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.

Extended Analysis

Progeny - Seven Shows from Seventy-Two

by John Kelman
May 31, 2015

A sad life truth is that, for far too many people, massive success changes everything. Despite making more money than would last the average family many lifetimes, they go through it like water; they gradually begin to believe all the positive press and massive sales, becoming legends in their own mind; and, perhaps worst of all, they lose the very edge and innovation that garnered them their success in the first place. Sadly, too, these things often don't bother fans: ...

Interview

Anton Fig: Behind The Bandstand, Part 2

by Ben Scholz
May 31, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 The last chord has been played, the lights have been dimmed, and the iconic NYC skyline (in miniature) behind Dave's desk has been disassembled and stored. The airing of the finale of “The Late Show With David Letterman" on Wednesday May 20th and the accompanying performance by The CBS Orchestra marks the end of a television era. This past year, Anton Fig teamed up with guitar wizards Eric Johnson and Mike ...

Album Review

Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff

Read "Break Stuff" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 30, 2015

Intrepid pianist and composer Vijay Iyer's Break Stuff is an intimate work brimming with an intense poetry and a subtly dramatic ambience. The latter results from the complementary and contrasting elements, which are intricately interwoven within each of the dozen tracks that comprise the album. On the exquisite “Mystery Woman," for instance, Iyer plays percussive chords with one hand and haunting, lilting cascade of notes with the other building a sublime harmonic balance. The serene atmosphere that follows ...

Jazz Near Me

Two Trumpets Floored at the Deer Head Inn

by Gloria Krolak
May 30, 2015

The stage of the legendary Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, PA, straddles the dark brown barroom and the red dining room, dividing it smack in the middle. It's big enough for a quartet if one of them plays piano. On this night in late April, trumpeter Alan Gaumer invited Chris Persad, also a trumpeter, to join him, bassist Paul Rostock, and drummer Gary Rissmiller to the gig. Rissmiller, the 2015 PA Jazz Collective artist of the year, and ...

Album Review

Francesco Nastro Trio: Colors of Light

Read "Colors of Light" reviewed by Alex Franquelli

by Alex Franquelli
May 30, 2015

As soon as one lets Francesco Nastro's fingers fondle those keys the way he does on “E all'Improvviso il Sole," the musical geometries that create Colors of Light finally come to life. The music springs from a cocoon-like environment in which pianists the likes of Bill Evans and Brad Mehldau must have forgotten their instruments around, which are by now subject to Nastro's gentle manners. It is jazz alright but, even more importantly, this is a study in melody; an ...

Album Review

The Word: Soul Food

Read "Soul Food" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
May 30, 2015

Right from the cover graphic depicting an audio speaker as a source of spiritual sustenance, The Word's Soul Food continues one of the most unusual but profoundly successful and satisfying collaborations in contemporary roots music. Bluesrockers the North Mississippi Allstars so deeply bonded with keyboardist John Medeski and pedal steel wunderkind Robert Randolph on their initial eponymous collaboration (Ropeadope, 2001), a followup was probably inevitable, but this album is far from merely de rigeur. Quite the contrary, as ...

Album Review

Boney James: Futuresoul

Read "Futuresoul" reviewed by Jeff Winbush

by Jeff Winbush
May 30, 2015

At this point, with 15 albums under his belt, it's been established what Boney James does and does not do well. If you are in search of an adventurous artist who is constantly pushing the envelope and challenging himself and the listener by daring to deviate from expectation, keep looking: this is not the saxophonist you are looking for. James is an extremely impressive master of the good groove. That is something he is at the top of ...

Extended Analysis

Yes: Progeny - Highlights From Seventy Two

by Doug Collette
May 30, 2015

Progeny: Highlights From Seventy Two consists of ninety minutes of live recordings exhumed from Yes' 1972 tour, some of which were released as Yessongs (Atlantic, 1973). Culled from seven previously unreleased recordings of complete concerts, and sequenced to approximate a setlist of the time, this two package comes adorned in vintage Roger Dean artwork that, vivid as it is, cannot compare to the vibrancy of the music inside. Cognoscenti may or may not agree this material constitutes Yes' ...

Live Review

Ravi Coltrane Quartet at Cornell University

by Tyran Grillo
May 29, 2015

Ravi Coltrane Quartet Bailey Hall @ Cornell University Cornell Concert Series March 20, 2015 With chromatism in his very chromosomes, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane has managed to cut a profile distinct from that of Father John. Nimble yet logical, he is an admirably balanced player who keeps his feet on the tightrope at all times. When he took to the main stage as part of Cornell University's 2014-15 Concert Series, he proved himself to be quite ...

Album Review

Steve Slagle & Bill O'Connell: The Power Of Two

Read "The Power Of Two" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 29, 2015

The initial impetus behind the creation of this recording was the passing of Kenny Drew Jr., an exceptional and underappreciated pianist who saxophonist Steve Slagle worked with, both in the Mingus Big Band and on one of his own leader dates--Reincarnation (SteepleChase, 1994). On the day his friend passed, Slagle penned “KD JR.," later sending it to Bill O'Connell, another of his piano-playing colleagues. That got the ball rolling for this, the first duo date in Slagle's discography.