decided to consider documenting his first twenty-years playing jazz and ballads and to this end, I Scream Scone! was conceived and born. Inspired by the great Jack McDuff and his arrangements for organ-led quartets that featured a sax, guitar and drums, Scone records here with ...

Live Review

Hendrik Meurkens-Doug Webb Quintet at Trumpets Jazz Club

by David A. Orthmann
October 5, 2015

Hendrik Meurkens-Doug Webb Quintet Trumpets Jazz Club Montclair, NJ September 25, 2015 The opening set of a one-off gig by a quintet co-led by vibraphonist/harmonicist Hendrik Meurkens and tenor saxophonist Doug Webb consisted of overlapping, concurrent factors which resulted in over an hour's worth of music brimming with emotional and intellectual substance. The cooperation and connectedness between Meurkens and Webb, who first met decades ago at the Berklee College of Music, set the tone ...

Album Review

Kazuki Yamanaka: Songs Unconscious-minded

Read "Songs Unconscious-minded" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 5, 2015

Multi-reedist Kazuki Yamanaka is a newly-minted jazz musician, assimilated into New York City and in touch with all of the right friends. For his debut recording as a leader, Songs Unconscious- minded, Yamanaka has composed and arranged seven original compositions and one traditional Japanese melody, revealing in the bargain, a well-developed sense of musical self, possessing a calm but fearless creative nature. Central to the recording is the opener, “Let Go." It encapsulates Yamanaka's beyond post-bop vision and his proclivity ...