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

Tony Mastrull: The Tony Mastrull Project

Read "The Tony Mastrull Project" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 31, 2015

In the late 1960s, the story circulated in Las Vegas that Elvis Presley caught aural wind of an original composition written by a young arranger and which piece was used in the Vegas production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The King was so taken by the tune's emotional power that he offered to buy the chart outright to use as his opening fanfare in his own high-energy shows. Elvis was not successful in his pursuit. However, the incident ...

Live Review

Spandau Ballet SiriusXM Artist Confidential

by Christine Connallon
January 31, 2015

Spandau Ballet SiriusXM Studios Artist Confidential January 20, 2014 A small group of 40 and 50-something men and women huddled outside of the McGraw Hill building in New York City in a cluster, kidding around, eager for a glance or maybe an autograph, toting odds and ends of memorabilia under arms clad in substantial winter coats. Bundled against the winter wind that cut between the tall buildings on this side of town, these die-hard Spandau ...

Album Review

Jonas Kullhammar: Gentlemen

Read "Gentlemen" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 31, 2015

Swedish saxophonist Jonas Kullhammar continues to capture the late-fifties and early-sixties Blue Note sound. That magic golden age of jazz, when legends roamed roamed the earth, and recorded their music at Rudy Van Gelder's studio. His music conjures names like Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane. The twelve compositions recorded here are the motion picture soundtrack for Gentlemen, an adaptation of Klas Östergren's novel, directed by Mikael Marcimain. The film features the club scenes of 1960s and ...

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann/Basement Research: Hat And Shoes

Read "Hat And Shoes" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 31, 2015

Without a doubt, German multi-woodwind ace Gebhard Ullmann is one of the busiest artists within the global jazz network. Hat & Shoes celebrates his Basement Research band's 20th anniversary and the artist's 50th CD as a co-leader and leader, including his other ensembles --Conference Call and the Clarinet Trio. The all-star quintet ups the ante via its intensely wrought force-field and crafty deportment, compiled with spirited group evolvements. The three-man horn section's deterministic mode of operations, offer rousing ...

Interview

Warren Haynes: The Timeline of Sco-Mule and Beyond

by Doug Collette
January 30, 2015

By all accounts, Warren Haynes is known to be an upbeat forward-thinking individual. In this recent conversation however, he is borderline ebullient. And why not? Last October he aided immeasurably in bringing the forty-five year career of the Allman Brothers Band to a spectacular close. By the time of that historic appearance at New York's Beacon Theatre, the band Haynes founded with drummer Matt Abts and the late bassist Allen Woody, Gov't Mule, had begun the celebration of its twentieth ...

Interview

Golson and Trane Dissed in Philly (circa 1944)

by Bob Jacobson
January 30, 2015

This article was originally published at All About Jazz in 1999. John Coltrane and Benny Golson stand among the major figures of jazz in the second half of the twentieth century, Coltrane primarily as a player and Golson primarily as a composer. But in 1944 Philadelphia they were teenagers just getting their feet wet, learning tunes and jamming in the Golson living room (at this time Coltrane played alto in the style of Johnny Hodges). Benny was 15, ...

Album Review

Jeff Hamilton Trio: Great American Songs Through the Years

Read "Great American Songs Through the Years" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 30, 2015

Jeff Hamilton, by any measure one of the more tasteful and talented jazz drummers on the scene, has kept his working trio (Tamir Hendelman, piano; Christoph Luty, bass) together for more than a decade. There's a good reason for that: Hendelman and Luty are kindred souls, and as accomplished in their own way as Hamilton is in his. Collectively, they form an inspired and seamless unit that makes every note and phrase seem deceptively credible and polished, as is the ...

Album Review

Tomasz Stanko: Leosia

by Budd Kopman
January 30, 2015

Recorded in 1996 and released in 1997, Leosia is not only one of the high points of trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's forty-year career, but one of the absolute gems in the ECM catalogue, twenty years removed from his first ECM recording, Balladyna. The album itself is one of those things that just seems perfect from start to finish. “Morning Heavy Song," which first appeared on Bosonossa and Other Ballads, opens the set and sets the tone. From pianist Bobo ...

Rediscovery

Lyle Mays: Lyle Mays

by John Kelman
January 30, 2015

Lyle MaysLyle MaysGeffen Records1986 Today's Rediscovery falls under the category of “where is he now?" I first heard of keyboardist Lyle Mays in 1977, when Gary Burton's quartet (with guest Eberhard Weber), played at the Glebe Collegiate High School auditorium in my home town of Ottawa, Canada. After the show, speaking to the other members of the group--electric bassist Steve Swallow, drummer Dan Gottlieb and a then just starting out Pat Metheny--the guitarist told me ...

Album Review

Juan Pablo Carletti/Tony Malaby/Christopher Hoffman: Niño/Brujo

Read "Niño/Brujo" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 30, 2015

A funny thing happened on the way to a free jazz trio session. What's funny is that leader Juan Pablo Carletti brought seven unique compositions for his trio to perform. The Argentinian-born, New York-based drummer recruited tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby and cellist Christopher Hoffman for this recording. An inconspicuous drummer-led session. Carletti's last decade in New York has found him in ensembles led by Malaby, Rob Brown, Andrew Lamb, and cellist Daniel Levin (with whom he will release ...