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

Darrell Katz and the JCA Orchestra: Why Do You Ride?

Read "Why Do You Ride?" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
March 19, 2015

Why Do You Ride?, a sweeping, poly-stylistic orchestral paean to bicycling, Albert Einstein, a certain orange kitty cat, and wrongly-attributed quotes (among other diverse topics) is the 10th album by Darrell Katz and his Jazz Composers' Alliance (JCA) Orchestra, which is also celebrating its 30th year of existence. Unlike most jazz artists of his generation, Katz--an excellent guitarist and long-time faculty member at Boston's Berklee School of Music--has resolutely stuck with the big band as his primary means of musical ...

Album Review

Merzbow/Mats Gustafsson/Balázs Pándi/Thurston Moore: Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper

Read "Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 19, 2015

The Cuts Quartet is a sort of assembled supergroup. But we are not talking Traveling Wilburys or Audioslave here. Groups where the sum is certainly less than the parts. No, the amalgam of Japanese noise artist Merzbow (aka Masami Akita), Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson (Fire! Orchestra, The Thing), American guitarist Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), and Hungarian drummer Balázs Pándi (Metallic Taste of Blood) comes at the ears more like John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965) or Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (Atlantic, ...

Album Review

Katie Thiroux: Introducing Katie Thiroux

Read "Introducing Katie Thiroux" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 19, 2015

West Coast native and Berklee College of Music product Katie Thiroux possesses an embarrassment of talent riches. She is an accomplished bassist, vocalist, composer and band leader. Her debut recording, appropriately named Introducing Katie Thiroux, is precociously assertive, filling in every nook and cranny of the middle-of-the-road mainstream jazz. Thiroux employs a cleverly conceived quartet with guitarist Graham Dechter and drummer Matt Witek. Tenor saxophonist Roger Neumann rounds out the band, providing a full-throated sound from the ...

Album Review

Laurie Dapice: Parting the Veil

Read "Parting the Veil" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 19, 2015

Vocalist Laurie Dapice's debut recording was an intensely personal affair. That is revealed both in her extensive liner notes and the music she presents here. First efforts require much of an artist and many debut recordings reflect the downside of the demands. Not so with Parting the Veil. Dapice presents herself a fully realized vocalist, arranger, and musical shaman. Whatever suffering influenced this recording, and, inevitably, there is often suffering as a catalyst, Dapice channeled it efficiently into a direction ...

Interview

Chantale Gagné: Composer on the Rise

by R.J. DeLuke
March 18, 2015

Chantale Gagné has been locked in with some of the best musicians on the scene since the pianist/composer moved to New York City in 2008. She's an import from Quebec. Raised in a rural part of the province, she cut her teeth in jazz circles in Montreal before moving to the Big Apple. She's not only taken to the town, but her deft touch and great feel on her instrument has endeared her to musicians in her new city.

Profile

A Madman’s Approach To Music And Why Can't Music Be Like A Tree?

by Duncan Heining
March 18, 2015

"Art alone makes life possible." --Joseph Beuys. The Glasgow Improvisers' Orchestra is unique. It's an over-used word, I know, but in this case fully justified. GIO are unique in so many ways--in the way they formed, the way they make decisions, in their make-up, how they work and most importantly how they sound. They are many things but one thing they most definitely are not is a free jazz ensemble. No tenor sax spits ire and fire and ...

Live Review

Live From Birmingham: Amy Roberts, Richard Exall, Bruce Coates, John Edwards, Mark Sanders, GoGo Penguin & Mammal Hands

by Martin Longley
March 18, 2015

The Amy Roberts/Richard Exall Jazz Band Solihull British Legion March 8, 2015 Shockingly, this regular club at Solihull British Legion, so accustomed to traditional New Orleans trotters, had booked a band that specialises in jazz from a slightly later time period. Precedents already existed, though, and the regulars have occasionally been sighted dancing to bebop and swing numbers. Of course, it's completely outrageous to ignore the fact that saxophonists such as Lester Young ...

Album Review

Daniel Bennett Group: The Mystery at Clown Castle

Read "The Mystery at Clown Castle" reviewed by Mike Oppenheim

by Mike Oppenheim
March 18, 2015

The Daniel Bennett Group's 2015 release The Mystery at Clown Castle, the successor to 2013's Clockhead Goes to Camp, picks up where the latter left off with a fresh and distinct new feel. The personnel has changed, with Daniel Bennett joined by guitarist Nat Janoff, bassist Eddy Khaimovich, and drummer Matthew Feick. Special guests include pianist Jason Yeager and spoken word poet Britt Melewski. Much like its predecessor, The Mystery at Clown Castle is catchy, memorable and unique. ...

Album Review

Roberto Magris Trio & Herb Geller: An Evening with Herb Geller & the Roberto Magris Trio: Live in Europe 2009

Read "An Evening with Herb Geller & the Roberto Magris Trio: Live in Europe 2009" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 18, 2015

Italian pianist and bandleader Roberto Magris has been on dual trajectories in the past number of years. The first is his recent study of hard bop as evidenced by his recent J-Mood releases including Mating Call (2010), Morgan Rewind: A Tribute to Lee Morgan Vols. 1 & 2 (2012, 2013) and One Night in With Hope and More...Vols. 1 & 2 (2012, 2013). His second, sub-trajectory is the rediscovery of overlooked masters as in the release of Sam Reed Meets ...

Album Review

Adam Berenson: Lumen

by Karl Ackermann
March 18, 2015

More than forty years ago, Harry Nillson coined the phrase “A point in every direction is the same as no point at all" and as an axiom it has stood the test of time very well. However, Adam Berenson topples the adage with his unlimited imagination and a refined command of weaving multiple genres and sub-genres into a coherent and exceptionally engaging program. Having worked with pianist Paul Bley as a student of the New England Conservatory of Music, the ...