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

Johnny Griffith: Dance With The Lady

Read "Dance With The Lady" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 9, 2014

Can jazz stay the inventive course while remaining true to its swinging precedents and historical framework(s)? This record makes the argument that it can. Toronto-based saxophonist Johnny Griffith has put together a program of original music that's firmly grounded in tradition, yet his approaches aren't rigidly dogmatic in nature; in other words, this record speaks to the past, but it's not another present-day date that's simply dressed in yesteryear's fashion(s). Slamming grooves and swing rhythms share living ...

Live Review

Pete Christlieb Quintet, "Santa’s Bones" at Phoenix Musicians Hall

by Patricia Myers
December 9, 2014

Pete Christlieb, “Santa's Bones" Musicians Hall, Phoenix Musicians Union, Local 586 AFM Phoenix, AZ November 30 and December 2, 2014 Concerts by tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb and a trombone ensemble called “Santa's Bones" were presented as part of on ongoing series at the Musicians Hall of the Phoenix Musicians Union, Local 586 AFM. Los Angeles-based Christlieb is a longtime big-band and studio musician who played 20 years in “Johnny Carson's Tonight Show" band. ...

Album Review

Jazzedelics: Jazzedelics

Read "Jazzedelics" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
December 9, 2014

For those drifting in the counter culture currents of the 1960's, nothing is more definitive and enduring than the music. It has withstood the test of time and even gone mainstream to the point where it has gained respectability amongst cross genre musicians, who recognize the period as one of innovation and experimentation. So here is where the Jazzedelics come in. The have reimagined a dozen of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era with a generous dose of inventiveness ...

My Blue Note Obsession

J.R. Monterose – Blue Note 1536

by Marc Davis
December 9, 2014

J.R. Monterose is that rare bird at Blue Note Records--the guy who got one shot at leading a band, then practically vanished from the face of the earth. It's odd because the history of Blue Note is filled with famous guys (almost never gals) who took up residence and stayed just about forever. Think of Blue Note, and I think of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Smith, Horace Silver and Lee Morgan. Big names ...

Album Review

Chris Lomheim: Timeline

Read "Timeline" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
December 9, 2014

Minnesota pianist Chris Lomheim in 2013 began applying for grants for the funding of a new project when he realized that 2014 would mark the twentieth anniversary of his very first trio CD And You've Been Waiting (IGMOD Records, 1994). As such, the pianist decided to move forward with or without grant funding and put together a new album of originals in celebration of that first recording and reuniting once again with original band mates, bassist Gordon Johnson and drummer ...

Album Review

Alan Davey: Al Chemical's Lysergic Orchestra Vol. 2

Read "Al Chemical's Lysergic Orchestra Vol. 2" reviewed by Jack Gold-Molina

by Jack Gold-Molina
December 9, 2014

One of the longest standing members of the space rock juggernaut Hawkwind, bassist Alan Davey got his start in the late 1970s with his own heavy psychedelic rock band Gunslinger. His tenure with Hawkwind ran from 1984 to 1996, and then again, finally, from 2001 to 2007, leaving both times to pursue his own musical interests that included starting his project, Al Chemical's Lysergic Orchestra, releasing its first CD in 2001, simply titled Vol. 1, and then releasing Vol. 2 ...

Interview

Coleridge Goode: 100 Not Out!

by Duncan Heining
December 9, 2014

To celebrate the 100th birthday of Jamaican-born bassist Coleridge Goode, All About Jazz publishes Duncan Heining's 2012 interview with Goode. A remarkable man and musician, the bassist connects aspects of British jazz from the 1930s through the war years and on through the fifties, sixties and seventies. He played with Caribbean-born and black British jazz pioneers like guitarists Lauderic Caton and Laurie Deniz, with violinist Stéphane Grappelli and bandleaders Tito Burns and Johnny Claes. His most significant and innovative work ...

Album Review

Sam Newsome: The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation

Read "The Straight Horn of Africa: A Path to Liberation" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 8, 2014

Sam Newsome played tenor saxophone in trumpeter Terence Blanchard's group back in the early 90s, but he put away the tenor late a few years later and left his soprano saxophone out on the table. The plan was to explore the possibilities of “the straight horn." Then Gerry Teekan, producer and founder of Criss Cross Records, advised Newsome that the soprano horn was a very limited instrument. That observation was, fortunately, not taken to heart. The Straight Horn ...

Album Review

Josh Kyle / Sam Keevers: Songs Of Friends

Read "Songs Of Friends" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 8, 2014

It's a simple concept. Josh Kyle's voice, Sam Keevers' piano and a selection of Songs Of Friends. It's a beautifully executed concept though: voice, instrument and compositions blend together in a worthy tribute from the young Australian vocalist. Kyle's friends are all Australian jazz musicians and writers. He's taken their tunes, added his own lyrics and joined with Keevers--a long-time inspiration--to breathe life into the resulting songs. There's two tunes by Keevers, three from saxophonist Sean Coffin, one ...

Album Review

Yoosun Nam: Light Of the City

Read "Light Of the City" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
December 8, 2014

Based in New York City, South Korean saxophonist Yoosun Nam leads a very able quintet in recording her very first album as leader on the modern and contemporary-styled Light of the City. A classically-trained musician who began studying music at a young age, Nam played the piano at first and while she enjoyed many styles of music, she was drawn to jazz and picked up the saxophone at the tender age of nineteen. After making a successful transformation to the ...