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

Chris Pitsiokos Trio: Gordian Twine

Read "Gordian Twine" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 14, 2015

Saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos answers a slight variation of the classic Zen koan, what is the sound of one hand ripping a telephone book in two? It is this: alphabetical orderliness counts, but then again so does maelstrom. Gordian Twine, his debut as a leader, showcases his organizational and compositional skills, and, maybe more importantly, it places him within the vortex of a cyclone of sound.This new kid on the block saxophonist has been working solo, in duos with ...

Album Review

Charenee Wade: Offering - The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson

Read "Offering - The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
June 14, 2015

As it often happens with many artists so in tune with the times that they are actually ahead of their time, the immense contribution of musical/cultural revolutionary Gil Scott-Heron continues to be revealed and acknowledged. Albeit, there has been a perpetual cult surrounding this enigmatic figure which defied any sort of categorization both in music and personality, but judging by the posthumous releases of his catalog and continuing tributes, his legacy has taken on the iconic qualities it deserves. His ...

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Live Review

Marcus Miller at Yoshi's Oakland

by Walter Atkins
June 14, 2015

Marcus Miller Yoshi's Oakland Oakland CA June 5, 2015 Multi GRAMMY winner and UNESCO Artist for Peace Marcus Miller played five sold out shows with his band over the weekend at Yoshi's Oakland. The set featured songs from his new album Afrodeezia (Blue Note Records) that paid homage to the African people forced onto the slave routes. The composer and multi-instrumentalist opened Friday night's second session with “Hylife" complete with a stirring sax ...

Book Review

The Gospel According to the Blues by Gary W. Burnett

by C. Michael Bailey
June 13, 2015

The Gospel According to the Blues Gary W. Burnett 161 Pages ISBN: #978-1620327258 Cascade Books 2014 Dr. Gary Burnett wears a lot of hats. He teaches courses in New Testament Greek, Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Pauline Epistles and Theology, and Introduction to Jesus and the Gospels at Union Theological College in Belfast. He is also a Chartered IT Professional and a Fellow of the British Computer Society, and runs a business ...

Album Review

Anthony Ocaña & Nelson Ricart-Guerrero: In Trance (La Luna o los Ritos del Amor)

Read "In Trance (La Luna o los Ritos del Amor)" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 13, 2015

Composer and multi-instrumentalist, Anthony Ocaña has released a most unusual album with his In Trance. Ocaña has been actively pursuing a life in music since the age of five. The Dominican Republic native--now a resident of Madrid, Spain--switched from piano to guitar at an early age and was opening for pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba at the age of nineteen and later opening for multi-instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti. Though largely unknown in the US, this is Ocaña's sixth recording as a leader and ...

Extended Analysis

Sonny Landreth: Bound By the Blues

by C. Michael Bailey
June 13, 2015

Fresh Cream (Atco) was released in 1966, at the height of the blues revival that began in the late 1950s with the publication of Samuel Charter's The Country Blues (Rinehart, 1950) and the subsequent release of the LP The Country Blues (Folkways, 1959). In the early blues revival, it was the rural, acoustic blues that were resurrected and celebrated. Then the ancient-by-any-standards folk songs made it to Great Britain, they were assimilated and recreated in a sonic image not previously ...

Album Review

Hugo Carvalhais: Grand Valis

Read "Grand Valis" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 13, 2015

What happens when modern composition meets jazz in a science fiction universe? The answer is Grand Valis by Portuguese bassist and composer Hugo Carvalhais. Carvalhais tackles the great universal questions of meaning in a musical language. Titles like “Exegesis," “Logos" and “Decoding Maya" point towards the philosophical nature of the music. Carvalhais plays bass and electronics, but here he is first of all a composer and musical thinker playing with the concept of sound. What is sound? ...

Extended Analysis

Benedicta: Marian Chant from Norcia

by C. Michael Bailey
June 13, 2015

The mid-1990s so-called “new age" or “ambient" music discovered the Plainsong, leading to the release of Chant (Angel, 1973/1994) by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. Such a spike in popularity in all things mystical was nothing novel at the end of the Twentieth Century (or any other post-civilization century, for that matter). Judging from the fact that recordings twenty years old at the time, by a non- descript group of cloistered clerics reflects that only the shallow ...

Album Review

Henry Threadgill Zooid: In For A Penny, In For A Pound

Read "In For A Penny, In For A Pound" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
June 13, 2015

Innovative multi-reed player and composer Henry Threadgill is no stranger to adventurous projects. Starting with the groundbreaking trio Air four decades ago he has not stopped expanding his creative boundaries. The ambitious multi-part suite In for a Penny, In for a Pound highlights the unusual instrumentation Threadgill has always incorporated in his groups. Each movement is written for and coalesces around one of the members of Threadgill's current ensemble Zooid. The cinematic “Ceroepic" features drummer Elliott Humberto Kavee ...

Album Review

Sweet Lu Olutosin: Sweet Lou's Blues

by Geannine Reid
June 13, 2015

Lu Olutosin, aka 'Sweet Lu,' is an innovative vocalist based in the Washington D.C. area. Olutosin served for thirty five years in the Military as a Police Officer and archived the rank of Colonel. Upon retiring from the Military, Olutosin found that his calling to be a jazz vocalist was still as strong as it was the day he entered military service. As a result Olutosin has released his sophomore release entitled, Sweet Lou's Blues where he has assemble an ...