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

John Stowell/Michael Zilber Quartet: Live Beauty

Read "Live Beauty" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 27, 2015

Part of the appeal of the teaming of guitarist John Stowell with various “post Coltrane" saxophonists is the cool/hot dynamic. Stowell is the guy with a Zen restraint, the cool guy, his chords sometimes sounding as if they are ringing from frozen stalactite filaments in ice caves. Saxophonists? Some blow cool-- those of the Lester Young/Stan Getz/Paul Desmond school. And then there's sax guys like Dave Liebman, who teamed with Stowell on the marvelous duet set, Blue Rose (Origin Records, ...

Album Review

Richie Goods and Nuclear Fusion: Three Rivers

Read "Three Rivers" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
February 27, 2015

Growing up in the 1970s, I was a rabid fan of the aggressive and adventurous sounds of jazz-rock, later re-branded as “jazz fusion." I slowly lost interest as the style became mired in a sticky sea of overproduced pop moves and smooth sentiment, but held out hope for some sort of renaissance. The jam-band fad of the early 90s, the yeoman work of highly individualistic, often avant-leaning artists such as Ronald Shannon Jackson, Dr. Nerve, Terje Rypdal, and a host ...

Album Review

Joel Silva: Geyser

by Budd Kopman
February 27, 2015

Portuguese drummer Joel Silva has organized a very fine band to bring his compositions to life. The resulting album, Geyser, is a deeply felt paean to nature and man's place within it. From the opening track, the music (with one exception) creates mental images of wide-open spaces and the emotions of awe and humility. Within this emotional space, the core band of fellow Portuguese countryman, pianist Joao Paulo Esteves da Silva and bassist Antonio Quintino, assisted by two ...

Album Review

Sigurdur Flosason/Kjeld Lauritsen: Daybreak

by Chris Mosey
February 27, 2015

They used to call this kind of thing “mood music." The idea was to put the listener in a particular mood, usually one of calm and relaxation. When it came to jazz, the US label Prestige climbed on the bandwagon with a whole series titled--wait for it-- “Moodsville." Moodsville aimed at providing jazz that was “beautiful, poetic and thoughtful." Talented Icelandic alto saxophonist Sigurdur Flosason and Danish Hammond organ player Kjeld Lauritsen have similar ...

Extended Analysis

Steven Wilson: Hand. Cannot. Erase.

by John Kelman
February 27, 2015

Sometimes you never can tell. When British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson released the old school progressive rock record The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) (Kscope, 2013), who knew that it would not only turn out to be his best-selling album since walking away from Porcupine Tree to begin an increasingly successful solo career with Insurgentes (Kscope, 2009), but become the most successful album in his entire career? That progressive rock has been making a resurgence ...

Interview

David Lyttle: Facing All The Music

by Ian Patterson
February 26, 2015

In times when independent musicians have to function as one-person business enterprises most musicians show more than one face. David Lyttle, drummer par excellence from Waringstown, Northern Ireland, wears more faces than most. Musician, songwriter, record label owner, producer, interviewer and talent scout--Lyttle has built a solid reputation in multiple fields in a relatively short span of time. Perhaps best known as a jazz drummer in the early years of his professional career, Lyttle has increasingly pushed himself ...

Album Review

Curtis Nowosad: Dialectics

Read "Dialectics" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 26, 2015

While it may be tempting to simply call Dialectics a straight-ahead session, Kevin Sun's liner notes set the record straight: According to Sun, “neo-hard bop" is a more accurate term for this music. What's most important to note, however, is that the music is pretty irresistible, regardless of what you call it. On the sophomore album from Curtis Nowosad, the drummer delivers an invigorating program of music with a killer quintet born out of the Winnipeg native's ...

Extended Analysis

Jakob Bro: Gefion

by Henning Bolte
February 26, 2015

Gefion, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro's ECM-debut as leader, is a fascinating reinvention of melodicism. His music leads listeners deep into the rich resonances emerging from brilliantly simple melodic motifs imbued with seductive atmospheres. Like Möbius strips his music's lines wind seemingly endlessly. Its evocative melodic nuclei very often reach the lower limits of dynamics, thereby opening up spaces in which the individual voices selflessly unfold in wave-like movements. It yields sounds of elegant ease, expressive depth, and solid perseverance.

Album Review

Tigran Hamasyan: Mockroot

Read "Mockroot" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
February 26, 2015

A rising star, pianist Tigran Hamasyan's releases have been fueled by his Armenian heritage and prodigious skills rooted in jazz and classic music training though not limited by either discipline. His debut on Nonesuch Mockroot continues to showcase his many interests which combine voice, electronica, folk and contemporary influences. Where 2014's stunning Shadow Theater (Sunnyside Records) featured an extended band, choral section, and rigorous production, Mockroot is no less captivating; Hamasyan in a trio setting with drummer ...

Album Review

The Ted Howe Jazz Orchestra: Pinnacle

by Jack Bowers
February 26, 2015

Big bands come at the listener from a variety of angles these days, some more aslant than others. On Pinnnacle, Los Angeles-based composer / arranger / pianist Ted Howe covers all the bases, navigating his thirteen-piece orchestra through styles ranging from swing to funk, Latin to tone poem, often with classical undertones. Howe gives credit for his eclectic approach to the late Herb Pomeroy, with whom he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and afterward by late-night ...