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.

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Album Review

Marcus Miller: Afrodeezia

Read "Afrodeezia" reviewed by Walter Atkins

by Walter Atkins
July 13, 2015

Prominent bassist Marcus Miller's new album Afrodeezia (Blue Note Records) is inspired by his travels and impressions through West Africa, South America, the Caribbean along the Atlantic slave routes, and parts of the United States. The multi Grammy winner and UNESCO Artist for Peace pays homage to the African people forced into servitude and the enduring music they brought with them and to the world. The eleven track record features an extensive list of international and American artists including Alune ...

Album Review

Max Johnson, Kirk Knuffke, Ziv Ravitz: Something Familiar

Read "Something Familiar" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 12, 2015

New York native Max Johnson does not appear to require sleep. The bassist/composer, whose career spans the wide terrain from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra to Lollapalooza to Anthony Braxton consistently delivers fresh, adventurous, high-quality music against an ambitious output. With his now-regular working trio of Kirk Knuffke on cornet and drummer Ziv Ravitz, the group has released their best work to date on Something Familiar. As Johnson's star rises, so too does Knuffke's whose been drawing high spots ...

Live Review

Brian Wilson with special guest Rodriguez at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater

by Mike Perciaccante
July 12, 2015

Brian Wilson with special guest Rodriguez Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Wantagh, NY June 30, 2015 Brian Wilson and Rodriguez are both survivors. Wilson's story is well-known by almost everyone. Rodriguez' story is slightly more murky. Tortured genius, the primary architect of the California sound and the creative force behind the Beach Boys, Wilson is widely considered to be one of the moist influential songwriters of this or any era. Wilson is the ...

Album Review

Bryan Eubanks / Stéphane Rives: fq

by John Eyles
July 12, 2015

Although they have not previously recorded together, the pairing of Bryan Eubanks and Stéphane Rives makes perfect sense. French soprano saxophonist Rives is already a long-serving Potlatch veteran, with this being his fourth release on the label, following in the wake of his 2003 solo soprano album Fibres, the ground-breaking saxophone quartet Propagations (Potlatch, 2007) and his 2011 duo with the Paris-based Japanese percussionist Seijiro Murayama, Axiom for the Duration. As with the other saxophonists on Propagations, Rives has developed ...

Live Review

Armen Hyusnunts and Vahagn Hayrapetyan at Forsh Club Yerevan Armenia

by Hrayr Attarian
July 12, 2015

Armen Hyusnunts and Vahagn Hayrapetyan Forsh Club Yerevan, Armenia July 2, 2015 One of the most exciting additions to Yerevan's (Armenia) creative music scene has been the opening of Forsh Club in November of 2014. The venue is named after its proprietor's violinist and vocalist Vahan Gevorkyan's sobriquet. With its intimate ambience and perfect acoustics it hosts a variety of distinctive bands including the owner's own pop fusion ensemble the Re Mineur and such luminaries ...

Album Review

Jeff Hackworth: The Heart of the Matter

Read "The Heart of the Matter" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
July 12, 2015

Veteran tenor saxophonist Jeff Hackworth doesn't fool around much on his most recent musical project and gets right to The Heart of The Matter, unveiling his seventh album as leader and follow up to his previous critically-acclaimed Soul To Go! (Big Bridge Music, 2014). Employing a muscular approach to the saxophone, Hackworth's tenor voice is pronounced here leaving little doubt that one is in for a bit of tenor madness from one of the finest reed men around. Containing four ...

Book Review

The Tapestry Of Delights Expanded Two Volume Edition

by Roger Farbey
July 12, 2015

The Tapestry Of Delights Expanded Two Volume Edition: The Ultimate Guide to UK Rock & Pop Of The Beat, R&B, Psychedelic and Progressive Eras 1963-1976 Vernon Joynson 2,080 Pages ISBN: 1-899855-19-3 Borderline Productions 2014 The word “cornucopia" could have been invented just for this immense two volume set. Contained within its 2,000 plus pages lies a veritable wealth of information. First published in 1995 at a modest 700-odd pages in length, and ...

Album Review

Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh: Handel: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato 1740

Read "Handel: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato 1740" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 12, 2015

George Frideric Handel (1685--1759) was a bit of a larger-than- life character whose music, and its importance, could stand a bit of Reason, that period between the 1620s and the 1780s when the social, cultural and intellectual tides in Western Europe highlighted reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional power structures, e.g., the church. Handel live a good deal of his life in London as a naturalized citizen. Handel had (Johann Sebastian) Bach and (Domenico) Scarlatti (all three born the ...

Jazzin' Around Europe

North Sea Jazz Festival 2015: The Roller Coaster Has Taken Off

by Joan Gannij
July 11, 2015

Jan Willem Luyken, Director of the North Sea Jazz Festival, has a lot to celebrate this year. It is not only the 40th anniversary of the popular festival, it's also the tenth anniversary of their move from the Hague to Rotterdam, and the year that Luyken became director. Described as “the world's largest indoor music festival," it attracts an international public of 75,000 during the music-packed weekend in mid-July at the Ahoy Rotterdam Arena complex. No stranger to ...

Film Review

Amy, The Movie: The Pure Artist, the Singular Voice, and the Fragile Heart of Amy Winehouse

by Craig M. Cortello
July 11, 2015

Amy Winehouse Amy Produced by James Gay-Rees, George Pank, Paul Bell Directed by Asif Kapadia 2015 I attended an advance screening this week of Amy, the Amy Winehouse documentary that was co-sponsored by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (GRAMMY) and the New Orleans Film Society. The movie hits the theaters Friday July 10, 2015. While the inevitable, tragic ending of the narrative and the roller-coaster ride that is the struggle to ...