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

Sir Sultry Quintet: Soleangeles

Read "Soleangeles" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
December 13, 2014

Soleángeles is a mashup of two words: Soleá is a mother's song in the Spanish flamenco tradition, while Angeles means “the City of Angels." Soleángeles is also a mashup of two worlds: The Sir Sultry Quintet--led by composer, guitarist and vocalist Ethan Margolis--recorded this set in Seville (Spain) and Los Angeles (California). Margolis spent more than a decade touring and performing with gypsy artists in southern Spain before moving to Los Angeles, the first two steps in his mission to ...

Album Review

Jim Norton Collective: Time Remembered: Compositions of Bill Evans

Read "Time Remembered: Compositions of Bill Evans" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 12, 2014

The late Bill Evans was so celebrated a pianist that even some partisans may overlook the fact that he was also a splendid composer with a number of oft-revisited jazz themes to his credit. Saxophonist / arranger Jim Norton hasn't forgotten, and has entrusted Time Remembered, his debut album as leader of the Jim Norton Collective, to music written and sometimes performed by Evans (with one exception, to be explained in due course). These fourteen songs are ...

Album Review

Jerome Sabbagh: The Turn

Read "The Turn" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 12, 2014

This is one of three bands tenor saxophonist, Jerome Sabbagh leads amid his numerous gigs as a session artist and group member with pianists Laurent Coq and Guillermo Klein, paired with many other diverse musical roles in the modern jazz community. This quartet strikes back with its third album, following Pogo (Sunnyside, 2007) and North (Sunnyside, 2004). Besides his burly tone, melodic structures and fluent improvisational acumen, one of the key differentiators is how Sabbagh transparently melds modern mainstream with ...

Extended Analysis

Leonard Cohen: Popular Problems

by Nenad Georgievski
December 12, 2014

On 21st of September, Leonard Cohen, member of an elite triumvirate of singer songwriters joined the 80 club. A day after his birthday, he delivered a new record and another chapter of his life opened to the public. Cohen is one of those singer songwriters that have kept maturing, producing new and interesting work with every advancing decade of his life. And there is something wondrous about Cohen delivering a new record for his 80th birthday. That he is delivering ...

Album Review

Tineke Postma/Greg Osby: Sonic Halo

Read "Sonic Halo" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 12, 2014

One of the most intriguing elements of saxophonists Tineke Postma's and Greg Osby's superb Sonic Halo is the way the co-leaders overlap their individual voices to create a uniquely multifaceted and harmonically integrated entity. Both Postma and Osby double on alto and soprano and their ideas, whether spontaneous or prewritten, flow seamlessly between them. This sublime exchange of musical concept is not at the expense of either artist's distinctive style.The percolating, turbulent rhythmic vamps form the backdrop for ...

Album Review

Changamire: Love

Read "Love" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
December 12, 2014

With Love, Washington DC-based vocalist Changamiré follows up her self-produced 2001 debut Only Human with a new song cycle mainly co-written and produced with Lincoln Ross, who also contributes trombone to several tracks. Changamiré's songs suggest the compositional depth of Roberta Flack. But her voice is not quite so brooding, and sounds more rooted in the gospel foundation of singers such as Anita Baker. BUT it's even different from, a bit more exotic sounding around the edges than, Baker's straight-on ...

Catching Up With

Ben Sidran: The First Existential Jazz Rapper

by Joan Gannij
December 11, 2014

Ben Sidran is an old school hipster in the authentic sense of the word. He's a no frills, musician's musician who's got the heart, got the chops. He's been there, done that, and ready to do more. Sidran has never been interested in following trends or squeezing into categories and is not about to start now. “In jazz, they want you to be yourself, but they only want you to be yourself in their category, and if you're not, it ...

Album Review

Levin Brothers: Levin Brothers

Read "Levin Brothers" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
December 11, 2014

He may have ultimately become best-known in the progressive rock world for his ongoing work with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Stick Men and the Crimson ProjeKct, but 68 year-old bassist and stick player Tony Levin has no shortage of jazz credentials, playing with everyone from Gary Burton and Mike Mainieri to Chuck Mangione and Buddy Rich from the late '60s through the early '70s. Classically trained like his younger sibling, brother Pete has stayed more decidedly in the jazz world ...

Live Review

Branford Marsalis and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia at Scottsdale Center for Performing Arts

by Patricia Myers
December 11, 2014

Branford Marsalis and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Scottsdale, Arizona October 19, 2014 Saxophonist Branford Marsalis demonstrated his consummate versatility during a concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia as part of that ensemble's 50th anniversary national concert tour, the jazz-pop star having segued into classical performances four years ago with the New York Philharmonic. “Marsalis: Well-Tempered" was the concert theme, using a term applied to the music-theory ...

Album Review

Peter Brotzmann/John Edwards/Steve Noble: Soulfood Available

Read "Soulfood Available" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 11, 2014

Listeners often ask where to begin listening to the music of Peter Brotzmann. Recording for nearly 50 years (yes, five-0), he has amassed a discography that totals nearly 300 recordings. Do you start back in the Machine Gun days and his work with FMP, fast forward to Material and Last Exit or his grand projects, the Chicago Tentet and Sonore with Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson? The answer is that his career is like a river. While you ...