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.

One LP

Jon Faddis: Dizzy Gillespie & Roy Eldridge, Soul Mates

by William Ellis
May 2, 2015

Jon Faddis: Wigan Arena, July, 2014 Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge Soul Mates (Verve, 1954) “I remember getting this as a present from my sister on my 11th birthday and I just remember how excited I was. I listened to that record thousands of times. It wasn't my first Dizzy Gillespie record but I think it was one of the most important because I couldn't stop listening to it. Dizzy-Roy back and forth, Dizzy-Roy ...

Live Review

Anouar Brahem at Jazzablanca Festival 2015

by Mehdi El Mouden
May 2, 2015

Anouar Brahem Hippodrome Anfa Jazzablanca Festival Casablanca, MoroccoApril 20, 2015 Tunisian oudist/ composer Anouar Brahem is widely acclaimed as a pioneer of the fusion between Middle Eastern music and jazz, with a career spanning over thirty years. In the beginning of the nineties he contributed to the oud celebration spreading in the western world through a music that brought together evasive poetry with elegant arrangements. Well-versed in classical Arabic tenets, his solos ...

Album Review

Nate Wooley: Battle Pieces

Read "Battle Pieces" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 2, 2015

Someday trumpeter Nate Wooley is going to sell-out, abandon his principles, and make a smooth jazz record. He will give in to the pull of commercial success and create a disc of elevator music which can be played, but taken no heed of. I jest, because everything he creates necessitates the ear and mind's consideration. Wooley is a member of the new generation of trumpet players, like Peter Evans, Taylor Ho Bynum, and cornetist Kirk Knuffke who move ...

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

May 2015

by Mr. P.C.
May 1, 2015

Dear Mr. P.C.: I bought a trombone they said had seven positions, but I can find only one long one. Was I ripped off? --Jazzprof Dear Jazzprof: You weren't exactly ripped off, but perhaps misled. There are indeed seven positions, but they are positions between you and the trombone, not built into the trombone itself. This is intricately described in The Joy of Sax, and the positions are pretty universal ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Jimmy Smith: Master of the Hammond B-3

by Mark Sabbatini
May 1, 2015

Jimmy Smith ignited a jazz revolution on an instrument associated at the time with ballparks, despite never playing one until the age of 28. His legendary multi-part technique on the Hammond B-3 organ, playing bass with the foot pedals and Charlie Parker-like single-line passages with his right hand, shook up the traditional trio as co-players could explore new roles. Yet, while the consensus is Smith's playing is a jazz landmark, his recordings fall short of such acclaim.

Album Review

Jax Jazz Collective: All the Things You Are: The Music of Jerome Kern

Read "All the Things You Are: The Music of Jerome Kern" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 1, 2015

This is a marvelous approach to making jazz recordings: picking one Great American Songbook composer at time and exploring a set of his tunes, with a personal touch. Pianist Oscar Peterson released a series of tributes to the Standards tune-smith's on Verve Record back in the 1950s, tagged “Songbooks," celebrating George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern. The Jax Jazz Collective, out of Jacksonville, Florida, seems to be starting similar journey. In 2014 it was Lotus Blossom: ...

Album Review

Michael Oien: And Now

by Budd Kopman
May 1, 2015

Having been part of the New York scene since graduating from Berklee in 2004, bassist/composer/arranger Michael Oien has obviously taken his time in making his first record. But it was worth the wait, because And Now is destined to be on many “Best Of Lists" for 2015. Leading a smoking and very tight quintet consisting of Matthew Stevens on guitars, alto saxophonist Nick Vadeen, pianist Jamie Reynolds and Eric Doob on drums, Oien impresses with the ...

Album Review

Bill Nelson: After The Satellite Sings

Read "After The Satellite Sings" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 1, 2015

British guitarist Bill Nelson has been an industrious artiste since the 70s, especially after leading the short-lived, yet critically praised progressive rock unit Be-Bop Deluxe, where his formidable skills came to light. Since the 80s, he's compiled a vast discography as a solo artist amid a stint with the ambient rock band Channel Light Vessel among various cinematic projects and collaboration with ambient-electronica master, Harold Budd on Three White Roses and a Budd (Twentythree Records, 2002) and other endeavors.

Extended Analysis

only sky

by John Kelman
May 1, 2015

Despite a career that now goes back over three decades, the relative infrequency of releases from guitarist and sound sculptor David Torn renders any new one, at the very least, a cause for speculation...if not enthusiastic anticipation. Beyond the soundtracks that have become one piece of the puzzle that defines who Torn is--and acting as engineer and/or producer for fellow unfettered explorers like saxophonist Tim Berne on albums including Shadow Man (ECM, 2013) as another--Torn was last heard on a ...

Album Review

Deep Tone Project: Flow

by Karl Ackermann
May 1, 2015

Beyond the recent headlines there is a cultural history in Ukraine that has influenced much of Europe and Western Asia since the middle ages. Under the Soviet regime, much of the country's classical and religious music was banned while the region's folkloric music not only thrived but, after Ukrainian independence, remained a defensive mechanism to counter the unwelcome influence of Western music. Jazz in particular was suspect, having once been labeled by Pravda as “The Music of the Gross." Though ...