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

John Yao: Flip-Flop

Read "Flip-Flop" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 16, 2015

On his 2012 debut, trombonist John Yao navigated multiple complex territories ranging from the experimental to traditional balladry. A regular presence on the New York scene, Yao has worked with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Arturo O'Farrill's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. Having absorbed those big band sensibilities, Yao graduates from his inaugural quintet to a seventeen-piece ensemble. Flip-Flop features ten Yao compositions ranging from straight-ahead swing to frenzied group improvisations. Joining Yao are two top-tier saxophonists in Jon Irabagon--of ...

Album Review

Brian Landrus Trio: The Deep Below

Read "The Deep Below" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
July 16, 2015

With his sixth release as a leader The Deep Below, low reedman Brian Landrus continues to explore the bottom octaves of woodwind registers with his characteristic elegance and captivating charm. What sets this album apart from its predecessors is the sparseness of its setting. Backed only by bass and drums, Landrus places his various instruments at the core and center stage of all the tracks. The result is a raw yet sophisticated showcase of these infrequently heard horns ...

Album Review

Roberto Magris: Enigmatix

Read "Enigmatix" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
July 16, 2015

Since launching his professional career in the late 70s, Italian Pianist and maestro Roberto Magris, has become an international recording artist documenting over 26 albums, performs throughout Europe and in the United States regularly and has garnished a reputation as a world-class musician by anyone's standard. Leading many groups over his long and distinguished career, from trios to quartets, quintets to big bands, Magris has been most comfortable performing interpretations of time-honored standards or presenting fresh creative originals in the ...

Album Review

George Freeman/Chico Freeman: All In The Family

Read "All In The Family" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 16, 2015

There are few things more quintessentially “Chicago" in jazz than the Freeman family. Tenor titan Von Freeman ruled the roost in The Windy City decade after decade until his death in 2012; his brother, George Freeman, played with everybody from saxophonist Charlie Parker to organist Shirley Scott; his other brother, the late Eldridge “Bruz" Freeman, was part of the house band at the Pershing and the drummer in Hampton Hawes' quartet with Jim Hall; and Von's son, saxophonist Chico Freeman, ...

Live Review

Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland 2015

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 15, 2015

2015 Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland Playhouse Square Cleveland, Ohio July 9-11, 2015 For the second time in its 36-year history, Tri-C JazzFest lit up downtown Cleveland with a three-day midsummer jazz festival that mixed paid shows from national headliners with free outdoor performances featuring musicians from Northeast Ohio. Home to all these festivities would be the highly acclaimed Playhouse Square area, with an outdoor plaza being utilized for the free concerts that ran each day from ...

Multiple Reviews

A New Danish Bassist on Top: Introducing Morten Haxholm

by Jakob Baekgaard
July 15, 2015

There is little doubt that Denmark has a proud tradition of fostering exceptional bassists -just think of names like Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Jesper Lundgaard, Bo Stief, Jesper Bodilsen and, more recently, Anders Christensen, Jonas Westergaard and Richard Andersson. Add Morten Haxholm to this ever growing list. Haxholm has been ambitious from the start. On his debut, Equilibrium (Storyville, 2013), he enlisted no less than the powerhouse drummer Ari Hoenig and the renowned guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg. Both of ...

Album Review

Joel Harrison 5: Spirit House

Read "Spirit House" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
July 15, 2015

Throughout his storied career, Washington DC-born guitarist Joel Harrison has demonstrated an interest in a wide range of musical styles. Since his leadership debut in the mid-1990s, Harrison has explored an array of genres, from pan-global collaborations with North Indian classical musicians to radical rearrangements of Appalachian folk tunes. Spirit House, the premiere of his most recent ensemble, the Joel Harrison 5, features yet another unique configuration, with Harrison joined by trumpeter Cuong Vu, bassoonist Paul Hanson, bassist Kermit Driscoll ...

Album Review

Maciej Fortuna Acoustic Quartet: Jazz From Poland Vol. 1

Read "Jazz From Poland Vol. 1" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 15, 2015

Polish composer and trumpeter Maciej Fortuna--a law school graduate and a PhD of performing arts--distributes his time as a session musician, multiple group leader and lecturer at The Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland. Fortuna has been exploring the frontiers of jazz for some time with successful efforts in electronica, free improvisation, ethnic derivatives and acoustic jazz. The latter two elements come together in his personal tribute to three generations of Polish composers on Jazz From Poland Vol.1.

Album Review

Angelo Hart: Intrepid

Read "Intrepid" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
July 15, 2015

What is most remarkable about pianist Angelo Hart's debut Intrepid is that it clearly demonstrates all of Hart's diverse influences without sounding derivative of any of them. In fact Hart has his own unique style, an uncommon trait for an artist so early in his career.Energetic percussive playing marks the title track that is made up of intricate and fiery tonal clusters. Thrillingly agile circular lines and dense, brisk chords express intriguing and inventive musical ideas that simultaneously ...

Album Review

Charles Evans: On Beauty

Read "On Beauty" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
July 15, 2015

When “uncompromising" is used to describe a musician, one of the first word that usually comes to mind is “difficult," as in “difficult to understand." The musician in question puts out music which dispenses with that which the mind uses to recognize patterns: rhythm, harmony and melody. Furthermore, music which eschews euphony is invariably called “difficult." Baritone saxophonist Charles Evans is most definitely uncompromising in that he knows what he wants to say and how he wants to ...