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

Ada Rovatti: Disguise

Read "Disguise" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 22, 2015

An initial spin of saxophonist Ada Rovatti's Disguise says she hasn't lost a step since 2009's The Green Factor (Piloo Records). There's still the judicious funk grooves, the tight arrangements, and catchy and distinctive melodies that make for an engaging and edifying listening experience. And she's still a wonderfully soulful saxophonist. These are quintet, quartet and sextet offerings. In small group jazz outings, there has to be something that sets the effort apart. With Rovatti--especially on Disguise--that “something" ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Sonny Rollins, Volume Two – 1957

by Marc Davis
September 22, 2015

There are no bad records by Sonny Rollins, but some are better than others. This is one of the better ones. Sonny Rollins Volume Two is, as the name suggests, Rollins' second recording for Blue Note. It's uniformly excellent with a fantastic band, especially the great J.J. Johnson on trombone and two tracks with the utterly unique Thelonious Monk. If only the title were better. That may be a dumb thing to criticize, but ...

Album Review

Jakob Norgren Jazz Orchestra: Pathfinding

Read "Pathfinding" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
September 22, 2015

Swedish composer and jazz artist Jakob Norgren is a complex individual with a fascinating background of which band leader is only one component of his varied resume. Leading the Swedish-based contemporary Jakob Norgren Jazz Orchestra, the group deliver their debut album on the audacious Pathfinding, where the music is big band, modern with all new original material that swings all over. A research assistant in cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet in Solna, Sweden, Norgren also finds the time to ...

Album Review

Spanglish Fly: New York Boogaloo

Read "New York Boogaloo" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
September 22, 2015

Boogaloo burst out of New York City in the mid 1960's as a crossover dance craze melding Afro-Latin rhythms with American soul. Since then, it has come to represent a galvanizing milestone for the Puerto Rican and Hispanic community in the city. It symbolizes that they had arrived and had their own music to show for it. Though it might have been a passing fad, boogaloo directly led to the global explosion of salsa, which put Latin music on the ...

Extended Analysis

Chick Corea & Bela Fleck: Two

by Doug Collette
September 22, 2015

The collaboration of pianist/composer Chick Corea and banjoist/composer Bela Fleck is a magnificent meeting of the minds, one as unlikely as jazz of any era is likely to see and hear. The ever-so-serious and often precious approach of the former is largely contrasted by the playful, though occasionally cute-to-a-fault latter, but the complementary nature of their playing together renders those blemishes of attitude moot precisely because, based largely in the spontaneity of the moments as captured on this set, the ...

Album Review

Trio DEF: Trio DEF

by Dave Wayne
September 22, 2015

Based in Canada, with members resident in Ottawa, Montreal and New York City, Trio DEF overcomes logistical hurdles to create some mighty fine guitar trio jazz and jazz-rock on their eponymous debut. Bassist Marc-Andre Drouin, a completely unfamiliar name to me, plays the plugged-in variant with the elasticity and warmth of an acoustic bassist. He is quite a find. Drouin's playing during a masterclass at Carleton University's School for Studies in Art and Culture, where guitarist Wayne Eagles teaches and ...

Album Review

Oran Etkin: What's New? Reimagining Benny Goodman

Read "What's New? Reimagining Benny Goodman" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 21, 2015

Those looking to preview some of the most interesting jazz offerings due to arrive in any given year know that New York's Winter Jazzfest is the place to do it. For more than a decade, this annual January happening has had its finger on the pulse of the jazz world, giving the press, the fans, and curious jazz newcomers an opportunity to hear the best of what's around and the best of what's to come. The 2015 ...

Album Review

Ochion Jewell Quartet: Volk

by Hrayr Attarian
September 21, 2015

Saxophonist Ochion Jewell melds folk influences from around the world into an intimately personal and globally resonant work with his second release Volk. Created in the aftermath of his traumatic experience with mistaken identity and brutal police treatment, Volk is a tribute to the integrality of musical expression Jewell and his band interpret his own compositions together with tunes of various nationalities with the same unbridled passion and fiery, intelligent spontaneity. The Irish jig “Give Us a Drink ...

Album Review

Bastet: Eye of Ra

by Dave Wayne
September 21, 2015

Billing themselves as “original modern West Coast Jazz," I half- hoped to see Shelly Manne and Bud Shank pop up amongst the credits on Bastet's debut album Eye of Ra. Alas, the music of this Bay Area-based quartet apparently has very little to do with the Los Angeles- based West Coast jazz scene that spawned such classics as Shank's Barefoot Adventure (Pacific Jazz Records, 1962) and Manne's The Gambit (Contemporary Records, 1958). Happily, though, Bastet's music is a winning combination ...

Album Review

Rob Reddy: Bechet: Our Contemporary

Read "Bechet: Our Contemporary" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 21, 2015

Prominent New York City progressive saxophonist and composer, Rob Reddy contemporizes innovative soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet's artistic persona with his large ensemble, featuring several longtime associates, violinist Charles Burnham, bassist Dom Richards and drummer Pheeroan Aklaff. Reddy doesn't simply restate the past, but more importantly intertwines the trad jazz component with a scintillating and upbeat commingling of nouveau applications. Bechet's wide vibrato technique, full-bodied and animated improvisational acumen extended conventional norms into the upper strata during his heyday ...