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

Bob Merrill: Cheerin’ Up the Universe

Read "Cheerin’ Up the Universe" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 7, 2015

Jazz as an art form is not noted for a particularly sunny disposition. Trumpeter and vocalist Bob Merrill dispenses with this prejudice in his opening original title composition of Cheerin' Up the Universe, his fourth recording. From the outset, this recital is going to be a positive, affirming musical experience sans the saccharine sentimentality projects like this often can fall into. The musicianship and imagination here are much too sharp to allow that to happen. The New ...

Album Review

Kosi: Ghosts Appearing Through The Sound

Read "Ghosts Appearing Through The Sound" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
September 7, 2015

This is the third album by New York City based vocalist and songwriter Kosi (neé Akosua Gyebi). Ghosts Appearing Through The Sound is a tribute to one of Kosi's main influences, Abbey Lincoln, her other chief influence being Nina Simone. All ten tracks have a connection with Lincoln being either wholly or co-written by her.“Learning How To Listen" is a delicate ballad, showcasing Kosi's plaintively soulful voice accompanied just by guitar -and benefits from an excellent solo from ...

Album Review

Mural: Tempo

by John Eyles
September 7, 2015

The most significant thing about Tempo is that it was recorded live in concert at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. This octagonal space (pictured on the album cover, right) opened in 1971, a year after Mark Rothko's death. It is sparsely furnished and painted white, with fourteen of Rothko's late works--large black canvasses--displayed around its walls. All of this gives the chapel a unique ambience that is conducive to quiet contemplation, if not prayer. It has inspired musicians ranging ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Trombone

by Bob Bernotas
September 7, 2015

The trombone was an essential component of the brass parade bands that were a staple of black social and cultural life in many southern cities around the turn of the twentieth century. As these bands evolved into collectively improvising jazz ensembles, the trombone became an equal partner of the clarinet and cornet, filling in the root notes of the harmony and providing a low-register counterpoint to the melody line. The first black jazz band from New Orleans to record was ...

Live Review

Eric Burdon & the Animals at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
September 7, 2015

Eric Burdon & the Animals with special guest the Edgar Winter Group NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY August 28, 2015 Eric Burdon is an iconic member of the '60s British Blues Invasion. Burdon's band, the Animals, along with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Hollies, the Dave Clark Five and the Kinks introduced American youth to British music, fashion and culture. As the lead singer of the Animals, Burdon was the ...

Album Review

Eberhard Weber: Hommage à Eberhard Weber

Read "Hommage à Eberhard Weber" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
September 7, 2015

Hommage celebrates the 75th birthday of bassist/composer Eberhard Weber. His distinctive custom-built, five-string electro-acoustic upright bass sound has been the foundation of many ECM recordings, almost right from the beginning: as leader of his own groups; longtime sideman for saxophonist Jan Garbarek; and other ECM recording artists including Ralph Towner, Gary Burton, Wolfgang Dauner, Pat Metheny and the Frankfurt Jazz Ensemble. He has been unable to perform since a 2007 stroke, but the first two selections in this live concert ...

Album Review

Sinne Eeg & Thomas Fonnesbæk: Eeg-Fonnesbæk

Read "Eeg-Fonnesbæk" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 6, 2015

Danish vocalist Sinne Eeg is basically an unknown to American jazz listeners, but she's considered a vocal treasure on the other side of the pond. Three of her seven previous albums--Waiting For Dawn (Cope Records, 2007), Don't Be So Blue (Red Dot Music/EMI, 2010), and Face The Music (Stunt Records/Sundance Music, 2014)--have taken home Danish Music Awards, she was the recipient of the 2014 Ben Webster Prize, and she was awarded the Prix du Jazz Vocal by the French Académie ...

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Discography

Bobo Stenson: A Discography

by Budd Kopman
September 6, 2015

This article has been updated since its original 2006 publish date. Over the course of forty years, pianist Bobo Stenson (born 1944, Vasteras, Sweden) has been able to adapt himself to contribute in whatever way is necessary for the music at hand. Always being himself yet never calling attention to his prowess, he plies his skills on projects and always ends up leaving his mark. As a leader, he is an alchemist who can extract, ...

Album Review

Justin Haynes: Shoeless in Georgetown

Read "Shoeless in Georgetown" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 6, 2015

Shoeless in Georgetown (there's a story there, but that's for another time) was recorded in April 2015 before an enthusiastic audience at Knox College in Galesburg, IL. The leader of the band is Justin Haynes. What is known is that Haynes, who holds a masters degree in Jazz Composition, teaches (music, of course) at schools in nearby Lewistown, and is a more than capable big-band composer / arranger (he wrote eight of the dozen selections on this tasteful debut album ...

Album Review

The Lalama Brothers: The Crepuscule Variations

Read "The Crepuscule Variations" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
September 6, 2015

Ralph Lalama and Dave Lalama grew up in a home surrounded by the Great American Songbook which resulted in a highly evolved affinity, almost genetically implanted deep within their DNA appreciation for the songs of yesteryear. Both have made a career of music and have mastered the many nuances of the jazz language. Their new recording, The Crepuscule Variations is a celebration of their common past and their love of the art form, and more importantly the parents who introduced ...