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

BvR Flamenco Big Band: Jaleo Holandes

Read "Jaleo Holandes" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 21, 2014

How did a jazz musician based in The Netherlands become so immersed in flamenco, a form of folk music and dance from Spain's Andalusia region? The answer becomes self-evident when one reads in Bernard van Rossum's bio that he was born and raised in Spain by an English mother and Dutch father. Flamenco has thus been an integral part of van Rossum's musical awareness since he was old enough to appreciate what music is, a fact that becomes readily apparent ...

Jazzin' Around Europe

Festival Jazz International Promotes Rotterdam Renaissance

by Phillip Woolever
December 21, 2014

After an excellent full day program centered by national talent at Rotterdam's Festival Jazz International, two strong impressions rang very clear. The first was that considering current performers, experimentation and ongoing tradition, the Netherlands is obviously one of the per capita international leaders regarding the size and scope of a national jazz scene. Also, it was apparent that Rotterdam is consistently growing out of Amsterdam's huge shadow as a global tourist destination in its own right, ...

Catching Up With

Mark Turner and Avishai Cohen: Harmony Without Chords

by Marta Ramon
December 21, 2014

Saxophonist Mark Turner and trumpet player Avishai Cohen have been playing together since 2010. Both are accomplished jazzmen and representatives of the avant-garde scene. They shared a stage as part of the San Francisco Jazz Collective and also in Turner's quartet, including bassist Joe Martin and Marcus Gilmore on drums. After thirteen years, Turner finally launched an album as a leader, Lathe of Heaven (ECM, 2014). The pair visited Valencia, Spain and took time to speak with All ...

Album Review

Tarbaby: Fanon

by John Sharpe
December 21, 2014

For their fourth album, the collective trio Tarbaby maintain their simultaneously tradition orientated but forward looking aesthetic. At the heart remains the piano of Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits. But from the start they have been open to change. As a consequence only one of their releases features the three principals alone. And Fanon continues that pattern with the inclusion of special guests saxophonist Oliver Lake, (who has a history of collaboration with the band) and ...

Album Review

Frank Lowe: Out Loud

Read "Out Loud" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 20, 2014

The year separating Thanksgivings of 2013 and 2014 has abounded in historic reissues and discoveries. There are several from idiosyncratic bandleader Sun Ra in addition to ones from saxophonists John Coltrane, Clifford Jordan and Charles Lloyd. And of course there are such gems as the third volume of trumpeter Miles Davis' Fillmore bootlegs and clarinetist/saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre's New York Concerts on Elemental Music. Among such wealth it would be easy to overlook the limited edition, vinyl only release ...

Album Review

Wooley - Rempis - Niggenkemper - Corsano: From Wolves To Whales

Read "From Wolves To Whales" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 20, 2014

Heavy-duty improvisers, saxophonist Dave Rempis and trumpeter Nate Wooley comprise a union of Chicago and New York artists who share a similar vision. Thus, From Wolves To Whales marks the quartet's debut album. As anticipated, the musicians delve deep into the outside schema of jazz amid a largely aggressive mode of attack. With hustling cadences, energized soloing and all the customary trimmings, the band acutely morphs the improv platform with semi-structured song-forms. And while the free jazz connotations are intact, ...

New York Beat

Marcos Valle and Stacey Kent at Birdland

by Nick Catalano
December 20, 2014

Another of Brazil's music luminaries from the sixties, Marcos Valle, came to Gotham on December 9, 2014 to team up with Stacey Kent and Jim Tomlinson and advance the Brazilian omnipresence here of late. Last month I wrote of the dramatic emergence of the Spokfrevo Orquestra at Lincoln Center and everywhere this month there are appearances by Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, Duduka da Fonseca, Hendrik Meurkens and many other Brasilieros. And the jazz audiences I joined both at Lincoln Center ...

Album Review

Michael Edwards: For Rei As A Doe: For piano and computer

Read "For Rei As A Doe: For piano and computer" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 20, 2014

Michael Edwards is a British composer, based in Edinburgh, who developed a range of musical computer techniques ranging from real-time digital instruments to self-contained, algorithmic environments. His composition for piano and computer For Rei As A Doe, was originally written for Japanese pianist Rei Nakamura and reflects long years of practicing the vipassana meditation. It is a slow and quiet piece, in which silence has an equal role to the piano or subtle, minimalist electronics. The ...

Year in Review

John Kelman's Best Live Shows of 2014

by John Kelman
December 20, 2014

Less travel in 2014, due to an unexpected health problem, meant fewer shows than seen in the past half dozen years, but there was still plenty from which to choose for this 2014 list of some of the best live music heard from Montreal to Tallinn, San Francisco to Stavanger and, of course, at home in Ottawa, Canada--where, in addition to another outstanding year for the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, some off-season programming also brought some outstanding music from the ...

Book Review

Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page

by Nenad Georgievski
December 20, 2014

Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page Jimmy Page 512 ISBN: 1905662327 Genesis Publications 2014 Of the truly talented musicians of our lifetimes, very few can rival the accomplishments and the stature of guitarist Jimmy Page. This enigmatic music genius and mastermind behind one of the best, if not the best, rock and roll bands of all time, Led Zeppelin, has had a storied career like no other. He has been renowned for many things ...