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.

763

Building a Jazz Library

Pat Metheny: Quantum Musician

by Nathan Holaway
March 1, 2015

If Pat Metheny never plays another single note, he would have already lived a “bright size life." Pat Metheny was born in Lee's Summit, MO in 1954 and first picked up his guitar at the age of twelve. By age fifteen, he was already playing with the top jazz musicians in town. In 1974, he became a part of the international jazz scene and joined a band led by vibraphonist Gary Burton. During this three year stint, he ...

785

Building a Jazz Library

Classic Bebop

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 28, 2015

Bebop played the same part in the history of jazz that rock & roll played in the history of pop: Seemingly equal parts genius, accident, hard work, and willful rebellion, it was born of its turbulent times and forever changed the course of music. Bebop is the sharp dividing line between swing and modern jazz. It was born in the early 1940s from jam sessions led by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Bud Powell and ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Jazz With Strings

by Roger Crane
February 28, 2015

Please note the title of this collection. It does not include symphony orchestras playing jazz compositions. Nor does it feature what is known as “third stream" music, which is the combination of jazz and classical elements for what is hoped to be a unified whole. No, just like the title says, this collection includes jazz musicians performing jazz with string sections. Jazz-with-strings is where the passion of jazz meets the power of an orchestra. This musical genre ...

Album Review

Drkwav: The Purge

Read "The Purge" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
February 28, 2015

The extent to which saxophonist Skerik, keyboardist John Medeski and percussionist Adam Deitch love to explore the nuances of melody, rhythm and space, especially at their respective outer limits, makes their collaboration as Drkwav almost inevitable. And it's perfectly appropriate the trio chose a name for themselves as an ensemble here because, as much as their respective personalities and skills figure into the sounds they make, right at the outset of The Purge, on “Darkwave," their individual profiles merge, almost ...

Album Review

Avi Avital: Vivaldi

Read "Vivaldi" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 28, 2015

On his debut recording, Bach (2013, Deutsche Grammophon), mandolinist Avi Avital played a pristine, clinically punctilious JSB. It is therefore no surprise that Avital moves a little earlier in the Baroque Era to produce a very similar collection by Antonio Vivaldi. Avital is an Israeli born in 1978 who took part in a local mandolin youth orchestra. He has previously recorded a rich collection of Klezmer, Baroque and contemporary classical music. He now contuse his look back with the Red ...

Book Review

Hipgnosis Portraits

by Nenad Georgievski
February 28, 2015

Hipgnosis Portraits Aubrey Powell 288 pages ISBN: 0500517630 Thames & Hudson 2014 When I was a kid I used to regularly search through my uncle's vinyl collection and there was one particular photograph that continuously arrested my attention and imagination -the inner sleeves of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. (Harvest, 1975) The photograph of two people shaking hands while the other one of them was in flames was very fascinating and ...

Album Review

ARS Antiqua Austria, Gunnar Letzbor: Biber: Sonaten Uber Die Mysterien des Rosenkranzes

Read "Biber: Sonaten Uber Die Mysterien des Rosenkranzes" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 28, 2015

It is a funny thing. There are just some pieces of music that scream to be owned in multiple performances. This past Christmas, I bought my 52nd and 53rd performances of Handel's Messiah. I am not sure if one can own to many performances of Bach's Goldberg Variations or Christmas Oratorio or Mass in B Minor. There is no possible way that one can have too many Beethoven Symphony Cycles. Another of these special sets of music is Heinrich Ignaz ...

Album Review

Pulsarus: Bee Itch

Read "Bee Itch" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 28, 2015

When discussing progressive jazz contexts, let us not forget our brothers and sisters in Poland who have been riding the cutting-edge schema for decades, evidenced by pianists Adam Makowicz, Marcin Wasilewski, trumpeter Tomasz Stańko and other notables of the global jazz and improvising network. However, the young For Tune record label highlights fledgling talent and seasoned vets who may not be household names in the West. Hence, Pulsarus is a prime of example of a band that ventures outside the ...

Album Review

Daniel Lanois: For the Beauty of Wynona

Read "For the Beauty of Wynona" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
February 28, 2015

While Daniel Lanois spent most of the '80s and the first years of the '90s honing his craft as a producer, he cautiously emerged as a songwriter and recording artist with Acadie. (Red Floor Records, 1989) A mere four years after this beautiful debut he returned with another intriguing and haunting collection of songs titled For the Beauty of Wynona. Recorded during a period when Lanois was producing landmark records with U2 and Peter Gabriel created a record with startling ...

Interview

Steven Wilson: Intuitive Indulgences and Pop Proclivities

by John Kelman
February 27, 2015

The trajectory of Steven Wilson's career, since stepping away from his longtime band Porcupine Tree to go solo, has been nothing short of remarkable. Since interviewing him in 2012 for the release of Get All You Deserve (Kscope, 2012)--an audio and video document of his world tour in support of Grace for Drowning (Kscope, 2011), his second solo album following 2009's Insurgentes (Kscope)-- Wilson has released a third studio recording, 2013's The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) ...