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

Dave Stryker: Messin' with Mister T

Read "Messin' with Mister T" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 24, 2015

Tenor saxophone legend Stanley Turrentine has been gone for some time now but not forgotten and certainly, not by those he performed with for many years. Guitarist Dave Stryker toured with Turrentine for over a decade and has always intended to pay proper respect to the jazz icon who meant so much to him personally. Messin' with Mister T is Stryker's long-awaited personal tribute to the saxophonist great that draws on three Turrentine compositions, the Marvin Gay title track and ...

Album Review

Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth: Epicenter

by Dave Wayne
May 24, 2015

Conceived as a continuous seven-part extended work for his band, Bigmouth, the first seven tracks on Chris Lightcap's Epicenter are as remarkable for their diversity as they are for the ways in which they're tied together. The unifying theme here is “New York: Lost and Found," and the music could indeed work as a sort of conceptual portrait of the city's colorful population and little-known, out-of-the-way nooks and crannies. Lightcap's band, now well into its second decade ...

Album Review

Doug Webb: Triple Play

Read "Triple Play" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 24, 2015

Is there a better way to say “Jazz" than a wailing saxophone? Tenor sax guy Doug Webb has found a one: three wailing saxophones, a killer organ guy and a dynamic, full-of-surprises, rhythmic wizard of a drummer, on Triple Play. His fifth recording on Posi-Tone Records--a label that follows closely in the footsteps of the iconic Blue Note Records straight ahead sound of the 50s and 60s--Webb teams with fellow sax veterans Walt Weiskopf and Joel Frahm in ...

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Live Review

Ms. Taylor P. Collins and the TPC Band at Club Fox

by Walter Atkins
May 23, 2015

Ms. Taylor P. Collins and the TPC Band Club Fox Club Fox Blues Jam Redwood City CA May 13,2015 Seasoned San Francisco Bay Area blues vocalist and bandleader Ms. Taylor P. Collins and the TPC band played an invigorating midweek set at the Club Fox. The intimate venue, part of the historic Fox Theater is located in the heart of Redwood City's downtown entertainment district. On Wednesday nights, the club was devoted to a ...

Live Review

Jakob Bro, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan at DR Koncerthuset Copenhagen

by Henning Bolte
May 23, 2015

Jakob Bro, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan DR Koncerthuset (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) Balladeering tour Copenhagen, DenmarkMay 15, 2015 In Copenhagen on May 15th, at the new concert hall of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation: acclaimed Danish film director Jørgen Leth welcomed an audience of 800 spectators to announce the closing segment of the “Balladeering" tour by Jakob Bro, Lee Konitz, Thomas Morgan and Bill Frisell Ina Denmark (Aarhus, Copenhagen), Iceland (Reykjavik), Norway (Oslo), ...

Album Review

Hayden Chisholm: Breve

Read "Breve" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 23, 2015

Saxophonist Hayden Chisholm, who hails from New Zealand, has set up shop in in Germany. His debut set as a leader for Germany's Pirouet Records, Breve, features a teaming with fellow Kiwi, bassist Matt Penman, and British piano legend John Taylor, The sound, untethered by the rhythmic anchoring of a drummer, has a smooth, clean, almost classical feel--a string quartet tackling these tunes wouldn't seem out of place. Noticeable in the first thirty seconds of the disc's opener ...

Album Review

Alex Ward Quintet: Glass Shelves and Floor

Read "Glass Shelves and Floor" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
May 23, 2015

From the personnel of his new quintet, it is obvious that clarinetist Alex Ward keeps his finger on the pulse of the London music scene. In selecting players to join him, he has hit upon four highly-rated musicians who have been impressing audiences in the capital for some years. The quintet's cellist Hannah Marshall is a long-standing member of London Improvisers Orchestra as well as such fine groups as Barrel, Haste, Trio of Uncertainty and a trio with the quintet's ...

Album Review

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Ba Power

by James Nadal
May 23, 2015

African music is on an unprecedented upward spiral in terms of popularity and global recognition. Each country within Africa is subdivided into local provinces and territories, each with their own cultural traits and traditions. Mali, of course is no exception and has been in the forefront of this musical revival. Bassekou Kouyaté is a prominent representative of Malian music, due in part to his association and recordings with premier musicians as Ali Farka Touré, and popular rock and world artists, ...

Album Review

Myra Melford: Snowy Egret

Read "Snowy Egret" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 23, 2015

Based on her multidimensional jazz schematics amid associations with like-minded artists nestled in the modern wave of jazz composers and improvisers, you wouldn't expect pianist, Myra Melford to compose works based on evening strolls in the park or mundane issues, for example. With her top-flight ensemble, Melford frames this plot on Eduardo Galeano's lucid and poetic Memory of Fire trilogy, concerning historical facets of the Western Hemisphere. And as surmised, the pianist consummates a broad perspective with these incandescent tomes, ...

Album Review

Reggie Quinerly: Invictus

Read "Invictus" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 22, 2015

Drummer Reggie Quinelry's second release as a leader Invictus is a collection of short, tightly woven and compelling pieces that Quinerly and his quintet interpret with understated fervor and sublime elegance. Quinerly showcases his compositional and leadership skills while shunning the spotlight himself. He allows his sidemen ample room for soloing as he directs the intricacies of the music with superb dexterity. On the delightfully angular “Light Work" for instance vibraphonist Warren Wolf creates intriguing tension within his ...