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.

Live Review

Linley Hamilton Quintet at Black Box

by Ian Patterson
March 16, 2015

Linley Hamilton Quintet Black Box Belfast, Ireland March 13, 2015 Since the launch of In Transition (Lyte Records, 2014) at the Brilliant Corners festival last March, the Linley Hamilton Quintet has gigged only sporadically. With members split between Dublin, Port Laoise and Belfast, geography plays its part to a degree. However, there are numerous strings that pull these professional jazz musicians this way and that, from studying and teaching commitments to radio shows and numerous ...

Album Review

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

Read "An Evening with Herb Geller: Live in Europe 2009" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 16, 2015

To followers of jazz in general and West Coast jazz in particular, the late alto saxophonist Herb Geller should need no introduction. Geller, a master of his horn, was a fixture on the West Coast scene and elsewhere in the States until he moved to Germany in 1962 and spent the last half-century of his life there, performing and recording with groups large and small and imparting his wisdom to a younger generation of musicians. On An ...

Album Review

Tim Warfield: Spherical: Dedicated to Thelonious Sphere Monk

Read "Spherical: Dedicated to Thelonious Sphere Monk" reviewed by Andrew Luhn

by Andrew Luhn
March 16, 2015

Thelonious Monk tribute albums are certainly nothing new in the jazz world. As early as 1961, Eddie Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin recorded Lookin' at Monk and pianist Bud Powell recorded Portrait of Thelonious. Even while his career was still going strong, Monk's importance as a composer and influence on other jazz musicians was already clear. Today Monk's legendary status as one of jazz's most important figures is still clear. As far as I know, there is no hard data ...

Album Review

Alyssa Allgood: Lady Bird

Read "Lady Bird" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 16, 2015

After two very promising vocalese offerings: Dorian Devin's The Procrastinator (Self Produced, 2013) and Angelica Matveeva's Vocalese (Self Produced, 2015), yet another traditional vocalese presents itself as an extended-play recording of what may be the most refined offering in the genre yet. Allgood's approach is superbly considered and delivered. Her command of the material has no peer. Allgood's choice of an organ trio + tenor accompaniment is sheer genius. With this format, the singer's innate vocalese talent ...

Extended Analysis

Eberhard Weber: Encore

by John Kelman
March 16, 2015

In a time when too many things that seem unfair create victims rather than heroes, the world needs more people like Eberhard Weber. Struck down with a major stroke in 2007, the renowned German bassist found himself without the strength required in his left hand to be able to play the custom-built, electric five-string double bass that, in various incarnations, has defined a sound as instantly recognizable as any bassist on the planet. That would have been enough ...

Album Review

The Sirkis/Bialas International Quartet: Come To Me

Read "Come To Me" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
March 16, 2015

Drummer Asaf Sirkis co-leads this international group along with Polish singer Sywia Bialas (who actually resides in Germany) and two British musicians, Frank Harrison and Patrick Bettison. Sirkis has been making waves on the jazz scene over the past few years, playing with the likes of Larry Coryell and Tim Garland. Five of the tracks are necessarily defined by the Polish lyrics written and sung by Bialas and to the unwary, the opener, “Come To Me" might initially ...

Live Review

Andy Sheppard Quartet at Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival 2015

by Ian Patterson
March 15, 2015

Andy Sheppard Quartet Colston Hall Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival Bristol March 7, 2015 A “local hero" is how the emcee described saxophonist/composer Andy Sheppard. Bristol resident Sheppard is neither immortal nor a demi-God, but he is uber-talented and a warrior of sorts; a road warrior who has clocked up more miles than the Vikings ever did, purveying his music the length and breadth of the UK these past forty years. And the warm ...

Album Review

Lukasz Gorewicz: The String of Horizons

Read "The String of Horizons" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 15, 2015

Active in both classical and contemporary music, Polish violinist/composer Łukasz Górewicz is perhaps best known abroad for Ecstasy Project, the unique experimental chamber/avant-garde jazz ensemble formed in 1999; its albums such as Realium (Polish Jazz, 2005) and Reminiscence Europae (Fonografica, 2008) underlined Górewicz' credentials as one of the most arresting violinists of his generation, regardless of genre. On String of Horizons Górewicz steps out alone, composing, arranging and producing the music, in addition to playing all the instruments. Needless to ...

Book Review

Different Every Time: The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt

by Roger Farbey
March 15, 2015

Different Every Time: The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt Marcus O'Dair 460 Pages ISBN: 978-1846687594 Serpent's Tail 2014 For all his self-effacing personality (on first meeting saxophonist Gilad Atzmon he described himself as an amateur musician) Robert Wyatt is an intelligent and extraordinarily talented musician, singer and composer. Introduced to jazz by his father, Wyatt was forever committed to the genre but, as his story unfolds his taste in music was, and is, ...

Album Review

Tesla Manaf: A Man’s Relationship with His Fragile Area

Read "A Man’s Relationship with His Fragile Area" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
March 15, 2015

Unlikely settings can spawn the most interesting results as heard in Indonesian based guitarist Tesla Manaf's A Man's Relationship with His Fragile Area which is one of the most intriguing titles for an album in recent years. The music is equally fascinating--the instrumental persuasions of Manaf's homeland and the slightest hints of his early music inspiration Pat Metheny. Yet this debut on Moon June Records is clearly not your typical mainstream jazz or progressive-rock guitar album. Manaf's been concocting his ...