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

Tyshawn Sorey: Alloy

by Hrayr Attarian
April 19, 2015

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey's fourth release as a leader, the intriguingly mystical Alloy, is a stimulating study of contrasts. The four, long Sorey originals are simultaneously expansive and intimate, somber yet with moments of subtle vibrance and stately yet brimming with spontaneity.Sorey sticks to his main ax the drum set on the album as he deftly collaborates with his two sidemen through the intricacies of his own compositions while himself shunning the spotlight. Pianist Cory Smythe demonstrates ...

Album Review

Tobias Delius / Olie Brice / Mark Sanders: Somersaults

Read "Somersaults" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 19, 2015

Any lineup which contains reedman Tobias Delius deserves attention. Born in England to an Argentinean father and a German mother, Delius was a longtime staple of the adventurous Amsterdam scene before his relocation to Berlin in 2007, though he's still a fixture with the ICP Orchestra. On Somersaults, he teams up with the talented British rhythm tandem of bassist Olie Brice and drummer Mark Sanders, who also helm the wonderful Riverloam Trio with Polish reedman Mikolaj Trzaska. As a threesome ...

Album Review

ICP Orchestra: East of the Sun

Read "East of the Sun" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 19, 2015

The Holland-based Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra has amassed 51 albums since its inception in 1967 and due to health-related issues, legendary co-founder, pianist Misha Mengelberg is unable to perform. But guest artist, pianist Guus Janseen duly integrates his artistry into the orchestra's distinct constitution. And of course inimitable drummer Han Bennink helps support and steer the large ensemble through its perpetually moving currents amid its customary unpredictability and topsy-turvy discourses. As surmised, the artists interconnect free jazz improvisation, folk ...

Multiple Reviews

Dom's Duos: Dom Minasi Meets Blaise Siwula, Chris Kelsey, And Hans Tammen

by Dan Bilawsky
April 19, 2015

Improvising musicians all pay lip service to the idea of working without a net, but most end up building safety precautions--no matter how slight or subtle they may be--into their work. Dom Minasi, however, isn't one of those musicians. The indefatigable guitarist has no interest in sonic safeguards or insurance. He's a law unto himself, creating music that speaks to his intelligence, fearlessness, and mischievous nature. And while Minasi has been at it for half a century, he shows no ...

Album Review

Dave Stryker: Messin' with Mister T

Read "Messin' with Mister T" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
April 19, 2015

On this tribute to his former employer Stanley Turrentine, guitarist/bandleader Dave Stryker recruits his trio with Hammond B-3 organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter, augmented here by guest percussionist Mayra Casales. Messin' with Mister T also features a series of contemporary tenor players taking on some of the late saxophonist's classic recordings. The set opens with a swinging “La Place Street," featuring a nice exchange between Stryker and Houston Person, who breaks into an extended solo with ...

Album Review

MOA: Maverick

Read "Maverick" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 19, 2015

Max Wild wears many musical hats: A jazz musician who plays alto saxophone, an instructor at one of New York City's hottest music production schools (Dubspot), and producer of his own original dance and other electronic music. Wild began to play the saxophone in his native Zimbabwe and earned his Master in Jazz degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he also began to discover that his unique instrumental jazz, African and electronic perspectives might make him a difficult ...

Book Review

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band (paperback edition)

by Doug Collette
April 19, 2015

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band (paperback edition) Alan Paul 496 Pages ISBN: #9781250040503 St. Martin's Press 2015 Though Alan Paul may not have intended it as such, his truncated addition to the paperback edition of One Way Out acts as an implicit explanation of why the Allman Brothers' final (sic) performance in October of 2014 was more of an anti-climax rather than a triumphant close to their ...

Album Review

Duduka Da Fonseca Trio: Jive Samba

Read "Jive Samba" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 18, 2015

The continually evolving relationship between American jazz and Brazilian music is firm proof that the power of influence often travels in two directions. Todd Barkan's liner notes for Jive Samba touch on this fact by discussing the way that these musical forces have been blending and influencing one another for more than nine decades, going all the way back to when Brazilian choro giant Pixinguinha fell for jazz and rubbed shoulders with Louis Armstrong during a six-month stay in Paris ...

Album Review

Ferdinando Argenti Trio: Live At The Sahara

Read "Live At The Sahara" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 18, 2015

Boston-based pianist/vocalist and composer Ferdinando Argenti, originally from Pisa, Italy, delivers an impressive live recording entitled Live At The Sahara, recorded with a trio at the Sahara Club in the town of Methuen, north of Boston. Argenti designs an excellent set of instrumentals and vocals from the contemporary jazz cannon combining music from The Great American Songbook with jazz standards a soft bossa nova, a Latin favorite and one Italian love song to make this session a varied and entertaining ...

Album Review

Tony Monaco: Furry Slippers

Read "Furry Slippers" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 18, 2015

Through nine releases, primarily from his home studio in Columbus, Ohio, Tony Monaco has proved that he's a solid link in the hip Hammond B-3 organ chain that reaches from contemporaries such as Wil Blades and Joey DeFrancesco all the way back to Jimmy Smith and other founders of the Hammond groove. At a recent Java Jazz Festival (in Indonesia), Monaco met drummer Greg Fundis and guitarist Fareed Haque, and the three hit it off so well that they were ...