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

Ensemble Super Moderne: Ensemble Super Moderne

Read "Ensemble Super Moderne" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 21, 2015

Portugal has become a state-of-the-art hotbed for creative jazz musicians and improvisers, duly represented by driving forces such as the Clean Feed record label. And Ensemble Super Moderne is another exciting Portuguese unit that skirts the outside realm by surging into ultra-progressive modern jazz persuasions. Hence, this self-titled album, housed in an oversized 45RPM sized CD jacket, offers a bountiful aural feast for jazz enthusiasts who demand something new and exciting to enter their listening space. These folks ...

Album Review

Sam Newsome: The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation

Read "The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 21, 2015

Sam Newsome's The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation (subtitled “Art of the Soprano, Vol. 2") is--despite the chronology--the fourth solo outing by the alto/tenor-turned-soprano saxophonist. The self-produced Monk Abstractions (2007) and Blue Soliloquy (2009) were highly regarded entries that preceded The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1 (2012). The latter album saw Newsome using layering techniques that allowed him to add a percussion element effectively derived from tapping keys. To suit the objectives of The ...

Album Review

Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks Volume 12

Read "Dick's Picks Volume 12" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
February 21, 2015

Comprised of recordings in Providence RI and Boston MA from June of 1974, fairly early on in the Grateful Dead's use of their now legendary “Wall of Sound," Dick's Picks Vol. 12 documents a point in the iconic band's evolution where the pendulum of improvisation was swinging back toward more open-ended playing after the more structured approach they took at the turn of the decade, documented in the studio recordings of Workingman's Dead (Warner Bros., 1970) and American Beauty (Warner ...

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Live Review

Pamela Rose: Tribute To Etta James at The California Jazz Conservatory

by Walter Atkins
February 21, 2015

Pamela Rose Tribute To Etta James California Jazz Conservatory Berkeley CA February 6, 2015 Pamela Rose's tribute to Etta James was a stirring live concert/talk/multimedia celebration of the life and career of the legendary soul, R&B, rock, gospel, and jazz artist. The set was interspersed with discussions of James' life experiences, house sing-a longs, and video clips that established context and acted as preludes to the next track. The soulful performance ...

Live Review

Foreigner at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
February 21, 2015

FForeigner NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY February 12, 2015 Foreigner was formed in 1976 by guitarist Mick Jones, multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, a former founding member of King Crimson, and vocalist Lou Gramm. Legend has it that Jones gave the band its name because he, McDonald and drummer Dennis Elliott were English, while Gramm, Al Greenwood (keyboards) and bassist Ed Gagliardi were from the States. The story goes that no matter what ...

Extended Analysis

Switzerland 1974

by John Kelman
February 21, 2015

Thank goodness for Cuneiform Records. Beyond releasing cutting edge new music from now-longstanding groups like The Claudia Quintet and relative newcomers like Norway's Pixel, the intrepid American label continues to unearth, restore and release wonderful archival finds like S.O.S.' Looking for the Next One (2013), and the equally impressive Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop-April '69 (2011), from one of the group's reed players, John Surman. Perhaps its most important work on the archival front has, however, been in sourcing live music ...

Talking 2 Musicians

Matthias Bublath

by Alan Bryson
February 20, 2015

Matthias Bublath is a composer, pianist, organist, and keyboardist based in Munich, Germany. After graduating from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he lived in New York City for several years honing his skills before returning to his native Munich in 2009. During those years in New York he forged musical bonds which have continued to serve him well. He still works closely with vibraphonist Tim Collins, also based now in Munich, and he has managed to continue recording ...

Album Review

H2 Big Band: It Could Happen

Read "It Could Happen" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 20, 2015

As Shakespeare wrote, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Who would dare argue with that? The point is that It Could Happen,the second recording by the H2 Big Band, is performed by a world-class ensemble. It's just not the H2 Big Band, which essentially remained home in Colorado save for its co-leaders, trumpeter Al Hood and pianist Dave Hanson. This is in fact a group of Los Angeles-based studio musicians and their ...

Live Review

Live From Old York: Patsy Reid, Clare Hammond & Ruth Keggin

by Martin Longley
February 20, 2015

The Patsy Reid Band The Black Swan February 12, 2015 Scottish fiddler Patsy Reid forged her reputation as a co-founder of Breabach, but took her leave from this thriving folk combo in 2011. Now, she's leading her own new-ish small outfit, deliberately treading the familiar furrow of the traditional folk circuit, keeping it intimate for this well-filled upstairs gig at The Black Swan. Even though this weekly club will regularly play host to ...

Album Review

Josh Nelson: Exploring Mars

Read "Exploring Mars" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 20, 2015

Mars, the forth planet from the sun--that blood red star arcing across the sky--has been investigated by many in the arts. Before NASA landed four rovers on the red planet's surface, science fiction writers took up the task of exploring our planetary neighbor: Edgar Rice Burroughs with his fantastic Barsoom series, beginning with Princess of Mars (1917), Ray Bradbury with the poetic Martian Chronicles (1950), and Kim Stanley Robinson with his superb, adventurous and scientifically fact-based Red Mars (1993 are ...