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

Ginger Johnson and his African Messengers: African Party

Read "African Party" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
June 19, 2015

The release of the compilation album Highlife on the Move: Selected Nigerian & Ghanaian Recordings from London & Lagos 1954-66 (Soundway Records, 2015) threw light on the often-neglected role that the London scene of the fifties and sixties played in the development of Highlife and Afrobeat music, during a time before the term “World Music" had been coined. Among a plethora of fine African ensembles, that album featured some seminal tracks by future superstar Fela Kuti who was resident in ...

Album Review

Fabrizio Bosso: Duke

by Edward Blanco
June 19, 2015

Italian post-bop trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso from Turin, Italy, is not yet a household name in the American musical landscape however, he is no novice to the jazz idiom either. A veteran trumpeter who has preferred the vibrant and more receptive jazz scene in Europe over the states, has during his burgeoning professional career, recorded seventeen albums since his 2000 debut as leader on Fast Flight (Red Records, 2000). An award-winning artist who performs regularly at the annual Umbria Jazz Festival ...

Musings of a Jazz Piano Teacher

Learning to Play Jazz

by Paul Abrahams
June 18, 2015

With “Musings of a Jazz Piano Teacher" Paul Abrahams addresses a range of topics that can arise from working as a jazz piano teacher, reflecting on the day to day issues and challenges of teaching improvisation to students from various musical backgrounds and levels of ability. Learning to play jazz Have you ever been asked the question “What do you do?" When I used to reply “I'm a singing coach" the usual annoying response was “Do ...

Interview

Chad Lawson: Crossing Over and Back

by K. Shackelford
June 18, 2015

Chad Lawson is a compelling musical voice that deserves wider attention. He's a masterful pianist with an extensive jazz background, but has crossed genres taking the beauty of his music into the classical world. Recently, he released The Chopin Variations, arrangements of famed composer Frédéric François Chopin. On the album, Lawson re-contextualizes Chopin's piano solo pieces, particularly by adding two voices--cello and violin--to the mix. Embedded into this trio's sound is an ethos of desire, beauty, and love--creating a heartfelt ...

Album Review

Kit Downes: Tricko

by Bruce Lindsay
June 18, 2015

Tricko pairs composer and keyboard player Kit Downes with cellist Lucy Railton on a set of Downes' compositions. It's a delightful pairing, creating distinctive tunes inspired by minimalism, mutability and a few of the mysteries of the world. Downes and Railton met when they were studying at London's Royal Academy Of Music. Downes has proven to be one of the contemporary music scene's most innovative and adaptable players, receiving a Mercury Music Prize nomination in 2010 for his ...

Album Review

Alan Courtis & Aaron Moore: Bring Us Some Honest Food

Read "Bring Us Some Honest Food" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
June 18, 2015

Bring Us Some Honest Food marks an important landmark for Dancing Wayang. Since its first release, A Gold Chain Round Her Breast by Motor Ghost, in 2007, this is the label's tenth album. That total of ten records in eight years is indicative of the care and attention that is lavished on every aspect of each of the label's limited-edition vinyl albums. As has become customary on Dancing Wayang records, for Bring Us Some Honest Food the pairing of Alan ...

Album Review

John Clark: The Odd Couple Quintet +1

Read "The Odd Couple Quintet +1" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 18, 2015

"And now," as John Cleese used to intone on the Monty Python television series, “for something completely different." In this case, a jazz quintet (+1) sporting a front line of French horn and bassoon and performing, among other things, two horn concertos by Mozart. An odd coupling? At first blush, it would seem so. Far less eccentric, however, once one apprehends the remarkable interplay between John Clark's French horn and Michael Rabinowitz's bassoon, enhanced by Clark's impressive charts and the ...

Album Review

Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE 2014

Read "HUJE 2014" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 18, 2015

Another year, another splendid album by the exemplary Howard University Jazz Ensemble from Washington, DC. Not that that should surprise anyone; Fred Irby III, who is completing his fortieth year as the band's first and only director, has ushered his students into a recording studio for the last thirty-nine of them, dating back to the days of vinyl records, with essentially similar results: tasteful albums of big-band jazz that are as engaging as those produced by any university-level ensemble anywhere. ...

Live Review

Larry McKenna and Bootsie Barnes Quintet: Inaugural Jazz Bridge River Cruise

by Victor L. Schermer
June 17, 2015

Larry McKenna-Bootsie Barnes Quintet The Jazz Bridge River Cruise Philadelphia, PA June 13, 2015 The Jazz Bridge, a Philadelphia area organization whose meritorious mission is to assist local jazz and blues musicians and vocalists in times of crisis, sponsors numerous concerts, but this was their first cruise event, and they went all out, with an Elite private yacht leaving Penn's Landing in the early afternoon for a trip up and down the Delaware River ...

Extended Analysis

Ivo Neame: Strata

by Phil Barnes
June 17, 2015

Probably best known for his work as part of the much celebrated trio Phronesis, UK pianist Ivo Neame has quietly built an enviable discography encompassing sideman appearances with Ant Law and Andre Canniere along with excellent albums as leader such as 2012's Yatra. The latter in particular was a remarkably ambitious octet session that mixed clarinet from the likes of Shabaka Hutchings with the saxophones of Jason Yarde and Tori Freestone, plus the bass of Phronesis colleague Jasper Hoiby. Change ...