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.

Extended Analysis

The Staple Singers: Freedom Highway Complete

by Nenad Georgievski
September 27, 2015

Music has always been the perfect medium over which people expressed their dissatisfaction and protested social injustices. As such it has a tremendous ability to show the world from the perspective of the oppressed. During the '60s in US the revival of protest music was propelled as a reaction to the social changes and turmoils during that turbulent and dark period, from the civil rights movement to anti war movement. A myriad of musicians have used their music to address ...

Album Review

Shemekia Copeland: Outskirts Of Love

Read "Outskirts Of Love" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
September 27, 2015

The Blues. Much has been written about how it has influenced countless artists in a variety of genres, but few can claim to have been born into the blues. Blues singer Shemekia Copeland, as daughter of Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland, has this unique distinction, and has borne this trait with heartfelt integrity. Bequeathed with a dynamic and assertive voice, Outskirts Of Love is an affirmation that she has taken the blues into contemporary territory, while maintaining the raw emotion that ...

Album Review

Thomas Fonnesbaek: Where We Belong

Read "Where We Belong" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
September 27, 2015

Aficionados increasingly see Danish bassist Thomas Fonnesbaek as a successor to the late, great Nils-Henning Orsted Pedersen. He is heard here as part of a trio featuring Swedish pianist Lars Jansson, the format that established his reputation. The album consists primarily of Fonnesbaek's own compositions and others put together on the spot with the trio. There are two numbers from the Great American Songbook--Julie Styne's “Just In Time" and “Beautiful Love" a ballad by Victor Young.

Live Review

King Crimson at Usher Hall

by Ian Patterson
September 26, 2015

King Crimson Usher Hall Edinburgh, Scotland September 18, 2015 It's been thirty-three years since King Crimson last toured the UK and you have to go back to 1973 to find the last occasion Robert Fripp's storied band played Scotland. That's a long gap, whatever way you look at it; malt whiskies mature faster. Little wonder therefore, that the band's twelve UK dates have nearly all been sell outs, as you wouldn't hold your breath in ...

Album Review

Derek Nash Acoustic Quartet: You've Got To Dig It To Dig It, You Dig?

Read "You've Got To Dig It To Dig It, You Dig?" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
September 26, 2015

You've Got To Dig It To Dig It, You Dig?: not just a groovy album title, but wise words of advice. Saxophonist and bandleader Derek Nash clearly takes this advice to heart, crafting an album that's filled with eminently dig-able music. The advice that inspires Nash and his fellow players, as well as inspiring the album title and a tune of the same name, comes from Thelonious Monk. A few more of Monk's helpful hints--collected in 1960 by ...

Book Review

David Browne: So Many Roads - The Life and Times of the Grateful Dead

by Doug Collette
September 26, 2015

So Many Roads: The Life and Times of the Grateful Dead David Browne 496 Pages ISBN: # 0306821702 Da Capo Press 2015 In the unusual way it mirrors the Grateful Dead's singular approach to improvisational music, David Browne's So Many Roads is unique in the extensive bibliography devoted to the iconic rock and roll band. Like the Dead as they introduce the themes of a song, explore it and often move in ...

Album Review

Mort Weiss: Mort Weiss is a Jazz Reality Show

Read "Mort Weiss is a Jazz Reality Show" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 26, 2015

In recent years, life has thrown one obstacle after another at the feet of octogenarian clarinetist Mort Weiss. Divorce, loss of home, cancer, and hospitalization for a variety of other life-threatening ailments all came at him, threatening to kill his resolve and cut him down. But it would seem that practically nothing is capable of felling this forthright man and fine clarinetist. This album gives ample proof that there's a lot of musical life left in Mort Weiss.

Extended Analysis

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood: Betty's Blends Volume Two - Best from the West

by Doug Collette
September 26, 2015

Even before the final fracture of the Black Crowes, the Chris Robinson Brotherhood proved their prolific nature and hearty work ethic. To date they've produced three studio albums, accompanied by regular roadwork, that's now given birth to two live collections in what looks to be a series of such titles under the aegis of Betty Cantor-Jackson, long-time sound guru to the Grateful Dead. Best From the West consists of seven tracks culled from performances given during the summer ...

Album Review

John Schott: Actual Trio

Read "Actual Trio" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 26, 2015

San Francisco Bay Area guitarist John Schott presents the debut recording of his long-running jazz trio, and third album for New York City-based producer, composer and saxophonist John Zorn's Tzadik record label. As expected, Schott doesn't solely adhere to the tried and true within the jazz guitar trio format. It's not too radical, but not an album constructed on worn out jazz or pop standards. It's easy to detect the intra-group communication taking place, led by the leader's ...

Album Review

Shelton / Lonberg-Holm / Rosaly: Resounder

Read "Resounder" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 26, 2015

There is no connection whatsoever between the improvised electro-acoustic music of Resounder and Carl Stalling's musical accompaniment and his adaptations of music composed by Raymond Scott for Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoon. Except that, the music of Aram Shelton, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Frank Rosaly evokes a sort of theatre of the mind. The soundtrack to a virtual cinema of cartoons. Saxophonist and organizer Aram Shelton cut his teeth in the Chicago scene playing in Dragons ...