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.

Extended Analysis

All of You: The Last Tour 1960

by C. Michael Bailey
January 1, 2015

The problem with Miles Davis' 1960 European Tours has been one of programming. First to know is that Davis toured Europe twice in 1960: the first time with John Coltrane, March 21st to April 109th, and then with Sonny Stitt from September 27th to October 13th. The second thing to know is not every performance of the tours was recorded. What “complete" means is “all that's available. Like any number of Rolling Stones bootlegged performances, Davis' European recordings have been ...

Album Review

Bud Powell: Bouncing With Bud

Read "Bouncing With Bud" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
January 1, 2015

This album has cropped up in various guises over the years. Most recently it was part of Storyville's In Copenhagen series." It's back, as part of the same label's Remastered Vinyl collection. Powell was one of the most talented yet tragic artists in jazz history, a giant of the bebop era who translated Charlie Parker's harmonic ideas onto the piano, but whose life was blighted by mental illness, exacerbated by alcohol and drug use. ...

Album Review

Philip Glass: Low Symphony

Read "Low Symphony" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
January 1, 2015

Back in 1977 singer David Bowie released two groundbreaking records, Low (EMI, 1977) and Heroes, (EMI, 1977) which together with Lodger constitute (EMI, 1979) a famous triptych of records or the iconic Berlin Trilogy. It was during this period that he created some of the critically most acclaimed and forward looking music (but commercially less successful) of his entire career. Inspired and excited by the new electronic music coming from Germany (like Neu, Kraftwerk, CAN, Cluster to name but a ...

Rediscovery

Michael Brecker: Now You See It...(Now You Don't)

by John Kelman
January 1, 2015

Michael Brecker Now You See It...(Now You Don't)MCA1990 Today's Rediscovery is Now You See It...(Now You Don't), by saxophone giant Michael Brecker. After the one-two punch of his first two recordings as a leader (excluding his 1982 collaboration with Claus Ogerman, Cityscape)-- Michael Brecker (Impulse!, 1987) and Don't Try This At Home (Impulse!, 1988), both featuring high profile guests including Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette and Herbie Hancock--Now You See It...(Now You ...

Album Review

David Gibson: Boom!

by Dan Bilawsky
December 31, 2014

Trombonist David Gibson's Boom!--his sixth leader date, and third release on the Posi-Tone imprint--is something of a fresh start. His two previous releases--A Little Somethin' (Posi-Tone, 2009) and End Of The Tunnel (Posi-Tone, 2011)--were cut from the same cloth, as each largely focused on funk, soul jazz, and swing; both albums also featured the same quartet--Gibson on trombone, Julius Tolentino on alto saxophone, labelmate Jared Gold on organ, and Quincy Davis on drums. Now, Gibson returns with a new group--a ...

Album Review

Chamber 3: Grassroots

Read "Grassroots" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 31, 2014

Do different geographies create different sounds? New York-hard and brassy, in your face and boppish; the Nordic countries--cool and reflective, spacious and dreamy; the American Midwest, Chicago and Detroit--soulful and hip with a hard urban edge. This is, of course, a simplification, with exceptions flying all over the place, but distinct similarities in sounds can be found in various locales, owed probably more to a certain level of local and/or stablemate nepotism than the local culture or particular cityscapes or ...

Album Review

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Oliv & Familie

Read "Oliv & Familie" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
December 31, 2014

Issued twenty years after his death, aged just fifty-four, Oliv & Familie serves as a fitting reminder of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble's charismatic and controversial drummer and leader, John Stevens. Not only does this release return to circulation the two “Oliv" tracks that constituted the SME's eponymous third album, originally issued on vinyl by Giorgio Gomelsky's Marmalade label in 1969, it also adds the two previously unissued “Familie" tracks which shed much light on the ensemble's evolution and development. Most ...

What is Jazz?

Jazz Meets Death

by Matt Lavelle
December 31, 2014

There once was a great music. It was born in America and branded with the name Jazz. The music was later re-named madam Zzaj, by one of her lovers, the Duke. She grudgingly accepted the moniker of Jazz over the years. It was how she was bought and sold after all. Jazz had several intimate relationships over the years. Each one of these caused her to experience tremendous spiritual and emotional transformation. There was the great Armstrong, who raised her ...

Profile

Herbie Hancock: A Life Of Possibilities

by Chuck Schultz
December 31, 2014

Herbie Hancock is a world treasure. The following are a review of his memoir Possibilities and an interview. The Book Review During more than a half-century in the public eye, Herbie Hancock has been acclaimed as a jazz pianist and composer and an explorer of new musical forms. He rose to fame in the 1960s as a member of trumpeter Miles Davis's quintet, then became a top-selling headliner with his jazz-fusion group Headhunters in the 1970s ...

Rediscovery

Kevin Bruce Harris: Folk Songs - Folk Tales

by John Kelman
December 31, 2014

Kevin Bruce Harris Folk Songs--Folk Tales Enja Records 1994 Today's Rediscovery is both a long lost and sadly overlooked gem of a record: electric bassist Kevin Bruce Harris' Folk Songs--Folk Tales. Harris first emerged as part of the M-Base collective that began with saxophonist Steve Coleman and his Five Elements group, with whom the bassist played and recorded from 1986 to 1988. Early credentials for Harris also included stints with Cassandra Wilson and ...