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.

Interview

Working the Rhythm Section: Tom Lawton, Lee Smith, and Dan Monaghan

by Victor L. Schermer
January 26, 2015

As Duke Ellington's standard goes, “It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that Swing." The rhythm section (piano, bass, drums, with guitar and percussion sometimes added) is the core of the typical jazz ensemble. They set the frame for the leader, singer, and soloists and contribute their own solos as well. Even though they work primarily in the background, they can make or break the performance of the horn players or singer. In order to call ...

Book Review

Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well by Rick Mitchell

by C. Michael Bailey
January 26, 2015

Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well Rick Mitchell 339 Pages ASIN: #B00N2331GC Dharma Moon 2014 Much of jazz analysis and reportage is history; the exposition and re-exposition of old forms and older artists. Precious few books written about jazz today have contemporary artists or movements as their subject. Rick Mitchell's Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well happily flies in the face of the old with an eye on ...

Album Review

Karen Power: Is it raining while you listen

Read "Is it raining while you listen" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
January 26, 2015

Is it raining while you listen is the first CD release by the award-winning Irish composer Karen Power. It consists of eight compositions dating back to 2007, including one stereo tape-only piece, “Forever ricefields," created specially for the CD release, based on field recordings made in southern Laos. Other tracks combine tape with live musicians, recorded in Ireland or at events around the world. Judging by the locations--including Japan, Germany, Portugal--it is clear that Power is much in demand and ...

Album Review

Joe Harriott-Amancio D’Silva Quartet: Hum Dono

Read "Hum Dono" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
January 26, 2015

All credit to Dutton Vocalion for making Hum Dono available again. It's open to question, of course, whether the record should be seen as a Harriott date at all. The Goan guitarist, Amancio D'Silva, is certainly more than a junior partner here and provides five of the record's six tunes, as well as shaping its whole vibe. The only track credited to Harriott is the short improvised duet with drummer Bryan Spring, “Sping Low, Sweet Harriott." Perhaps Hum Dono is ...

Album Review

Francesco Marcocci: FOLKLORiCO

Read "FOLKLORiCO" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
January 26, 2015

If the Mediterranean can be arguably construed as the cradle of civilization, then Italy certainly has a favorable geographical position in this debate, as it protrudes into the middle of the sea. Francesco Marcocci learned the bass in his hometown of Pisa, Italy, and in the process absorbed the rich musical legacies prevalent in the region. His release FOLKORiCO, is an accumulation of influences as vast as the waters which surrounds his homeland and spreads to the ancient beyond.

Album Review

Blood Sweat & Tears: Child Is Father To The Man

Read "Child Is Father To The Man" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 26, 2015

Back in the 1960s, keyboardist, vocalist Al Kooper played a prominent role as a coordinator and innovator in the flourishing blues, pop and rock idioms. He played the Hammond organ part on Bob Dylan's “ perennial classic “Like a Rolling Stone," and recorded with wunderkind guitarist Mike Bloomfield, leading to the highly revered Super Session (Columbia, 1968) album also featuring guitarist Stephen Stills, and was a member of the Blues Project. He's also a fabled session artist and scored soundtracks ...

Book Excerpts

John Coltrane: A Deeper Look Into His Iconic Album A Love Supreme

by K. Shackelford
January 25, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 This year marks the 50th anniversary of John Coltrane's album, A Love Supreme. Here is a critical engagement of Coltrane's 4th movement entitled “Psalm" by UC-Berkeley professor and author Scott Saul. The excerpt is taken from his award winning book entitled Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties. “Psalm" extends the recitative texture of the opening moments of “Liberia" over its entirety. For seven minutes, Coltrane ...

Album Review

Tom Green Septet: Skyline

Read "Skyline" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 25, 2015

Skyline is the debut release from the Tom Green Septet, a young band from the UK led by trombonist and composer Tom Green. A graduate of the Royal Academy Of Music and winner of the 2013 Dankworth Prize for jazz composition, Green wrote all of the tunes on Skyline with the exception of Hoagy Carmichael's “Skylark." The eight tunes range from the upbeat “DIY," influenced by New Orleans second lines, to the quickfire, skittish “Sticks And Stones" and ...

Album Review

Tom Richeson: Jazz Tracks

Read "Jazz Tracks" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 25, 2015

There is plenty of jazz talent in my home city of Little Rock, Arkansas. A mainstay artist here is trumpeter/composer Tom Richeson. He is an Associate Professor of Music and Jazz Studies Coordinator at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Richeson has performed with other hometown artists like Pharoah Sanders, Stan Samole, Art Porter Sr., Art Porter, Jr., Charles Thomas, Gene Rush and on tours with Frank Sinatra, The Jacksons, Diana Ross, Lou Rawls, and The O'Jays. He's a ...

Album Review

Joachim Badenhorst: Forest // Mori

Read "Forest // Mori" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 25, 2015

Clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst probably doesn't know who Ray Johnson is, or was. He died 20 years ago. Johnson, the father of Mail Art, created a network of artists and patrons beginning in the1960s through his correspondences. He called them 'correspondances.' His mailings created a worldwide democratic system for art. Mail Art peaked pre-internet, in the 1980s and early 90s, with thousands of participants creating artwork, zines, and music. Musicians such as the Japanese noise artist Merzbow and theWashington, ...