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

Dylan Ryan / Sand: Circa

by Glenn Astarita
November 27, 2014

Following up the well-received Sky Bleached (2012, Cuneiform Records), drummer Dylan Ryan and his trio continue their full-blown aerial assault on conventional power trio mechanisms. Think of spaced out jazz rock with asymmetrical doses of Black Sabbath, avant- garde breakouts, and brooding rhythmic tirades, culminated with the art of improvisation. Guitarist Timothy Young's (Wayne Horvitz, David Sylvian) sustain driven single note lines, howling plaintive cries and grizzly crunch chords ride atop Ryan and bassist Devon Hoff's forceful manifesto, modeled with ...

Jazz Humor

The Desmond Awards: Top Five Funniest People in Jazz

by Michael Ricci
November 27, 2014

Despite that serious expression you often see on a jazz musician's face, the truth is, laughter gets them through the day. The late, great pianist Horace Silver knew it. If you didn't see it in his impish smile, you could hear it in his music. Especially in his last studio album, which knowingly proclaimed Jazz Has A Sense of Humor (Verve, 1999). We've gotten to know lots of musicians over the years, and though we marvel ...

Album Review

Tineke Postma/Greg Osby: Sonic Halo

Read "Sonic Halo" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 26, 2014

Greg Osby has influenced legions of saxophonists over the past two-plus decades. On Sonic Halo, one of those players stands tall beside him. Once upon a time, Osby and dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma had a mentor-mentee relationship, but that was then, and this is now. Both players are equals on this probing venture. Nine tracks--five from Postma's pen, three from Osby, and an abstraction on a standard ("Body And Soul")--give this pair ample room to feel each ...

Extended Analysis

Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden/Paul Motian: Hamburg '72

by John Kelman
November 26, 2014

With Sleeper: Tokyo, April 16, 1979 (2012) and Magico: Carta de Amor (2012), ECM Records began digging into its archives, unearthing two live recordings that revealed even more about a collection of artists whose reputations were already plenty secure as some of the label's most important from its early years--in the first case, pianist Keith Jarrett's Scandinavian-centric “Belonging Quartet," with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Jon Christensen; in the second, the Transatlantic trio of Norway's Garbarek, Brazilian ...

Album Review

Alex Belhaj's Crescent City Quartet: Sugar Blues

Read "Sugar Blues" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 26, 2014

Trad jazz isn't trending on Twitter or climbing the charts, but that doesn't mean it's completely irrelevant in today's musical landscape. There's still a segment of people, both on the delivering and listening ends, who enjoy the way multiple horns can snake around one another in a polyphonic dance of joy, supported and driven by guitar and bass below. Many of these people find themselves drawn to New Orleans, where the music first took firm shape, and that's where the ...

Album Review

Carmen Lundy: Soul To Soul

Read "Soul To Soul" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
November 26, 2014

There are records created through years of preparation and production that take a lifetime to achieve. Soul to Soul by vocalist Carmen Lundy, indeed falls in that category, yet defies categorization. Lundy is setting her own course, while other singers seek safe refuge in tepid covers of popular standards. She offers original material delivered with authenticity that can only come from a seasoned jazz veteran. Studying the roster of musicians on this record, there is no surprise that ...

Jazz Near Me

All-Star Trio at Philly’s Hip Square on the Square

by Gloria Krolak
November 26, 2014

Ever since Lennie Tristano recorded his landmark album Live at the Confucius Restaurant in 1955, Chinese food and jazz have teamed up. The All-Star Trio continues the tradition at Philadelphia's Square on the Square, a Chinese restaurant on 19th and Chestnut. It's a regular Wednesday night gig for the spirited trio of pianist Andy Kahn, drummer Bruce Klauber and bassist Nicholas Krolak. Sometimes Peggy King shows up--the All-Stars brought her out of retirement--and the group backs her up ...

Album Review

Manuel Valera Sr.: Recuerdos

Read "Recuerdos" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
November 26, 2014

Recuerdos might translate as “Remembrances," but save for maybe a track or two, this album is clearly not about nostalgia--it is a contemporary Latin jazz album filled with inspired moments--among these “Solitude," a tune in which veteran saxophonist Manuel Valeras, Sr. and his son (pianist Manuel Valera) share a close duet. “Si La Comprienderas" opens the disc with an up-tempo groove, and “Si Te Contara" has a very modern feel thanks to the solid backing from the rhythm section of ...

Live Review

South Africa at the South Bank

by Duncan Heining
November 26, 2014

The Dedication Orchestra and Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya The South Bank Centre London Jazz Festival November 15, 2014 The London Jazz Festival is now in its twenty-second year. It's a vast, sprawling event and its venues criss-cross a city that never quite seems to end, whilst its musical styles span the globe from the USA to Australia and from South Africa to Norway. Saturday 15th November saw South Africa in two distinctly different guises ...

Album Review

Rachel Therrien: Home Inspiration

Read "Home Inspiration" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 25, 2014

Montreal-based trumpeter and composer Rachel Therrien's second album, Home Inspiration is a salutary reminder of something that the American jazz scene doesn't always seem to acknowledge--there's a thriving, young and imaginative jazz scene up north, in Canada. All the tunes on Home Inspiration are originals, with Therrien taking composer credit for around half of them. They hark back to the glory days of the big bands and to the bebop era, they're rooted in more contemporary sounds as ...