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.

Talking 2 Musicians

Filmmaker Denny Tedesco

by Alan Bryson
March 11, 2015

Although the '60s and '70s are considered by many to be a golden era in music, for decades the people who played the instruments on many of the most popular and iconic recordings of that era were essentially unknown. Fortunately, over the last couple of decades that has begun to change. Several excellent music documentary films have helped these great studio musicians and session players get the respect they deserve. Documentaries such as Muscle Shoals, Standing in the Shadow of ...

Film Review

Abbey Rader Get Free

by Hrayr Attarian
March 11, 2015

Artist Abbey Rader Abbey Rader: Get Free Swampvalve Pictures 2015 Drummer Abbey Rader is one of the most relentlessly explorative and idiosyncratic improvisers in jazz. He has a unique approach that stems from his rich and multifaceted experiences that has shaped his overall life outlook. So how can all this be told in only 20 minutes? Filmmaker J.L. Rubiera manages it poignantly and with elegant flair. His Abbey Rader: Get Free distills the essence ...

Album Review

Jack DeJohnette: Made in Chicago

Read "Made in Chicago" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 11, 2015

At one point on Made In Chicago, drummer--and occasional pianist--Jack DeJohnette announces, “We'd like to do something spontaneous for you." By then, spontaneity is a foregone conclusion. With a discography that includes almost two-hundred recordings, DeJohnette is best known among more casual listeners as one third of pianist Keith Jarrett's long-time trio. Significant though the role has been, it hardly represents the scope of his career or his musical proclivities. In 1965, along a group of local Chicago musicians and ...

Album Review

Anat Cohen: Luminosa

Read "Luminosa" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 11, 2015

Anat Cohen's music is literally all over the map. Across her previous six albums, Cohen has explored the sounds of America, Brazil, France, Cuba, South Africa, and her homeland, Israel; she's addressed the work of John Coltrane, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Benny Goodman, Abdullah Ibrahim, Sam Cooke, Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Louis Armstrong, Ernesto Lecuona, Luiz Bonfa, and numerous others; and she's delivered original material that speaks to her ceaseless globetrotting. Here, she continues to explore a wide range of music, ...

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff Trio: Lions

Read "Lions" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 11, 2015

Yelena Eckemoff has a lot to say artistically. The Russian-born, classically-trained pianist--now home-based in North Carolina--has released eight jazz albums in the past nine years, sets that are packed to the digital rafters with close to the time limit for the CD format--in the 70-plus minute range. For Lions, the ideas spilled over onto two CDs, a ninety-four minutes of music that is--according to the set's drummer, Billy Hart--prophetic. Eckemoff has a way of working with themes, with ...

Album Review

Assaf Kehati Trio: Naked

by Hrayr Attarian
March 11, 2015

Guitarist Assaf Kehati's Naked is, as the title insinuates, an adornment free celebration of melody in a spare and intimate setting. Unlike his two earlier recordings Naked features Kehati without a saxophonist and with a new rhythm duo on an introspective set of his expressive originals and three standards.On the cinematic “The Horses' Fight" for example, Kehati's shimmering lines meander around his sidemen's percolating vamps in an intricate and mellifluous sonic patterns. A mystical sense permeates the music ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Michael Oien

by AAJ Staff
March 10, 2015

Meet Michael Oien: Ever since he graduated from Berklee in 2004, bassist Michael Oien has been an important part of the New York jazz scene, appearing on a countless number of dates as a sideman. Recently he recorded his debut as a leader, the consistently creative And Now for Fresh Sound's New Talent label. “This is my most important artistic statement so far," says Michael, “writing my own music and recording it with my own band." And ...

Interview

Donna Lewis: Brand New Day

by Ben Scholz
March 10, 2015

Pop culture's love-hate relationship with its artists presents an interesting conundrum. Music created for mass-consumption must be easily digestible, yet the public is quick to retaliate against content that lacks substance. Gifted musicians are often pigeonholed into a certain style or sound that may not reflect their true range. This myopic point of view focuses on one marketable facet of an artist's talent without taking into account the fact that most recording musicians tend to compose in a variety of ...

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Album Review

Pericopes + 1: These Human Beings

Read "These Human Beings" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 10, 2015

Having captured the favorable attention of saxophonist Dave Liebman and fellow Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava, Pericopes + 1 enters the American market with These Human Beings with the “+1" representing the addition of New York based drummer Nick Wight. The varied program, musical interactions and progressive thinking behind it are likely to generate interest on this side of the Atlantic. In 2013, saxophonist Emillano Vernizzi, a Professor of jazz saxophone at the Conservatory of Music of Parma, Italy ...

Album Review

Rick Waldron: Africa

Read "Africa" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
March 10, 2015

Even before a single note of Africa hits the air, the long list of instruments played by leader/composer Rick Waldron suggests that something unusual is afoot. For his fourth CD Waldron, who has chaired the music department at Everett Community College since 1990, has created a lively and intricate session that defies easy description. There's reason to expect some traditional jazz, given that Waldron earned a Master's degree in composition from North Texas State, one of the best ...