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.

From Far and Wide

A Jazz Holiday In Rio

by Mark Holston
July 6, 2015

For most, mention a trip to Brazil and what comes automatically to mind is that vast tropical country's annual Carnaval celebration and the lure of its endless beaches. The high season, from December to early March, is when this nation of 200 million receives the most visitors by far. During Brazil's winter season, from roughly from mid-June into early September, when temperatures retreat from summer highs by as much as 30 degrees, foreign visitation becomes just a trickle compared to ...

Album Review

The Gary McFarland Legacy Ensemble: Circulation: The Music of Gary McFarland

Read "Circulation: The Music of Gary McFarland" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
July 6, 2015

Drummer Michael Benedict, leader of the BOPITUDE and JAZZ VIBES groups, directs a new quintet assembled for a special project that pays tribute to the late Gary McFarland on Circulation: The Music of Gary McFarland. An influential composer, arranger, vibraphonist and vocalist during the 60s, McFarland had a brief career as he met an untimely death at a young age, was a major contributor to orchestral jazz and was instrumental in introducing the jazz idiom to the pop and rock ...

Album Review

John Russell: With...

by John Eyles
July 6, 2015

This album is a faithful record of John Russell's sixtieth birthday concert which took place at Cafe Oto, London, on Friday 19th December 2014. Everything is included here except for announcements, applause and less than half a minute of music which were all edited out to fit it onto one CD; at a few seconds short of seventy-eight minutes, it just manages that. Thanks to the sterling efforts of Helen Petts, the entire concert was filmed and can be viewed ...

Album Review

Casa Futuro: Casa Futuro

Read "Casa Futuro" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
July 6, 2015

At the juncture of free jazz and free improv sits the eponymous debut of Casa Futuro. In a truly co-operative trio, saxophonist Pedro Sousa joins forces with bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Portuguese improvisers Sousa and Ferrandini last combined with Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore on Live At ZDB (Shhpuma, 2014), while Berthling keeps similarly heavy company, as part of fellow Swede Mats Gustafsson's Fire Trio and the Scandinavian band Angles. Over three slow burning tracks they bring ...

Album Review

Marco Bolfelli Trio: Streamflow

Read "Streamflow" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
July 6, 2015

Streamflow is a very strong debut recording from guitarist Marco Bolfelli and his almost telepathic trio partners Simone Serafini on bass and Igor Checchini on drums. Reedman Klaus Gesing (bass clarinet and soprano sax), one of Bolfelli's mentors, appears on four of the eleven tracks. Bolfelli gets composer credits as well for all tracks except “Finisterre," which is an wonderful overdubbed improvisation by Gesing. His music has soft edges even when his guitar sound enters the overdriven zone. ...

Album Review

Jerry Granelli: What I Hear Now

Read "What I Hear Now" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 5, 2015

The simple answer to the question that drummer Jerry Granelli poses on What I Hear Now is “horns." He hears horns over the foundation of his regular trio with saxophonist Dani Oore and bassist Simon Fisk who uses the 3 string bassetto here. The mix is three reeds, including tenor saxophonist Mike Murley, joined by a trombone. Granelli is not an easy guy to put into a compartment. He was part of pianist Vince Guaraldi's trio during the ...

Extended Analysis

Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Volume 14 Academy of Music, New York, NY, 3/26/72

by Doug Collette
July 5, 2015

There was nothing like a Grateful Dead concert and never more so than in New York, but this one comprising Dave's Picks Volume 14, is an especially significant one: the final night (except for a benefit for the Hell's Angels the very next evening) of a six-night run at the Academy of Music on 3/26/72, taking place just before the band departed on their now legendary initial exodus to Europe. Leave it to the good ol' Grateful Dead to turn ...

Extended Analysis

Nils Lofgren: Nils Lofgren

by Doug Collette
July 5, 2015

Apart from Nils Lofgren's essay of clear-headed, affectionate reflection and a few extra photos, there's no additional content on the reissue of his eponymous solo album (here often referred to as “Fat Man" based on the cover picture). But there really doesn't need to be: this is one of those very rare rock records that sounds now as it did on its release in 1975: perfect for its time and on its own terms. Not that it's innovative. ...

Album Review

Milford Graves/Bill Laswell: Space / Time - Redemption

Read "Space / Time - Redemption" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
July 5, 2015

Drummer Milford Graves boasts a pedigree stretching back to the first tide of Free Jazz in the 1960s, most prominently as the drummer for the storied New York Art Quartet. His infrequent forays onto disc since have resulted in underground classics such as Nommo (SRP, 1966) with pianist Don Pullen and Babi Music (IPS, 1976) with a cast of fire-breathing saxophonists. As such his appearance on a newly recorded studio date should be cause for celebration. However in some ways ...

Album Review

Ron Aprea: Ron Aprea Pays Tribute to John Lennon and the Beatles

Read "Ron Aprea Pays Tribute to John Lennon and the Beatles" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
July 5, 2015

The John Lennon-Paul McCartney canon has been recorded by everyone with the possible exception of “Honey Boo Boo" and “Mini Me." Some of those efforts are feckless attempts at moving the popular-genre so far away from its source it is laughable. Saxophone artist, Ron Aprea had the unique opportunity (along with trumpeter Steve Madaio, he of Stevie Wonder and the L.A. studios) to record with John Lennon on his post-Beatles award-winning album, Walls and Bridges (1974, EMI). ...