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

Randy Ingram: Sky/Lift

by Budd Kopman
January 7, 2015

Pianist Randy Ingram is an unabashed romantic and through Sky/Lift communicates all of the optimism, love of life and the sheer joy of making music for everyone to experience. Ingram does not hide his roots in the music of Bill Evans, but what he takes from the past master is more of an aesthetic and a musical lushness than, say, particular chord voicings, even in the Evans tune “Time Remembered." His piano playing virtually sings the ...

Catching Up With

John Daversa: Kaleidoscope Eyes

by Paul Naser
January 6, 2015

Internationally renowned performer, composer, arranger, band leader, teacher; John Daversa's talents include these among many others. His in demand skills as a world-class trumpet player have led him to perform on such prestigious stages as the Monterey Jazz, Montreal Jazz and Montreux Festivals, on such well known American programs as Late Nite with David Letterman and The Oprah Winfrey Show and with incredible performers such as Fiona Apple, Michael Buble, Dori Caymmi and The Yellowjackets. In addition to this impressive ...

Album Review

Kendall Moore: Focus

by Hrayr Attarian
January 6, 2015

Trombonist and composer Kendall Moore's debut, Focus, exhibits remarkable maturity and an exquisite harmonic sense. The six originals are intricately constructed and orchestrated in intriguing patterns. Each one is imbued with an individualized mood and varying degrees of dramatic tension. The cinematic “Fellowship" opens with pianist Angelo Versace's sparse haunting keystrokes. The ensemble's languid, long lines unfurl with nocturnesque flair ushering in bassist Gary Thomas' lithe, lyrical solo. The stimulating tightly interwoven reverberations give way to Moore's erudite, ...

Album Review

Brad Goode: Montezuma

Read "Montezuma" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 6, 2015

It's not every trumpeter that affectionately garners the appellation, “Little Red Rodney," as Chicago-born and now Boulder, Colorado-located artist, Brad Goode once did. And, it's not only because of what grows from under his cap and on his chin. Goode, who has performed with the “Red Arrow" and many other jazz and pop greats as both a lead and jazz player, is world-renown as an incredibly talented and multi-dimensional trumpeter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, “jazz ambassador" and educator. With ...

Rediscovery

Ian Carr: Belladonna

by John Kelman
January 6, 2015

Ian Carr Belladonna Vertigo 1972 Today's Rediscovery? British trumpeter Ian Carr's Belladonna, a gem of an album that's also the coming out party for soon-to-be-legendary guitarist Allan Holdsworth. A album I'd not heard in the decade since I wrote the retrospective Ian Carr And Nucleus: '70s British Jazz Rock Progenitors for All About Jazz in the fall of 2004, listening to it again after all these years brought back all the reasons why ...

Album Review

Phil Markowitz/Zach Brock: Perpetuity

Read "Perpetuity" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 6, 2015

The debut collaboration between veteran pianist Phil Markowitz and rising star violinist Zach Brock focuses on a shared love of questioning and questing through sound(s). Each man brings five originals to the table for this project, and most of them serve to highlight their common interest(s) in angular exploration, dovetailing designs, and scenarios that encourage searching. Markowitz brings a wealth of experience to the table, having worked with everybody from trumpeter Chet Baker to guitarist Al Di ...

Extended Analysis

Chris Potter Underground Orchestra: Imaginary Cities

by John Kelman
January 6, 2015

While he is, perhaps, best-known as a reed and woodwind multi-instrumentalist of tremendous power and versatility--the torch-bearer and logical successor, even, to the late, great Michael Brecker--Chris Potter has also demonstrated remarkable breadth as a bandleader and composer. It's hard to imagine that it's been only 23 years since the 44 year-old first came onto the scene with Red Rodney and began a career as a leader soon after with Presenting Chris Potter (Criss Cross, 1994)--the first of what is, ...

Album Review

Randy Brecker with the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble: Dearborn Station

Read "Dearborn Station" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 6, 2015

Dearborn Station, the tenth album recorded by the superb DePaul University Jazz Ensemble at Joe Segal's legendary Jazz Showcase (in Chicago's historic Dearborn Station, hence the title), is another bright and rhythmic tour de force for director / trumpeter Bob Lark's intrepid undergrads and their special guest, trumpeter Randy Brecker, whose perceptive solos enhance the first half-dozen of the album's nine tracks. On the last of the six, Lark and Brecker join forces to fan the flames on Tom Matta's ...

Live Review

Pat Metheny Unity Group at the Hanover Theatre

by Timothy J. O'Keefe
January 6, 2015

Pat Metheny Unity GroupHanover Theatre Worcester, MA November 16, 2014 “As far as explaining [my music] to other people, I don't really worry too much about that," Pat Metheny reflected, perhaps befittingly for an artist who constantly seems to churn out new sounds while nestling himself at the forefront of jazz's musical directions. “I somehow have always felt comfortable knowing that the music speaks for itself, and it may be that the largest part ...

Year in Review

2014: The Year in Jazz

by Ken Franckling
January 5, 2015

The year 2014 turned out to be a year noteworthy for its numbers. Newport turned 60, Blue Note turned 75, International Jazz Day's third edition featured 900 events in more than 190 countries. The jazz world lost seven of its NEA Jazz Masters, and New Orleans trumpeter Lionel Ferbos died at 103. Sad but not unexpected, the jazz community again said goodbye to lots of players and industry figures throughout the year. Newport at 60 The ...