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

Dave Liebman: Ceremony

Read "Ceremony" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
December 25, 2014

This exciting new album returns to the haunting evocative beauty of the origins of jazz rhythms but has a contemporary feeling infused into it by very sophisticated players of contemporary jazz and Latin music who give the album a special shine. While jazz matured within an eclectic mix of American music ranging from marching bands to gospel to ragtime, vaudeville, and musical theater, it is firmly rooted in its rhythmic intensity in the rituals and ceremonies of Africa and the ...

Film Review

Whiplash, Snidely

by Steven Hahn
December 25, 2014

Jazz lovers, while always attuned to the possibility of their cherished art form entering the media mainstream, are also equally filled with dread when it occasionally does happen. Inevitably we end up consoling ourselves with a revived career (Dexter Gordon--Bird) or an outstanding performance (James Carter, et al.--Kansas City) in lieu of an actual believable plot or an authentic resemblance to any known jazz milieu. In Whiplash, we have both deficiencies illustrated. Seriously, are there any real life ...

Opinion

Joe Cocker 1944-2014

by C. Michael Bailey
December 25, 2014

For all of the boasting that the United States can do being the birthplace of every major popular music genre since 1920, the United States cannot claim the credit for the widespread popularization of this music. That honor goes to Europe, and more specifically, the United Kingdom, who more than any other country, forced the United States to fully appreciate her musical fruits. It was the institutional racism endemic in the United States that prevented artists like Ray Charles, Solomon ...

Year in Review

John Sharpe's Best Releases of 2014

by John Sharpe
December 25, 2014

Here are eleven new releases, reviewed at All About Jazz, which stood out from those I heard this year, in no special order. Nicole Mitchell The Secret Escapades of Velvet Anderson (Rogue Art Records) Sonic Projections must be flautist Nicole Mitchell's hardest blowing band. On their second outing she draws inspiration from another hard blowing source in Chicago legend Fred Anderson. who ran the storied Velvet Lounge tavern. That required negotiation, organization, graft ...

Rediscovery

Eberhard Weber: :rarum Selected Recordings

by John Kelman
December 25, 2014

Eberhard Weber :rarum Selected Recordings ECM Records 2004 Some days you want to hear a bit of everything, so today's Rediscovery? Eberhard Weber's :rarum Selected Recordings, a compilation of some of his work as a leader and a guest for the venerable ECM label, ranging from his own Colours group to collaborations with Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Ralph Towner, Norma Winstone and Jan Garbarek. That he can no longer play bass, the result ...

Album Review

Pat Mastelotto / Tobias Ralph: ToPaRaMa

Read "ToPaRaMa" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 25, 2014

The King Crimson connection is inherent on this program by two powerhouse drummers Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, David Sylvian) and Tobias Ralph (Defunkt, Adrian Belew Power Trio). After performing via a dual-drumming attack for the spinoff The Crimson ProjeKCt, they sensed profuse synergy and capitalized on this aura by venturing into the studio, here featuring contributions by longtime KC bassist, Chapman Stick denizen and fabled session artist, Tony Levin, keyboardist Roy Powell, Italian bass superhero Lorenzo Feliciati and other notables, ...

Year in Review

Phil Barnes' Favourite Albums of 2014

by Phil Barnes
December 24, 2014

The sheer volume of great records that I have managed to hear, and the knowledge that there are many more that I haven't, means that I make no pretence of presenting a list of the definitive albums of the year. Instead, this is a snapshot list of the ten records that I have enjoyed the most that were released in 2014 and which I have reviewed for All About Jazz. There are several that have just missed the ...

Rediscovery

Jan Garbarek Group: Wayfarer

by John Kelman
December 24, 2014

Jan Garbarek Group Wayfarer ECM Records 1983 Today's Rediscovery? Jan Garbarek Group's Wayfarer, the saxophonist's 1983 ECM recording with Bill Frisell, Eberhard Weber and Michael DiPasqua. I was fortunate enough to have seen this group in a small club while on a trip to Boston the same year, and I still remember it to this day. Most people seem to prefer the previous group record, Paths, Prints (ECM, 1982), with Jon Christensen in ...

Album Review

Christoph Irniger - Pilgrim: Italian Circus Story

Read "Italian Circus Story" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 24, 2014

Young Swiss saxophonist, composer Christoph Irniger is one to watch. His blossoming stature on the European jazz scene is partly due to his invigorating and meticulous compositional approach. With this second incarnation of the Pilgrim band, he continues his methodical and climactic buildups; chock full of emotive sentiment, often formulating an incandescent standpoint, toggling between and peaceful and harrowing textures. Here, guitarist Dave Gisler generates some high heat while adding a jazz fusion dimension to these works that also skirt ...

Film Review

Jeff Beck: Live in Tokyo

by Doug Collette
December 24, 2014

Jeff Beck Live in Tokyo Eagle Vision 2014 Even though it's tempting to close the eyes and become awash in the sound Jeff Back's making with his band during Live in Tokyo, it's well-nigh impossible not to take the eyes off the guitarist for the duration of this DVD. And it's not because the eccentric guitarist hogs the spotlight—he defers to guitarist Nicholas Meier more than once-for the intro of Jim Hendrix' “Little Wing" as ...