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.

Scumbles

John Kelly, musician, actor, performer

by Sammy Stein
December 20, 2014

John Kelly is a musician who, with his band 'Rockinpaddy' performs in pubs and clubs around the London area. He is also an actor, campaigner for disability rights and in grave danger of becoming something of a national treasure. He is a freelance performer with Graeae Theatre Company, has performed on major stages around the globe with artists including Herbie Flowers, The Blockheads and Linda Gale Lewis and is an active campaigner for disability rights. He has even been known ...

Album Review

Stefano Leonardi / Stefano Pastor / Fridolin Blumer / Heinz Geisser: Conversations about Thomas Chapin

Read "Conversations about Thomas Chapin" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 20, 2014

American saxophonist and flautist Thomas Chapin left the planet too soon, on February 13th, 1998 after a year-long battle with leukemia, when he was only forty years old. His inspiring spirit lives on, as the heartfelt tribute by Italian flautist Stefano Leonardi proves. Leonardi doesn't attempt to recreate the sorely missed Chapin's sound, or the unique, powerful interplay of his bands, mainly the trio with double bassist Marivo Pavone and drummer Michael Sarin, though it is obvious that Leonardi is ...

Album Review

Wally Schnalle: Idiot Fish

Read "Idiot Fish" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
December 19, 2014

For his ninth album as leader, and with over 40 years of experience at the kit, drummer-composer Wally Schnalle has pulled out all the stops. Working sound bytes into delicate infusions of soul, jazz, and electronica, Schnalle nourishes an integrated field of sound that at once evokes seventies nostalgia and progressive futurism. Toward achieving this effect, he employs the skills of a prodigious trio of West Coast musicians. Guitarist Hristo Vitchev, bassist Joe Constantini, and keyboardist Frank Martin make for ...

Live Review

Mary Ellen Desmond Quartet: 11th Annual Comfort and Joy Concert

by Victor L. Schermer
December 19, 2014

Mary Ellen Desmond Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany 11th Annual Comfort and Joy Concert Philadelphia, PA December 14, 2014 Mary Ellen Desmond's Comfort and Joy Concert commenced a decade ago as a shot in the dark, and now, after eleven years running and a CD to its name (Comfort and Joy, Frontrow Records, 2013) the annual event has become a Philadelphia institution. It's addictive. Many jazz fans, ...

Album Review

Nenad Vasilic: The Art of the Balkan Bass

Read "The Art of the Balkan Bass" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
December 19, 2014

Solo playing routinely interrogates virtually every assumption one can have about music and its function. It is also the most demanding discipline in improvised music. Here, none of the well known clichés apply: there are no “dialogues," no “sparring" or contention with a partner, no call and response. So far, there has been a plethora of pianists, keyboardists, guitarists, violinists, harpists who have the wherewithal to accompany themselves, either harmonically and/or rhythmically, and to play countermelodies or contrasting lines. Sometimes ...

Live Review

We Jazz 2014

by Anthony Shaw
December 19, 2014

We Jazz 2014 A Jazz Installation Helsinki, Finland December 8-13, 2014 Music festivals nowadays come in all forms of venue, from ocean cruise boats to desert retreats, and in between all the other varieties that we all know, from smoky bars (there must be some left somewhere) to concert halls. However Helsinki Finland has just witnessed a new form of program, trialed last year in many of the similarly alternative venues, and with a ...

Album Review

Fabio Delvò: Rastplatz

by Dave Wayne
December 19, 2014

I became aware of Fabio Delvo's music via his recordings with guitarist Jeff Platz. Platz has an ear for first-rate musicianship, and his recordings with lesser-known European musicians such as Delvo, Jan Klare, and Meinrad Kneer have been nothing short of revelatory. The title of Delvo's second album as a leader, Rastplatz, isn't a tribute to the Boston-based plectrist. Instead, it refers to the concept of a highway rest stop. Like a lot of musicians, Delvo travels ...

Album Review

Joao Hasselberg: Truth Has To Be Given In Riddles

Read "Truth Has To Be Given In Riddles" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
December 19, 2014

Truth Has To Be Given In Riddles, title of Portuguese bassist Joao Hasselberg's latest album, is reminiscent of a Zen koan, an illogical poem which aims to generate “great doubt" and propel a listener into satori, enlightenment. The album opens in this spirit with a short track titled “Opening" featuring an enigmatic wordless vocal by Joana Espadinha. On the next track, “Abraham's Doubt," it's all change, as trumpeter Diogo Duque lays down a very ...

Year in Review

Dan Bilawsky's Best Releases of 2014

by Dan Bilawsky
December 19, 2014

How does an album end up on this list? It really comes down to two things: strength on impact and staying power. Some records hit hard from the start, ultimately losing power with play after play. Other records come on gently, growing on the ear and the mind over time. But it's the truly rare one that manages to draw you in immediately and retain its power over time. I had the absolute pleasure of reviewing nearly two hundred albums ...

Year in Review

Bruce Lindsay's Favorite Albums Of 2014

by Bruce Lindsay
December 18, 2014

Christmas Comes But Once A Year, And When It Does It Brings... Lists. Lots of lists. Here's another. A quick glance at this particular list makes it clear that this has been, for me, a singers' year. Let me make it clear from the off--this isn't my list of the best vocal albums I've heard this year, it's my list of the best albums. Half of these recordings have a singer's name on the cover, most of the ...