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

Brian Charette: Alphabet City

Read "Alphabet City" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 19, 2015

Organist Brian Charette brings his A-game to Alphabet City. But who would expect anything else from this consummate artist? After delivering a covers-heavy program with two different trio lineups on Good Tipper (Posi-Tone, 2014), Charette returns here with an all-originals outing that finds him in the company of guitarist Will Bernard and drummer Rudy Royston. Alphabet City, in some respects, is an ode to Charette's New York city home, haunts and habits. But that minimizes the scope ...

Album Review

Luca Segala: Cloudriding

Read "Cloudriding" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 19, 2015

Italy continues to be a source a wonderfully original and thoroughly modern jazz. Maybe there's something in the water over there but, for whatever reason, everytime I check my e-mail or snail mail there seems to be something wonderful and Italian in it. I keep hoping for a pair of handmade shoes, a nice shirt, or a tailored suit, but the music is more than enough to keep me happy. Saxophonist Luca Segala's seventh album as a ...

Album Review

Pete Rodriguez: El Conde Negro

Read "El Conde Negro" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 18, 2015

Pete Rodriguez isn't a purist. He knows his salsa, as one would expect of the offspring of famed salsa vocal icon Pete “El Conde" Rodriguez, and he knows his jazz. But this trumpeter-vocalist sees no need to draw strong separation between the two. In creating El Conde Negro, Rodriguez mines Nuyorican musical veins and jazz lodes, ultimately mixing his finds together to create a form of music that's loyal to both camps yet highly original and completely mutable.

Extended Analysis

Mathias Eick: Midwest

by John Kelman
May 18, 2015

Having first emerged on ECM Records, garnering significant attention for his work with fellow Norwegian, guitarist Jacob Young (2004's Evening Falls), and Finish pianist/harpist Iro Haarla (2006's Northbound), it seemed only a matter of time before trumpeter Mathias Eick would get the opportunity to start releasing albums of his own for the label. But if the trumpeter's first two ECM releases--2008's The Door, an all-acoustic quartet affair, and the larger-casted 2011 follow-up, Skala--became increasing electric (and electrifying) in live performances ...

Album Review

Samuel Blaser Quartet: Spring Rain

Read "Spring Rain" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
May 18, 2015

Spring Rain is Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser's first release for the British imprint, Whirlwind Recordings. A sublime homage to the visionary work of under-sung innovator Jimmy Giuffre, the album features Blaser's current working quartet with Russ Lossing on piano and analog keyboards, Drew Gress on upright bass, Gerald Cleaver on drums, and Grammy winning producer Robert Sadin serving as artistic director. The session comprises a dozen tunes split between originals and covers; Blaser composed six and co-wrote one ...

Album Review

Taylor's Universe: From Scratch

Read "From Scratch" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 18, 2015

If nothing else, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and studio rat Robin Taylor is consistent. Stylistically, he's done it all. His recordings-all self-produced and issued on his own Marvel of Beauty imprint-over the past two decades encompass everything from ambient soundscapes to free improvisation to straight-up hard rock. The past decade or so finds Taylor working exclusively with what can be termed instrumental progressive rock. Sadly, this sort of pigeonholing glosses over the fact that there's a considerable amount of jazz-based improvisation in ...

Live Review

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2015, Part 1

by Mike Chamberlain
May 18, 2015

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville

Live Review

Jakob Bro, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan at Musikhuset Aarhus

by Jakob Baekgaard
May 17, 2015

Jakob Bro, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan Musikhuset Aarhus Aarhus, Denmark May 9, 2015 Great music gives great expectations. When it was announced that Danish guitarist Jakob Bro was going on tour with the core of players responsible for the musical magic on his trilogy: Balladeering (Loveland Records, 2009), Time (Loveland Records, 2011) and December Song (Loveland Records, 2013), it was a promise of a singular opportunity to encounter the chemistry between ...

Interview

Steve Tibbetts: “Northern Song” and the Sounds of Silence

by Rob Caldwell
May 17, 2015

It's a chilly, overcast afternoon in Oslo, Norway in late October 1981. This close to the Arctic Circle, the days are already rapidly shortening with winter's approach, the sun beginning to disappear over the horizon by mid-afternoon. In a darkened studio, guitarist Steve Tibbetts, percussionist Marc Anderson, producer and ECM Records head Manfred Eicher, along with engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug have been sequestered for two days of a three day recording session. The team is intently laying down tracks for ...

Album Review

Hiroshi Fukutomi: Memory Stones

Read "Memory Stones" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 17, 2015

Osaka-born, Berklee-trained and currently plying his craft in Tokyo, guitarist Hiroshi Fukutomi's second release as leader following Rings of Saturn (D-Musica, 2010) is a satisfyingly melodic affair. These ten originals reveal Fukutomi's ability to pen a good tune, as well as his dexterity on both electric and acoustic guitars. Pianist/Rhodes player Koichi Sato, bassist Koji Yasuda and drummer Ryo Noritake form a water-tight rhythm section and their individual prowess adds much to the success of this contemporary straight ahead session. ...