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.

Live Review

Psychedelic Furs and the Church at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
August 29, 2015

Psychedelic Furs and the Church NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY August 19, 2015 The Psychedelic Furs are one of the most iconic bands of the modern rock era. The British band found initial fame in the early 1980s with what was originally an art-rock sound that developed into the more robust new wave modern rock with which the band achieved its biggest successes. The band initially consisted of Richard Butler (vocals), ...

Album Review

Arshak Sirunyan: Serendipity

Read "Serendipity" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 29, 2015

Pianist/composer Arshak Sirunyan last offered up a startlingly good multi-media, cross-genre collection with Hoodman's Blind (Self-produced, 2014). That recording found the Armenian born musician tackling the complexities of translating a medieval contest of strategy to an engaging musical concept. The success of that album hinged--in no small part--on Sirunyan's ability to blend disparate elements of chamber, folk, rock and jazz into a consistent hybrid style of his own. More aspiring, and completely different, is Serendipity, a stunning work of modern ...

Album Review

London, Meander, Pramuk & Ross: The Royal Bopsters Project

Read "The Royal Bopsters Project" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 29, 2015

In the beginning, and by “beginning" I mean the February 26, 1926 commitment to shellac of Boyd Atkins' “Heebie Jeebies" by one Louis Armstrong. Legend has it that Armstrong dropped his lyric sheet while recording the song and no words to sing, began to improvise his vocals, creating scat singing. This was one of the first innovations to occur in jazz vocals, which were essentially being created by Armstrong this this and other recordings. It is not a far reach ...

Live Review

Jazz and Joy Festival 2015

by Adriana Carcu
August 29, 2015

Jazz and Joy Festival 2015 Worms, Germany June 19-21, 2015 The Jazz and Joy Festival, located in the German town of Worms, celebrated its 25th anniversary. Not far from Frankfurt on Main, Worms carries an illustrious historical heritage, as the site of the Middle Age Nibelung Legend, which was later masterfully rendered in music by Richard Wagner in the series of operas called Der Ring des Nibelungen. The festival--featuring 40 bands, on five different ...

Album Review

Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers Deluxe Edition

Read "Sticky Fingers Deluxe Edition" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
August 29, 2015

In combination with the 2015 'Zip Code' tour, on which the band played the album in its entirety more than once, the reissue of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones Records, 1971) is a valiant and fully-justified effort to restore the significance of the album, the importance of which has suffered over time in comparison to its followup, Exile on Main Street (Rolling Stones Records, 1972). And the initiative may be altogether legitimate, despite the fact that, ...

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Live Review

Morris Day & The Time with Con Brio at Stern Grove

by Walter Atkins
August 29, 2015

Morris Day & The Time with Con Brio Sigmund Stern Grove Stern Grove Festival San Francisco CA August 9, 2015 Morris Day And The Time with Con Brio performed as part of the Sigmund Stern Grove's 78th summer season in San Francisco. Sunday's overcast but warm day opened up with the group Con Brio (With Spirit) and their exciting blend of rock, soul and funk. The SF based band and their soulful lead singer ...

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Building a Jazz Library

John McLaughlin

by Walter Kolosky
August 28, 2015

Few tasks are more daunting than picking just ten of a great jazz artist's albums for a library collection. Each record adds in its own way to the appreciation of any artist. But in the case of guitarist John McLaughlin (b. 1942), choosing representative albums is made an even more difficult chore because so many of his records run at odd angles to each other. He seems to change styles so often that just keeping track can be a daunting ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Jazz For A Romantic Evening

by AAJ Staff
August 28, 2015

This collection of tunes spans a range of moods and colors, but the common thread running through it is that it's music to share. Perhaps a candlelight dinner, or conversation on the couch, or dancing, or whatever-happens-after-that: these records cover the spectrum. You won't find Jazz for Lovers or any such mass market trash here. Just as this is jazz for lovers, it's also music for jazz lovers: the pure, undistilled vision of creative artists. While many of ...

Album Review

Bret Higgins' Atlas Revolt: Bret Higgins' Atlas Revolt

Read "Bret Higgins' Atlas Revolt" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 28, 2015

The eponymous debut from Toronto-based bassist Bret Higgins' Atlas Revolt is a tough one to pin down and an easy one to get pleasantly lost in. Higgins regularly walks through different musical worlds, working with the folk-rock outfit Great Lake Swimmers, the Balkan-klezmer band Beyond The Pale, the folk-ish Ozere, and the trippy avant-klezmer jam band known as Zebrina, so it should come as no surprise that his own music pulls from so many different places. He ...

Album Review

Harris Eisenstadt: Canada Day IV

Read "Canada Day IV" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
August 28, 2015

Canada Day has been drummer Harris Eisenstadt's flagship ensemble since its first gig on July 1, 2007--his homeland's national holiday, hence the band name. In the ensuing years the quintet has developed an identifiably cohesive sound that expertly balances avant-garde explorations and in-the-pocket swing, with only one significant personnel change; the bass chair is now filled by Pascal Niggenkemper, the group's third bassist. Eisenstadt's writing for the unit continues to expand upon post-modern jazz traditions in intriguing ways. ...