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...

Take Five with Rob Saffer of the Creative Music Foundation

by AAJ Staff
September 10, 2015

In this installment of Take Five we hear from Executive Director Rob Saffer of the Creative Music Foundation, an organization founded in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman. CMS has brought together leading innovators in the jazz and world music communities through their CMS workshops. About the Creative Music Studio Fall Workshop: Composer/multi-instrumentalist and Creative Music Studio alumnus Peter Apfelbaum, master percussionist/educator Billy Martin, and composer/saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa will join CMS Artistic Directors/Co-founders ...

Album Review

Michel Nirenberg: Retrato/Portrait

Read "Retrato/Portrait" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 10, 2015

It only takes a few seconds of listening to “Chorinho Em Aldeia/Na Gloria"--the album-opening track on Retrato/Self Portrait--to realize there's something special about Michel Nirenberg's playing. This young multi-reedist--a native of Rio de Janeiro who's currently based in Washington D.C.--marries virtuosity, exuberance, and emotional depth in his work, confidently covering everything from choro to cha-cha and swing music to samba on this, his debut album. The aforementioned “Chorinho Em Aldeia/Na Gloria" kicks things off in sprightly fashion. ...

Album Review

Pete McCann: Range

by Roger Farbey
September 10, 2015

This is the fifth album as leader by NYC-based guitarist Pete McCann and demonstrates just what heights the jazz guitar is capable of reaching when placed in the hands of an expert who understands the meaning of balance and finesse. Opening with the breezy “Kenny," a paen to the late Kenny Wheeler (with whom Pete McCann had performed), the guitarist lays down flurries of rapid-fire notes, with notable solo appearances here by Henry Hey on piano and John O'Gallagher on ...

Album Review

Jesper Lundgaard, featuring Enrico Pieranunzi & Alex Riel: 60 Out Of Shape

Read "60 Out Of Shape" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
September 10, 2015

Back in the glory days the Copenhagen jazz club Montmartre was known as “The Village Vanguard of Europe." In the 1960s some of the biggest names in the music played there: Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz... the list goes on. And on: Roland Kirk, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter... The resurrection of the club in 2010, masterminded by Danish pianist Niels Lan Doky was headlined “Rebirth of the ...

Album Review

Syberen van Munster: Plunge For Distance

Read "Plunge For Distance" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
September 10, 2015

Originality just refuses to stay hidden, and with his debut, label-ignoring album Plunge For Distance, guitarist Syberen van Munster should be hit by the spotlight of recognition. Born in Amsterdam, van Munster graduated in 2009 from the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and moved on to continue his education at the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York, where he obtained his Master's Degree in 2011. He has won the Dutch Woodwinds Ensemble Composition Prize, and recently was a ...

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Opinion

The Creative Music Studio Goes To College!

by Karl Berger
September 10, 2015

This article was originally published in 2005. In 1972 I founded the Creative Music Studio (CMS) with Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman. Many luminaries were among the initial advisors: John Cage, Gil Evans, Gunther Schuller, Alan Ginsberg, George Russell, Don Cherry, Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Dave Holland, Frederic Rzewski, Anthony Braxton and Jack DeJohnette, a list of participant artists that reads now like a who's who in new music, jazz and world music. For many years CMS, which ...

Album Review

Randy Brecker: RandyPOP!

Read "RandyPOP!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 9, 2015

This album gives new meaning to the idea of rewriting history. Before trumpeter Randy Brecker had ascended to the top rung on the jazz ladder he was making his mark as a hired gun in studios and on stages. His horn can be heard on numerous classic recordings, including those of James Brown, Donald Fagen, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and, of course, Blood, Sweat & Tears. Now, just as Brecker is about to enter the septuagenarian club, he's taken an ...

Album Review

Mike Barone Big Band: La Fiesta

Read "La Fiesta" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 9, 2015

Mike Barone has been writing outstanding big-band arrangements for more than half a century. After listening to La Fiesta, Barone's ninth album as leader of the Los Angeles-based Mike Barone Big Band (counting Live at Donte's, recorded back in 1968), the logical question arises: does Barone ever run short of resourceful ideas? To which the obvious answer is, not yet. Where else, for example, but on a Barone album could sparkling new arrangements of such moss-covered Tin Pan Alley heirlooms ...

Album Review

Pete McCann: Range

by Troy Collins
September 9, 2015

Wisconsin-born guitarist Pete McCann has been a mainstay in the New York City jazz scene for over 25 years, yet mysteriously continues to elude widespread recognition, despite his impressive virtuosity. McCann's enviably diverse skills are well-documented on the aptly titled Range, the fifth release issued under his name. Joined by alto saxophonist John O'Gallagher, keyboardist Henry Hey, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Mark Ferber, McCann and company embark on an eclectic excursion exploring myriad genres, from straight-ahead and post-bop to ...

Album Review

The Lost Trio: Monkwork

by Dave Wayne
September 9, 2015

In the academic world, it's not unusual for someone to devote their scholarly energies to the study of a single, galvanizing individual and their life's work. Take Abraham Lincoln, for instance: the number of college professors and independent historians who've devoted their lives to thinking, speaking, and writing about Honest Abe is simply astounding. A similar phenomenon crops up in music, as well, and increasingly so in jazz; where just enough time has passed to reveal the true and lasting ...