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

Vans Warped Tour 2015 at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY

by Christine Connallon
July 18, 2015

Vans Warped Tour 2015 Jones Beach Wantagh, New York July 11, 2015 Vans Warped Tour '15 rolled onto the oceanfront stadium of Jones Beach on Long Island on a sunny, hot summer Saturday. Instead of taking over the amphitheater's expansive stage and stadium seats, the enormous caravan of tour buses stood sentry over one portion of the enormous parking lot, with stages, vendor areas, band merch tents and misting stations on the opposite section of ...

Album Review

Trio Settecento: Veracini: Complete Sonate Accademiche

Read "Veracini: Complete Sonate Accademiche" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 18, 2015

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) was an Italian composer and violinist who lived during a period when there were several notable fiddle-slingers, like: Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709), Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704), Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762), and Pietro Locatelli (1695-1762). Not to mention three other fiddlers that bear mentioning: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and George Frideric Handel (1685-1759); but that seems like overkill. Veracini had plenty of highfalutin peers with whom he was known ...

Interview

Bob Mintzer: Seeing the bigger picture

by Ben Scholz
July 17, 2015

"To be a great musician one must zoom out and be a part of the big picture when playing in an ensemble. The primary focus is on the greater whole. Only by doing this does a significant band sound emerge. If people of the world could only grasp this way of looking at things, we would be much better off." --Bob Mintzer The global community is presented with an extremely myopic point of view when it comes to ...

The Vinyl Post

Frank Sinatra: Ultimate Sinatra

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 17, 2015

Come this December, the world will celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the birth of Frank Sinatra. In a recording career that spanned well over fifty years, Sinatra's iconic voice managed to speak to generations of fans across the globe. To mark this special centennial, Universal Music has opted to put together several configurations of a compilation simply entitled Ultimate Sinatra. For those wanting the royal treatment, you have available the 4-CD set that spans some 101 tracks and also ...

Album Review

Dhruv: Voyage

by Ian Patterson
July 17, 2015

It's been a few years since Berklee-trained guitarist/composer Dhruv Ghanekar last crossed AAJ's radar. That was at the Borneo Jazz Festival 2011, where his quartet powered through a jazz-fusion set of the highest order. For his second recording as leader the Mumbai guitarist--who has performed with sarangi maestro Sultan Khan, Zakir Hussain and Scott Kinsey--shows off his hefty compositional strengths. With Etienne Mbappe, Trilok Gurtu, Ranjit Barot and Karim Ziad heading an all-star cast, Dhruv explores the nexus of Indian ...

Album Review

Nick Finzer: The Chase

Read "The Chase" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 17, 2015

The trombone's gone through a few good times and a few bad times as a front-line jazz instrument. Thankfully, for all lovers of this particular horn, these times are good times. Nick Finzer is one of the players responsible, a trombonist and writer with flair and variety. The Chase, his second album, helps to ensure that the good times will stick around. Finzer's a member of Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox, racking up a few million You Tube hits ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar: Crisis

Read "Crisis" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 17, 2015

Chicago area native, Amir ElSaffar has been working inside and outside the typical context of jazz since his Two Rivers Ensemble debut, Two Rivers (PI Recordings, 2007). The trumpeter and composer (and master santour player) has built a unique musical architecture based his study of the microtonal techniques of his ancestral Iraqi maqam. While ElSaffar was not raised with a strong sense of father's native culture, his own interest led him to travel extensively in the Middle East. His recent ...

Album Review

Tianna Hall: Hit Me with a Hot Note

Read "Hit Me with a Hot Note" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 17, 2015

With Texas Troubadour Jacqui Sutton splitting her time between Texas and parts West and taking on roll of Houston Jazz Mafia consigliere and Aussie reeds-mistress capo regime Alisha Pattillo staking out the Gulf, vocalist Tianna Hall remains as the undisputed Godmother of this Houston Jazz family. Hall has decided, in the hellish climes of the Texas summer, to release her finest recording to date, Hit Me With a High Note. A collection of standards that any lesser artist should take ...

Book Excerpts

Jive-Colored Glasses

by John Goodman
July 16, 2015

The following is an excerpt from “Chapter 4: Chicago" of Jive-Colored Glasses by John F Goodman (jg publications, 2015). Growing up in and around Chicago in the 1950s brought me to all kinds and flavors of jazz. Between the house parties, clubs and concerts, there was a menu to please everyone. The Rush Street and downtown clubs like the London House were flourishing, and so of course was the Blue Note, where the Ellington and Basie bands held ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Dexter Gordon: Our Man in Paris – 1963

by Marc Davis
July 16, 2015

For some reason, Dexter Gordon doesn't immediately leap to my mind when I think of A-list bop saxmen. He should. Our Man in Paris is all the evidence you need. Gordon made a bunch of terrific records for Blue Note from 1961 to 1964. Some say Go! from 1962, with pianist Sonny Clark, is the best of the bunch, and I can't really argue with that. But Our Man in Paris is every bit its equal, based largely ...