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

Karen Mantler: Business is Bad

Read "Business is Bad" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
April 18, 2015

Composer/singer/multi-instrumentalist Karen Mantler's fifth release as a leader, Business is Bad, is a set of nine intimate sketches of everyday life. Delivered in Mantler's unique musical style, the pieces range from the whimsical “My Magic Pencil" to the elegiac “Surviving You" and everything in-between. Mantler does not so much sing these engaging soliloquies as she does hum them to herself. On “Catch as Catch Can," she laments the plight of the homeless and the hungry with plenty of ...

Extended Analysis

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers: Live in 1967

by Doug Collette
April 18, 2015

Because his career didn't directly ascend to a higher profile subsequent to his tenures in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, guitarist Peter Green's membership in the group doesn't receive as much prominence as that of, Eric Clapton who became an icon of contemporary or Mick Taylor, who joined the Rolling Stones for arguably the greatest albums of their career. This despite the fact Green formed Fleetwood Mac with bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood when he left Mayall's auspices in 1967 ...

Extended Analysis

Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix

by Nenad Georgievski
April 18, 2015

Several decades after his tragic and premature death, Jimi Hendrix looms even more larger and deeper than ever. An intrepid risk taker and untamed musical force that he was, this pre-eminent guitarist of the 20th century achieved his position by treating his guitar rather differently than the others. Fueled by a boundless musical imagination, Hendrix used device he could find in order to amplify the multicolored sounds he heard in his imagination. His premature death at the age of 27, ...

Live Review

Pat McGee and Friends at City Winery

by Mike Perciaccante
April 18, 2015

Pat McGee and Friends City Winery New York, NY April 3, 2015 On what was one of the first warmer spring evenings following New York's endless winter of 2015, City Winery played host to the Pat McGee CD release party. McGee, whose self-titled CD (Noble Steed Music) is slated to be released on May 12, 2015, brought Brian Fechino (guitar), Michael Ghegan (saxophone/keyboards/vocals), Patrick McAloon (guitar/vocals), Matt Calverese (drums) and bassist Frank ...

Live Review

April Jazz 2015

by Ian Patterson
April 17, 2015

April Jazz 2015 National Concert Hall Dublin April 10-12, 2015 April Jazz is the latest addition to Dublin's thriving jazz/improvised music scene. The weekend festival is part of the National Concert Hall's Perspectives program, a series of monthly concerts that spans modern bluegrass and fiddle soundscapes, alt country and contemporary piano recitals. Even within the three-day April Jazz festival there was a little of something for everyone, reflecting the eclectic nature of music ...

Live Review

Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea at the Philadelphia Academy of Music

by Victor L. Schermer
April 17, 2015

Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea Academy of Music Philadelphia, PA April 11, 2015 Pianists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea are mega-multi-Grammy winning jazz legends, with active careers spanning over half a century. In the 1960s, they contributed to the post-bop revolution in jazz, and have been involved in almost all the developments since then, whether hard bop or jazz fusion, and specifically for Hancock, modal jazz, funk, and R&B; and for Corea, Latin, avant ...

Live Review

The Genius of Getz: Greg Fishman at ASU Kerr Cultural Center

by Patricia Myers
April 17, 2015

Greg Fishman: The Genius of Getz ASU Kerr Cultural Center Scottsdale, Arizona April 4, 2015 “The Genius of Getz" as explored by tenor saxophonist Greg Fishman completely mesmerized a rapt audience via the Chicago musician's superior musicianship and fascinating ability as a raconteur during his fourth annual Stan Getz tribute performance for Jazz in Arizona at the ASU Kerr Cultural Center. This intriguing concept absolutely delivered what its theme promised, creating total bliss ...

Album Review

Casey Golden Trio: Outliers

Read "Outliers" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 17, 2015

In the past twenty years the jazz piano trio has branched out from the standards format into e.s.t..--influenced, virtuosity-leaning trios and song-based units like the Neil Cowley Trio and GoGo Penguin. Of course, that's not the full piano trio picture, but it's refreshing to come across an alternative to both the traditional American trio and the hordes of anthemic, pop and rock-influenced European models. With Outliers The Casey Golden Trio eschews typical rhythmic and melodic terrain, crafting a very tightly ...

Album Review

Hugo Fernandez: Cosmogram

Read "Cosmogram" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 17, 2015

Of all the instruments in a group or orchestra, none has a broader or more variable sonic profile than the guitar. When it is played properly, with earnestness and sincerity, a guitar can move the listener to tears; when it is used, however, is to elicit sounds that are best described as disquieting and cacophonous, that is another matter entirely. Luckily, Mexican-born guitarist Hugo Fernandez treats the instrument with respect, showing its warmer and more pleasurable side on Cosmogram, a ...

Album Review

Kyle Eastwood: Time Pieces

Read "Time Pieces" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 17, 2015

Double bassist, composer and producer Kyle Eastwood unveils a timeless treasure with his seventh album as leader on the sensational Time Pieces, capturing the mood and aura of the 50s and 60s jazz scene blending two standards from the era with rich new compositions incorporating the sensitivities and flavor of that time period. It has been seventeen years since his debut album and along the way, Eastwood also enjoys working on film music where he has composed and arranged scores ...