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

Sigurdur Flosason and Kjeld Lauritsen: Nightfall

Read "Nightfall" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
March 13, 2015

Icelandic saxophonist Sigurdur Flosason gets a pretty unique sound out of his instrument. His silky, rhapsodic style of playing harks back to Johnny Hodges but with more bite. There are only the very faintest echoes of Charlie Parker and hardly any of John Coltrane. Yet Flosason is both inventive and soulful. This is quite remarkable in that he hails from a country known internationally only for cod and--musically--the dismal wailing of Bjork. Small wonder ...

Jazz Art

Drawing Jazz

by Keith Henry Brown
March 12, 2015

A twist on the old cliché, “Those who can't play--draw,"--that's my personal point of view. I've been a jazz nut since as long as I can remember, and as soon as I could push a pencil--even though I could barely bang out a simple tune on a piano--I was sketching some of my favorite players, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington. In 2000, after beginning a career as a graphic designer, I was awarded the position of design ...

Live Review

Jenny Scheinman: Little Bit Country

by Franz A. Matzner
March 12, 2015

A brief survey of violinist, vocalist, and composer Jenny Scheinman's recordings proves her a multi-genre experimenter, uniting a wide range of musical styles through partnerships with a diverse set of premier artists, including Jason Moran, Myra Melford, and Lou Reed. Scheinman's facility and humor was confirmed over the course of a Valentine's Day weekend performance at the Kennedy Center KC Jazz Club. Partnering with guitar guru Bill Frisell and drummer Brian Blade, Scheinman announced at the outset of ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Paul Chambers: Whims of Chambers – Blue Note 1534

by Marc Davis
March 12, 2015

At Blue Note Records in the 1950s, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones were about as common as grits at a Southern diner. And about as noticeable, too--not flashy, just solid and reputable. Blue Note never had a “house band," but if it had, Chambers and Jones would have been the hard bop core. Art Blakey may have been the more famous and more aggressive Blue Note drummer, and Charles Mingus the more famous (non-Blue Note) ...

Album Review

Telmo Fernandez and Marcos Pin: Take A Second

Read "Take A Second" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
March 12, 2015

As the name suggests, Take A Second is number two in guitarist Marcos Pin's Duology series. Pin's long-term plan is to record a series of ten albums in duet with a range of musicians. As plans go, it's not the most complicated ever hatched, but the two albums that have so far seen daylight suggest that it's certainly a plan worth putting into practice. Pin recorded his first Duology album, Session 1 (Free Code Jazz Records, 2014) with ...

Album Review

Eberhard Weber: Encore

Read "Encore" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 12, 2015

The aesthetic sensibility that has become identified as the sound of ECM is--in large part--a manifestation of German bassist and composer Eberhard Weber's own vision. Spacious, obscured harmonies, fluid melodies and tastefully imbedded electronics, often within a minimalist framework have been consistent components of much of the music in the label's catalog. Weber's inventive approach to his instrument--especially his creation of the electrobass--led him away from the familiar parameters of walking bass lines into more uncharted territory of the bass ...

Album Review

Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth: Epicenter

Read "Epicenter" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 12, 2015

Chris Lightcap is a bassist's bassist. As a sideman to leaders such as Regina Carter, Matt Wilson, Joe Morris, Marc Ribot, and Craig Taborn, his rock-solid timekeeping can be quite inconspicuous. He is a sort of steadfast superglue that leaders and composers hold in high regard. As a leader and composer, there is another Chris Lightcap. Epicenter, is his third Bigmouth release, following the quintet Deluxe (Clean Feed, 2010) and a quartet Bigmouth (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2002). ...

Album Review

Henry Kaiser & Ray Russell: The Celestial Squid

Read "The Celestial Squid" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
March 12, 2015

The Celestial Squid is an unprecedented summit meeting between two renowned guitarists: legendary British session ace Ray Russell and idiosyncratic Bay Area experimentalist Henry Kaiser. Although best known as a veteran studio musician, Russell's groundbreaking early records revealed a penchant for unbridled free jazz, culminating in his 1971 masterpiece Rites and Rituals (CBS). Since then, Russell has enjoyed a lucrative freelance career, working with artists ranging from Gil Evans to David Bowie, but other than a few recent fusion-oriented endeavors, ...

Album Review

Art Pepper: Neon Art: Volume 2

Read "Neon Art: Volume 2" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 12, 2015

Hard on the heels of Neon Art, Volume 1 (Omnivore, 2015), Art Pepper's Neon Art, Volume 2 retains the first volume's rhythm section save for pianist George Cables taking the place of Milcho Leviev. This sets up and interesting contrast of piano styles while all else remains the same. Volume 1 was recorded from a single show at Seattle's Parnell's on January 28, 1981. The selections making up Volume 2 were recorded in November of the same year while Pepper ...

Top Ten List

Top Ten Jazz Songs of My Childhood

by Richard J Salvucci
March 11, 2015

For some reason, listening to the Great American Songbook was a big part of my Italian immigrant-boomer generation's experience. We learned the values, the rules, the moves and the customs of the folks we wanted to be like. And added a couple of distinctive touches of our own. We liked big bands too. But it wasn't All Frank, All the Time... well, not quite. 1. Maynard Ferguson: “Come Blow Your Horn" From Come Blow ...