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

Filip Augustson: Viva Black

Read "Viva Black" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 12, 2015

Swedish double bassist Filip Augustson leads a reasonable personal life and career. He recorded his debut album as a leader about ten years ago, Ich Bin Filip Augustson (Moserobie, 2004) and has collaborated with vibes player Mattias Ståhl's Ståhls Blå, sax players Fredrik Ljungkvist and Fredrik Nordström and keyboard player Mats Öberg. Augustson is a happily married father of two small children, and lives in a nice middle-class neighborhood in the suburbs of Stockholm. Viva Black ...

Album Review

Matt Owens: The Aviators' Ball

Read "The Aviators' Ball" reviewed by Phil Barnes

by Phil Barnes
May 12, 2015

From the vibrant Manchester jazz scene that gave us the likes of Matthew Halsall, Nat Birchall and GoGo Penguin comes this eclectic beauty from Matt Owens. Much of the album was written in response to a commission from the Manchester Jazz Festival for a 'jazz quartet combined with wind quintet and tuned percussion' -a wide ranging brief that has plenty to enthral the more open-minded music lover. Taking the melodic spirit of late 1960s Beach Boys LP “Friends," ...

Live Review

Bray Jazz Festival 2015

by Ian Patterson
May 11, 2015

Bray Jazz Festival 2015 Various Venues Bray, Ireland May 1-3, 2015 Sunshine and squall. The sun and the clouds chased each other's tails throughout the May Bank Holiday weekend of the Bray Jazz Festival. In a way the weather mirrored the music--a pleasingly eclectic, bracing mixture--and the fortunes of the festival itself, which has been buffeted by the recent storms of funding cuts, yet remains unbowed. In spite of a reduced budget ...

Album Review

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

Read "In For A Penny, In For A Pound" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 11, 2015

No artist manages to marry compositional specificity and independent thought to the degree that Henry Threadgill does. And while his singular vision(s) with groups like Air and Very Very Circus have already earned him a place in the history of this music, when all is said and done, his work with Zooid may be his most important contribution to the ever-evolving art form of jazz. On In For A Penny, In For A Pound, Zooid delivers what ...

Album Review

Joe Fiedler Trio: I'm In

by Troy Collins
May 11, 2015

I'm In is trombonist Joe Fiedler's fourth recording with his longstanding trio and the second on his Multiphonics Music imprint. This session marks a departure of sorts for Fiedler's adventurous three-piece, finding the trombonist, new bassist Rob Jost and stalwart drummer Michael Sarin exploring more traditional blues and jazz forms than heard on the group's previous albums, Sacred Chrome Orb (Yellow Sound, 2011), The Crab (Clean Feed, 2007), and Plays The Music of Albert Mangelsdorff (Clean Feed, 2005).A ...

Album Review

Ben Haugland: A Million Dreams

Read "A Million Dreams" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
May 11, 2015

During the course of A Million Dreams, pianist Ben Haugland's second date as a leader, most of the trappings of a typical mainstream jazz record are present and easy to identify. Not unlike a lot of young leaders who are fusing their own creative aspirations with an allegiance to the tradition, Haugland penned four of the disc's eight tracks, and chose three American Standards and a Charlie Parker tune to round out the program. Another recognizable element is the presence ...

Album Review

London Afrobeat Collective: Food Chain

Read "Food Chain" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 11, 2015

It's based in London, it's a collective and it plays afrobeat, a strongly rhythmic musical style associated particularly with Fela Kuti. That's the basic info. Much more importantly Food Chain, the London Afrobeat Collective's second album (there are a couple of EPs too), is a bit of a monster--full of dancefloor-filling beats, allied to politically-aware lyrics, delivered by a 10-piece group that's bursting with energy. This mix of politicised lyrics and dance party music recalls UK bands of ...

Live Review

Turboprop Buzzes British Columbia Hinterland

by Mark Holston
May 11, 2015

Turboprop The Arts Station Fernie, British Columbia March 17, 2015 Fernie, a small ski resort of 5,000 surrounded some of the most spectacular Alpine scenery in the Pacific Northwest, might seem like the last place on earth where world class jazz talent would be presented on a regular basis. Tucked away in the southeastern corner of British Columbia just an hour's drive north of the U.S. border, the town's historic downtown proudly reflects the rugged ...

Live Review

Jazzahead! 2015

by Henning Bolte
May 11, 2015

Jazzahead! ConferenceBremen, Germany April 23-26, 2015 Ten years ago nobody would have dared to claim that the city of Bremen, situated in the north-western part of federal Germany, would stand as the place to be for jazz professionals, but it has become a matter of fact. Bremen IS definitely the place to be. The 'free' city, with a longstanding Hanseatic merchant tradition, has accomplished just that with steady, unswerving determination and dedication. The Hanseatic League, a ...

Album Review

Michael Oien: And Now

by Dan Bilawsky
May 10, 2015

And now, the arrival of And Now--the debut leader date from bassist Michael Oien. Oien, who's worked with everybody from saxophonist Uri Gurvich to guitarist Nir Felder to pianist Roy Assaf, is primed to make a strong statement here. He's done his homework and he's shown himself to be a musical pillar of support, a solid composer, and a strong soloist, so now he's ready to take flight. After a decade spent on the New York scene, ...