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.

Rediscovery

Masqualero: Masqualero

by John Kelman
January 8, 2015

MasqualeroMasqualeroOdin1983 Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, there are still those who think that Norwegian musicians can't play “real jazz" (whatever that is), and that what they do play is something consistently (and erroneously) categorized as “Nordic Cool." Submitted for your approval is today's Rediscovery: the self-titled debut from Masqualero, a group that would retrospectively become known as a Norwegian supergroup and one that demonstrates there's plenty of “real jazz" going on in this ...

Album Review

Chris Potter Underground Orchestra: Imaginary Cities

Read "Imaginary Cities" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 8, 2015

In the twenty year span since his debut as a leader on Presenting Chris Potter (Criss Cross, 1994), the Chicago born/South Carolina raised artist has been among the most prolific and in-demand reed players in jazz. Having performed and/or recorded with a wide range of artists from guitarist Pat Metheny to pop legends Steely Dan, Potter is most recognized for his numerous recordings with bassist Dave Holland and several outings with drummer Paul Motian. Beginning with Holland's highly-regarded quintet recording ...

Album Review

Jon Hassell: Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics

Read "Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
January 8, 2015

Some records can be easily identified and defined by the time and the place of their creation, but Jon Hassell's records appear to have a different and opposite effect. His record Possible Musics doesn't give the impression of coming from a certain place, but rather from many places. And this collage approach where he mixed and melded different elements and sounds, belonging to different continents and traditions, into a pan-ethnic sound, with the technology of the first world was named ...

Live From New York

Colonic Youth, Andy Farber, Tal Ronen & Paquito D'Rivera

by Martin Longley
January 7, 2015

Colonic Youth Trans-Pecos December 22, 2014 In the wintry wasteland, the new-ish Trans-Pecos venue did not seem to boast a particularly peachy set-up. It may or may not still be operated by Todd P, normally known as a promoter of slightly swerved rock outfits, and there were tales of this old Silent Barn-owned hole having some kind of bar. Now, there seems to be no licence for booze, and no cash for heating in ...

Album Review

Peter Apfelbaum's Sparkler: I Colored It In For You

Read "I Colored It In For You" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 7, 2015

I Colored It In For You is such a tease. Broad-minded multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum uses this brief EP--the two-part title track and a remix from M.O.D. co-founder Bill Laswell are it--to introduces a sui generis small group known as Sparkler. Apfelbaum, covering vocals, keys, saxophones, and percussion, teams up with rising star trombonist/vocalist Natalie Cressman, vocalist/saxophone Jill Ryan, grooving guitarist Will Bernard, Barney McAll, playing homemade instruments here, and a pair of drummers--Willard Dyson and Aaron Johnston. ...

Album Review

Vivian Buczek: Curiosity

Read "Curiosity" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 7, 2015

Vivian Buczek is blessed with a glorious voice--warm, emotional, engaging--and a talent for sophisticated interpretations of established but not over-worked songs. Curiosity, the Swedish singer's fifth album, places her in the company of a piano trio led by the excellent pianist and arranger Martin Sjöstedt. It's company she clearly relishes and in which she shines brightly.Buczek has put together a group of songs that draw on the American Songbook ("How Deep Is The Ocean," “For All We Know"), ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Lee Morgan Indeed! – Blue Note 1538

by Marc Davis
January 7, 2015

The first time Lee Morgan entered a recording studio, he was just 18 years old and he was leading his own band. More impressive, that band included soon-to-be-legendary pianist Horace Silver and drummer Philly Joe Jones. This is the CD of that 1956 recording session. While the players were great, the music is merely ordinary--which isn't too surprising given the tender age of the leader. Indeed! is standard Blue Note hard bop by the guys who would, in ...

Album Review

Xiomara Laugart: Tears And Rumba

Read "Tears And Rumba" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
January 7, 2015

Despite over fifty years of political turmoil leading to a ludicrous embargo, the music of Cuba has thrived and is as vibrant as ever. Though many premier Cuban artists have gone into cultural exile in America and abroad, they continue to seek inspiration from and expand upon the music of their homeland, continually performing it around the globe. Vocalist Xiomara Laugart is a prime example of this diaspora, and on Tears and Rumba, she revisits the music of Cuba's romantic ...

Profile

Jakob Bro: A Happy Unintended Consequence with Kenny Wheeler

by Henning Bolte
January 7, 2015

A while ago a group of Danish musicians recorded an album entitled “Unintended Consequences." It was an enterprise to play music in a non-intentional way which demanded dealing with the paradox of intending something unintended. Sometimes however unintended consequences can “just happen" due to circumstances. That is what Danish guitarist Jakob Bro experienced a time ago. It had a significant impact on how his music developed and got shape on three subsequent albums. For a recording in 2008 ...

Rediscovery

Gilgamesh: Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into

by John Kelman
January 7, 2015

Gilgamesh Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into Charly 1978 Today's Rediscovery pays tribute to a musician who has been dead for over 30 years but whose brief body of work remains a seminal part of the British Canterbury scene that included groups like Soft Machine, Caravan and Hatfield and The North (see the Rediscovery column on Hatfield's superb second and final studio recording, 1975's The Rotter's Club). Keyboardist Alan Gowan may have ...