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

Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal: Musique De Nuit

Read "Musique De Nuit" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
September 13, 2015

Expanding on the adage that less is more, Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko and renowned French cellist Vincent Segal have taken an ascetic minimalistic approach on Musique De Nuit. This melding of primordial African intonations with Baroque inclinations, has yielded a stimulating and unique hybrid acoustic format, which they first experimented with in “Chamber Music," back in 2009. As with that production, this latest release is also recorded in Bamako, Mali, only this time half the record was done on ...

Album Review

Harvey Valdes: Roundabout

Read "Roundabout" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
September 13, 2015

New York guitarist Harvey Valdes started out at the age of 12 listening to bands like Napalm Death, Sacred Reich and Sick Of It All. “It was the music that spoke to me: loud, heavy and with a ton of attitude," he told the zine Guitar Moderne. “I would bring in a cassette tape of a band like Nuclear Assault and play it for my teacher, who was a jazz/wedding musician. He would listen to the song ...

Album Review

David Gilmour: Rattle That Lock

Read "Rattle That Lock" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
September 13, 2015

It seems that the working life of guitarist and singer David Gilmour is on a constant roll. Apart from being the front-man of one of the greatest bands in the world Pink Floyd, which career he put to rest with the recent remastered reissues and the fabulous Endless River, (Columbia, 2014) his solo career also took flight. Though he hasn't released any new material since the On an Island record (Columbia, 2006) he was not really idle, and more important ...

Multiple Reviews

Satoko Fujii with her various ensembles: Ichicgo Icihie, Yamiyo Ni Karasu and Kaze's Uminari

by Hrayr Attarian
September 13, 2015

Words like superb, outstanding or splendid are redundant when writing about pianist, accordionist and composer Satoko Fujii. With an average of five releases per year over the past decade, she is indeed one of the most prolific musicians. The abundance of her output though is never at the expense of its quality or originality. As the trio of 2015 albums demonstrates Fujii, with her various ensembles, is restlessly innovative with an unparalleled skill and a singularly captivating musical vision.

Live Review

Commander Cody and His West Coast Airmen at Baur's, Denver

by Geoff Anderson
September 12, 2015

Commander Cody and His West Coast Airmen Baur's Denver, CO September 2, 2015 Commander Cody has been in the boogie business for nearly 50 years now. Trends have come and gone; white wall tires, disco, Paris Hilton, rap music (still waiting for some of those to go), but the Commander continues to boogie on. Actually, pigeonholing the Ol' Commander into a single genre isn't accurate. Since the 1960s, he and his bands have ...

Album Review

Noa Lur: badakit

Read "badakit" reviewed by Mehdi El Mouden

by Mehdi El Mouden
September 12, 2015

Noa Lur is a force of nature. From Bilbao, the Spanish singer/song writer is a dreamy feminine soul that celebrates the majesty of jazz through a proud demeanor and a dominating voice. With such character Lur's phrases are suave, feathery and strong. In her debut album badakit, she makes her vocal talent stand out through original compositions and revisited classics played mainly on piano. Except “Throw It Away," where bass and saxophone are audible, and “Bobira" a dual ...

Live Review

The J. Geils Band at the Paramount

by Mike Perciaccante
September 12, 2015

The J. Geils Band with special guest Ian Hunter & the Rant Band the Paramount Huntington, NY August 30, 2015 The J. Geils Band came to prominence first in the early 1970s with its R&B-influenced blues rock sound and then again in the 1980s when it shifted its focus toward a more new wave approach. The band began in the late '60s in the Boston area as an acoustic blues trio featuring ...

Film Review

Pat Metheny: The Unity Sessions

by John Kelman
September 11, 2015

Pat Metheny Unity Group The Unity Sessions Eagle Eye Media 2015 With the release of the The Orchestrion Project (Eagle Eye Media, 2012) DVD/Blu Ray video and associated The Orchestrion Project (Nonesuch, 2013) two-CD set released just over three months later, Pat Metheny changed his approach to the live recordings that have followed almost every major release/tour beginning with Imaginary Day (Warner Bros., 1997) and Imaginary Day Live (Eagle Vision, 2001). Instead of ...

Album Review

Nicole Glover: First Record

Read "First Record" reviewed by Daniel Lehner

by Daniel Lehner
September 11, 2015

If for some reason Portland-native Nicole Glover's First Record ended up being her only one, she would still have made a lasting impact on the jazz world. The 24-year-old saxophonist's debut is an ambitious one that lays a lot on the table and seeks not only to establish her as a capable player, but a voice in the crowded world of jazz tenor. Aided by fellow Portlanders, both in her peer group (Jonathan Lakey on bass) and a few generations ...

Album Review

Ochion Jewell, Amino Belyamani, Sam Minaie, Qasim Naqvi with Lionel Loueke: Volk

by Karl Ackermann
September 11, 2015

From his Appalachian roots in Kentucky, saxophonist/composer Ochion Jewell was not the most likely candidate for a livelihood in jazz. With little involvement in the genre during his early life, Jewell was nevertheless exposed to more popular music from his parents as well as the Appalachian folk music that dominated the region. With those elements engrained, his formal training in classical saxophone at the University of Louisville and later education at California Institute of the Arts helped round out a ...