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

Paris Jazz Diary: Pianists Kenny Barron, Harold Mabern, Bill Charlap

by Patricia Myers
August 10, 2015

Paris Jazz Diary 2015: Pianists Kenny Barron, Harold Mabern, Bill Charlap Duc des Lombards, Sunside-Sunset Jazz Clubs Paris, France July 3, July 4, July 14, 2015 New York City pianists Kenny Barron, Harold Mabern and Bill Charlap led trios in three separate concerts as part of a pair of annual summer-season jazz series in Paris. Barron was as elegant as always, filling Duc des Lombards with his graceful strength and polished style. Intensity ...

Album Review

Stefano Battaglia Trio: In The Morning

Read "In The Morning" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 10, 2015

Over the past five years Stefano Battaglia could have easily taken bassist Salvatore Maiore and drummer Roberto Dani into the ubiquitous realm of classically trained piano trios, where improvisation, chamber and dark lyricism meet but rarely ignite. But along with his classical training and an established ear for free jazz, hard bop and mainstream, Battaglia has grown and capitalized on those collective skills. The Milan, Italy native has increasingly chosen an open mind and ear, an affinity for spontaneity, and ...

Album Review

Billabong Island Sound: Spring Baby

Read "Spring Baby" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 10, 2015

There exists music that is perfect for ambient listening (read that: “while in an altered state"). My favorite for many years has been UB40's debut Signing Off (Graduate Records, 1980). The groove on this recording is so highly refined and organically performed that its vibe just sinks into you as a listener, almost by osmosis. I have been hoping that some new music would come along that was as seamlessly created that it would forgo any thought digestion and go ...

Album Review

Walt Weiskopf: Open Road

Read "Open Road" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan

by C. Andrew Hovan
August 10, 2015

Since 1993, tenor saxophonist Walt Weiskopf has recorded some of the most advanced and satisfying music of the jazz genre. All told he claims over fifteen albums as a leader, with original compositions forming the core material of each and every one of his releases. The fact that he is not better known among the jazz buying public is simply inexplicable, although his long-standing association with Steely Dan hopefully has been turning a few ears in the direction of Weiskopf's ...

Album Review

XADU: Random Abstract

Read "Random Abstract" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 10, 2015

The duo entered the studio without the services of talented bassist Bernat Hernandez who performed with the musicians on Resolution (Moonjune, 2014). But drummer Xavi Reija's booming, robust and well-defined bass drum pulses often compensate, along with guitarist Dusan Jevtovic's polyphonic voicings that steer the melodically tinged works into dark progressive metal passageways and sonic dreamscapes, laced with ghostly electronics effects. And it must be noted that the pristine audio characteristics tender the utmost detail on a per-track basis.

Extended Analysis

Grateful Dead: The Best of the Grateful Dead

by Doug Collette
August 9, 2015

As with so many aspects of the Grateful Dead oeuvre, there's more to The Best of the Grateful Dead than meets the eyes and ears. An embossed cover the glossy likes of which don't usually adorn such compilations, plus the presence of sound arising from brand new remastering done on the bulk of the thirty two tracks, are only the most obvious touches to a collection that may surprise even the most (tie)dyed-in-the-wool Deadheads. Who may, in fact, ...

Album Review

Alex Hutton Trio: Magna Carta Suite

Read "Magna Carta Suite" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 9, 2015

Eight hundred years after the creation of the Magna Carta--the Great Charter that signalled a shift in power from the English monarchy to the English aristocracy--pianist Alex Hutton and his trio draw inspiration from that shift in power distribution to create the Magna Carta Suite. Hutton's trio is based in the UK but has an international flavor--Israeli-born drummer Asaf Sirkis and bassist Yuri Goloubev, from Moscow, complete the lineup. Hutton's suite may be short, just 39 minutes, but ...

Live Review

Peter Frampton & Cheap Trick at The Paramount

by Mike Perciaccante
August 9, 2015

Peter Frampton & Cheap Trick The Paramount Huntington, NY July 29, 2015 Frampton Comes Alive! (A&M, 1976) and Live At Budukan (Epic, 1978) are two of the most iconic live recordings of the past 40-or-so years. As such, it's only fitting (and inevitable) that Peter Frampton and Cheap Trick would eventually mount a potent co-headlining tour. In 2015, that eventuality has finally come to pass. In the midst of a blistering New York ...

Album Review

Dusko Goykovich: Latin Haze

Read "Latin Haze" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
August 9, 2015

Reaching back deep into the memory bag, big band jazz aficionados might remember a brilliant, young Yugoslavian jazz trumpeter who graced the horn sections of Maynard Ferguson's, Woody Herman's and Clark Terry's 1960s ensembles. Shortly thereafter, Dusko Goykovich returned to Europe and, over the decades, has become one of the continent's most celebrated and beloved jazz artists. A superior Post-Bop performer with strong shadings of Kenny Dorham Don Fagerquist, and, when muted, Miles Davis, Goykovich's Latin Haze ...

Live Review

U2 The iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour 2015

by Christine Connallon
August 9, 2015

U2 The iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour 2015 Madison Square Garden New York, NY July 30, 2015 Eight sold out shows during a residency at Madison Square Garden is no small feat, even for a band of U2's stature. The four man band that formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1976 and has kept the same lineup for nearly 4 decades is still going strong, displaying staying power that only the formidable can accomplish.