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

Various Artists: Six Degrees Records' Psychedelic Planet

Read "Six Degrees Records' Psychedelic Planet" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
December 16, 2014

Comprising new remixes of recent tunes from the label's catalog, Six Degrees Records' Psychedelic Planet colorfully spins and orbits around its electronic global beat. Psychedelic Planet seems to offer as many different styles and sounds as there are stars in the sky. Jef Stott's ethereal horn floats through the murky “White Tara (Vlastur Remix)" like the ghost of Christmas past famously hovering over Ebenezer Scrooge's bed. The dub instrumental style--stretched out and spaced out reggae--informs the shapes of ...

Interview

Dave King: We do music, so we know music

by Ben Scholz
December 15, 2014

Ever the emphatic artist, drummer Dave King is most famous as a founding member of the contemporary trio The Bad Plus. Rooted in jazz, The Bad Plus has taken creative music to a new abstract height, examining reinterpretations of works by artists as diverse as Stravinsky, Nirvana and Tears for Fears. However, his re-definition of a performing musician's role has not been limited to TB+, his personal side projects, or even the drum set. In this article, we'll explore Dave's ...

Year in Review

Dan McClenaghan's Best Releases of 2014

by Dan McClenaghan
December 15, 2014

It's that time to wrap it up and make some choices on the top jazz releases of the year. Here are my picks for the best of 2014, in no particular order, with the exception of the first listing, pianist Paul Bley's disc, which stands out. I do love piano jazz. Paul BleyPlay Blue ECM Records Pianist Paul Bley's career got started in the 1950s, and he has recorded scores of albums--many of them ...

Album Review

Joe Sample & the NDR Big Band Orchestra: Children of the Sun

Read "Children of the Sun" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 15, 2014

Toward the end of his remarkable career, the late pianist Joe Sample (he died on September 12, 2014) traveled to Hamburg, Germany, to record Children of the Sun, a suite of his own music, with the splendid NDR Big Band. The eleven compositions were inspired by Sample's appearance at the 1995 St. Croix Jazz Festival, where he weighed the beauty of that island paradise against the brutality of slavery (17th Century St. Croix was a crucial part of what is ...

Album Review

Steve Lehman: Mise en Abîme

Read "Mise en Abîme" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 15, 2014

Saxophonist Steve Lehman's 12th release as a leader/co-leader and his second one with an octet Mise en Abime is a cohesive work of intriguingly cerebral and dramatic nature. Like the title implies there are concepts that repeat, amplify and fade in the process of constructing and deconstructing the main themes of the album. On “Codes: Brice Wassy" vibraphonist Chris Dingman's sparse, deeply resonant strikes buoy Lehman's brisk and pensive alto that serves as an intro to this exquisitely ...

My Blue Note Obsession

1950s and ‘60s Blue Note – Is It All the Same?

by Marc Davis
December 15, 2014

A few years ago, a reader from California named Charlie F. started a provocative discussion in the All About Jazz forums with the title: “I've decided not to buy any more Blue Note albums." Oh boy. He began, “Recently, I came to notice something about Blue Note albums of the 50s-60s, which was that they tended to sound pretty much the same." He acknowledged that “this is a good example of a label finding a particular formula and ...

Album Review

Kosi: Pictures of Us

Read "Pictures of Us" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
December 15, 2014

Following her solo debut, One More Cup of Coffee, New York singer Kosi surrounds herself with a full band, armed with a fresh set of originals (plus a couple of standards), ready to take on the world. Whereas that first album featured only guitar and voice, now we encounter trumpet, bass, drums, and tenor saxophone from musicians that understand exactly the mood she wants to create. Despite the larger roster, the overall feeling is open, free, and easy. That said, ...

Album Review

Troker: Crimen Sonoro

Read "Crimen Sonoro" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
December 15, 2014

It's curious how the exact same things that attract one person to music will repel another. For example, I'm at my friend Mike's birthday party and we start talking about music we're listening to, and I bring up Crimen Sonoro, the new release by Troker, which my wife and I listened to in the car driving to the party. “Oh, my gosh," I begin to gush. “It is the coolest, most amazing stuff. It sounds like someone shot up Herb ...

Album Review

Jack Mouse & Scott Robinson: Snakeheads & Ladybugs

Read "Snakeheads & Ladybugs" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 14, 2014

Jack Mouse plays drums; Scott Robinson plays almost everything else. So even though the word “duets" is (properly) used to describe their two-part collaboration on Snakeheads & Ladybugs, the album's concept and resolution go far beyond that. For example, there are no written compositions here, simply perceptive and spontaneous improvisation between two inordinately accomplished musicians. Free jazz? That label would not be misused. There are, on the other hand, prescribed conventions and boundaries to which both participants adhere. Even in ...

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: A Touch of Radiance

Read "A Touch of Radiance" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
December 14, 2014

It's fulfilling to hear an artist evolve. In this regard, Yelena Eckemoff has heeded callings definable only by the language of the spirit. The Russian-born pianist and composer comes from a rigorous classical background, and within those parameters has shaped a quiet yet assured corpus of jazz albums stretching back to 2006's The Call. Since then she has assembled numerous ad hoc bands, caressing ebonies and ivories alongside Arild Andersen, Marilyn Mazur, Peter Erskine, and many other established names in ...