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

Lisa Parrott: Round Tripper

Read "Round Tripper" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 16, 2015

In the vernacular, to “parrot" means to imitate or copy. In spite of her point-blank name, Lisa Parrott goes out of her way not to do that, whether on alto or baritone sax. Parrott's alto is lustrous and ripened, summoning at times the halcyon days of the Swing Era, while her baritone is barbed and heavy, evoking an occasional memory of the late Cecil Payne--but always without mimicry. Would that the musical perspective underlying Parrott's latest recording, Round Tripper, were ...

Rediscovery

Material: Hallucination Engine

by John Kelman
February 16, 2015

Material Hallucination EngineAxiom1994 Some albums come along without any real intention other than to be what the are yet, without any fanfare, completely change the possible ways music can be perceived, felt and created by those lucky enough to hear them. Today's Rediscovery is one such album, a record that wasn't just ahead of its time when it was released in 1994; it seems still ahead of its time today, more than twenty years later. ...

Album Review

Kenny Wheeler: Songs for Quintet

Read "Songs for Quintet" reviewed by Robert Bush

by Robert Bush
February 16, 2015

Recorded less than a year before his death, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler's swan song is a document that sings with smoldering beauty and palpable heartache--all captured in the typically sublime detail that has become the trademark of the ECM label. Wheeler concentrates on flugelhorn throughout, and his long-time association with saxophonist Stan Sulzmann pays big dividends, as the horns orbit each other on the opening “Seventy-Six," where the leader's burnished, centered tone remains one of the most ...

Album Review

John Law's New Congregation: These Skies In Which We Rust

Read "These Skies In Which We Rust" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 16, 2015

One of the things that is characteristic about British pianist John Law is that he does not stand still. He keeps on studying music and constantly adds new sounds and expressions to his vocabulary. So far, his career has included many highlights, among them, a series of solo piano albums influenced by plainchant and his tetralogy The Art of Sound Vol. 1-4 (33 Records, 2007-2009). The double-CD These Skies In Which We Rust is ...

Album Review

Kenny Wheeler: Songs for Quintet

Read "Songs for Quintet" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 16, 2015

Songs for Quintet marks celebrated Kenny Wheeler's final recording. He passed away on Sept 18, 2014. And while it's quite apparent that a lengthy illness zapped some of the trumpeter/flugelhornist's strength, his hallmark musical persona remained intact. Wheeler's yearning notes, distinctive phrasings and enchanting lyricism are resident throughout this production. In the '70s, Wheeler was a catalyst that helped define ECM Records new wave, forward-looking vision and audio aesthetic, complemented by the label's fine art- based album covers. ...

Live Review

Atomic at Nighttown

by Matt Marshall
February 15, 2015

Atomic Nighttown Cleveland Heights, OH February 10, 2015 Fresh in the glow of its 50th anniversary celebration, kicked off by a party a few nights earlier and extending through the end of the month, Nighttown put its eclecticism fully on display February 10, presenting powerful Scandinavian free-jazz group Atomic. The Nighttown faithful are, by and large, a straight-ahead crowd (two Manhattan Transfer shows set for Friday, February 13, sold out well in advance, for example), ...

Album Review

Equilibrium: Liquid Light

Read "Liquid Light" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 15, 2015

This European trio's third release is abetted by Songlines Recordings' pristine audio processes, which is a vital aspect since many of these tracks are quietly penetrating in scope and designed with ethereal atmospherics. The artists' specialty may lie within an artsy, avant-garde schema via a channel of electro-acoustic tone poems, enamored by Sissel Vera Pettersen's luminous and diffused wordless chants. Even though these largely temperate pieces are lithely woven amid the bumps, spikes, valleys, and a hint of new age ...

Extended Analysis

Merlin Atmos (Deluxe Edition)

by John Kelman
February 15, 2015

For a group that has released only three studio albums since reforming in 2005 after a quarter-century hiatus--longer when considering the “classic" lineup with singer/pianist/guitarist Peter Hammill, keyboardist Hugh Banton and drummer Guy Evans was last heard on World Record (Charisma, 1976), and forgetting about 2012's atypical ALT (Esoteric), an album of improvisation-driven instrumentals--Van der Graaf Generator sure has released a lot of live albums in the past few years. Since the spectacular Real Time (Fie!, 2007)--which documented ...

Album Review

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls

Read "Bird Calls" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
February 15, 2015

On Bird Calls, alto saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa takes on the music of Charlie Parker in a personal and profound way, accompanied by his whip-smart, uber-hip and youthful backing band. Let's face it, folks; this is the sort of thing a jazz fan's daydreams are made of. The result doesn't disappoint; Bird Calls is a masterpiece, and will certainly grace many a critic's year end “Top 10" list. It's evident that Mahanthappa thought this album through from ...

Album Review

John O'Gallagher: The Honeycomb

Read "The Honeycomb" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 15, 2015

What if jazz was rock-and-roll? Not the corporate-halftime show-American Idol rock, but the dangerous music your parents (maybe grandparents) were afraid of. Remember, there was a time when jazz was threatening. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie startled listeners with their revolutionary 'bebop,' before Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler caused fist fights and mini-riots. Jazz has since been tamed and put on display in Lincoln Center, safe for listeners to consume unscathed. Be warned, there still are some wild ...