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

Kuniko: Iannis Xenakis IX

Read "Iannis Xenakis IX" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 6, 2015

Sound is elemental. It is why the heartrate, composed of many individual heartbeats in succession is called a vital sign. Percussionist Kuniko understands this in an explicit and integral manner. Her previous recordings, Kuniko Plays Reich (Linn Records, 2012) and Cantus (Linn Records, 2013) were devoted to her command of the vibraphone and marimba. Iannis Xenakis IX broadly expands her use of percussion methods, liberating her talent dramatically. In other words, Kuniko mixes things up...like a wild, precisely structured, aural ...

Album Review

Burak Kaya: Climate Change

Read "Climate Change" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
April 6, 2015

Turkish guitarist Burak Kaya's Climate Change is a socially conscious album with a definite political theme. It does not, however, “scream" its civic message boisterously or with an aggressive style. Instead, its nine originals unfurl with a peaceful yet gripping feel and pastel colored hues with a memorable vibe.The dramatic “Gezi Park," named after the location of the Istanbul protests against (initially) urban development, opens with a series of expectant brief bursts of collective phrases that roll with ...

622

Album Review

Rick Braun: can you feel it

Read "can you feel it" reviewed by Walter Atkins

by Walter Atkins
April 6, 2015

Celebrated trumpeter Rick Braun's release can you feel it is aptly titled. The veteran purveyor of the smooth jazz sound does not disappoint on his latest offering. Some of Braun's musical friends on this eleven song collection include: Brian Culbertson-piano, Euge Goove-tenor sax, Jeff Lorber-keyboards and guitar, Dave Koz-tenor sax, and Nate Phillips-bass. In typical Braun fashion, the entire record production is clean and at a high standard. The title and first track “Feel It" has ...

Profile

Dave Ball: Never Gonna Touch The Ground

by Jack Gold-Molina
April 5, 2015

Born March 30, 1950 in Birmingham, England, Dave Ball began playing guitar at the age of 13, and, at the age of 15, left school to pursue music professionally. Two years later, in 1967, he formed the band Ideal Milk with his brother Denny, who played bass, and drummer Cozy Powell, recording a blazing set of music for the BBC. This band spent countless hours jamming together, including playing gigs at the Elbow Room in Birmingham City with close friends ...

525

Building a Jazz Library

Miles Davis

by AAJ Staff
April 5, 2015

Trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991) is perhaps the most influential figure in the history of jazz. He regularly reinvented his sound, changing styles abruptly and pulling the rest of the jazz community along with him. Davis moved from East St. Louis to New York City in 1944, ostensibly to attend Juilliard. But he soon lost interest in school and spent his time gigging with local musicians. In 1945, at the age of nineteen, he joined Charlie Parker's quintet, where ...

Live Review

Jason Moran and the Bandwagon at the Kimmel Center

by Victor L. Schermer
April 5, 2015

Jason Moran and the Bandwagon Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Perelman Theater Philadelphia, PA March 29, 2015 This concert contrasted stylistically with a previous engagement at the Kimmel Center when, in 2007, Jason Moran appeared with an expanded group including horns and a vocalist. At that time, “The group played a diverse pastiche of themes derived from blues, gospel, popular music, and an old cowboy motif found in every Western flick you've ever ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith/ Hardedge: The Nile

Read "The Nile" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 5, 2015

Avant-garde trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has crafted epic sets, like the four disc Ten Freedom Summers (Cunieform Records, 2012), inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. And then there are the near-epics: 2014's The Great Lakes Suite (TUM Records, 2014), a two disc celebration of North America's great waterway. And sometimes he offers up, in contrast, fairly modest records, like Organic Resonance, a live one disc duet set with reed man Anthony Braxton. And now we have a seemingly modest, but ...

Album Review

Ted Daniel's Energy Module: Innerconnection

Read "Innerconnection" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 5, 2015

Although 72-year old trumpeter Ted Daniel remains active on the scene -courtesy of his Duology partnership with clarinetist Michael Marcus, and his own International Brass and Membrane Corps -a significant part of his recent output has focused on archival recordings. As such, the first time release of the 2 CD Innerconnection from fall 1975 neatly fits with a succession of reissues comprising 1970's The Ted Daniel Sextet (Ujamaa Records, 2006), 1974's Tapestry (Porter Records, 2008) and 1975's The Loft Years ...

Album Review

carlos Averhoff Jr.: iRESI

by Edward Blanco
April 5, 2015

Tenor saxophonist Carlos Averhoff, Jr. draws on a rich cultural tradition blending infectious Afro-Cuban rhythms with intricate melodies delivered in a hard-driving manner on his impressive modern-styled, Latin jazz-tinged iRESI. A classically-trained musician from Cuba and the son of Miami-based saxophonist Carlos Averhoff, Averhoff, Jr. now resides in Boston after graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music and is a now an educator on the Berklee faculty and also teaches at the Concord Conservatory of Music. His career as ...

Album Review

Yosi Levy: The Yosi Levy Acoustic Project

Read "The Yosi Levy Acoustic Project" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
April 5, 2015

The Yosi Levy Acoustic Project is truly amazing musical experience that merges into a virtuosic whole the seemingly disparate musics of Israeli folk music, jazz and Indian tabla rhythms. Each member of the trio is a master of his instrument; Levy can perform anything his mind hears on his acoustic guitar (and self-accompanying) voice, Ilan Salem is the desert wind incarnate, and Bickram Ghosh both drives the group and reacts instantly as needed. The music is acoustic, despite ...