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.

Live Review

The Nash Second Anniversary in Phoenix

by Patricia Myers
November 25, 2014

The Nash Second Anniversary The Nash/Private Home Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona October 31, November 1-2, 2014 There's something about the way Lewis Nash plays drums. No, there's everything about the way he plays drums--selectively, tastefully, underplaying vs. bombastic; in a word, elegantly. Nash's classy combination of swing and sophistication was abundantly evident during two weekend concerts with two NEA Jazz Masters, tenor/soprano saxophonist Jimmy Heath, 88, and pianist Barry Harris, 84. The legendary beboppers were ...

Album Review

Clare Fischer Big Band: Pacific Jazz

Read "Pacific Jazz" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 25, 2014

The late Dr. Clare Fischer enjoyed a long and storied career as a composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader and educator, primarily on the West Coast. Luckily, one of those he educated was his son Brent who was at his father's side as a musician and adviser for more than three decades and has safeguarded the Fischer legacy since Clare's passing in January 2012. Pacific Jazz, the second album by the Clare Fischer Big Band under Brent Fischer's supervision, consists of music ...

Live Review

John Surman at Seventy

by Duncan Heining
November 25, 2014

John Surman, Chris Laurence & Trans4mation Quartet Kings Place London Jazz Festival November 14, 2014 The first Friday of this year's London Jazz festival saw John Surman celebrating his seventieth birthday at Kings Place near King's Cross Station. The venue is about as far as it could get from anyone's idea of the smoky dives so readily associated with jazz. It's calm and relaxed, comfortable and, well, polite--in a good way--and most definitely smoke-free. ...

Album Review

Pierre de Surgères: Krysis

Read "Krysis" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
November 25, 2014

Belgian pianist Pierre de Surgères is an autodidact musician who pursued a musical career only after he studied journalism and philosophy. So far, that career has been quite erratic, he attended master classes with diverse mentors such as Toots Thielemans and Anthony Braxton, launched a project dedicated to the provocative songs of Serge Gainsbourg, worked in Florida with funky jazz masters like George Duke and Marcus Miller. Surgeres formed a quintet back home featuring acclaimed French saxophonist Alexandra Grimal that ...

Live Review

Exit 0 Jazz Festival: Music All Over The Map

by John Ephland
November 25, 2014

Exit 0 International Jazz Festival Cape May, New Jersey November 7-9, 2014 It's a festival by the bay. Actually, it's by a cape. Or in a cape. Cape May, New Jersey, to be exact. And it has a history. A history by another name as well as its own. For those of you who are familiar with the festival by the cape, now known as the Exit 0 International Jazz Festival, this year's edition was full of ...

Album Review

Matthew Sheens: Untranslatable

Read "Untranslatable" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
November 25, 2014

With his impressive debut Every Eight Seconds (Self Produced, 2012) garnering universally positive reviews, Australian-born, New York-based pianist Matthew Sheens returns with an even meatier, juicier follow-up. Every Eight Seconds introduced an original composer, one whose melodic and rhythmic ideas championed narrative over virtuosity. There's perhaps more of Sheens the Downbeat poll-winning pianist this time out but significantly Untranslatable ups the ante compositionally, with the Yanni Burton String Quartet leaving an indelible stamp on a third of the tracks.

Album Review

SPOKE: (r)anthems

Read "(r)anthems" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
November 25, 2014

On (r)anthems, the New York-based ensemble takes various pop classics and favorite World Music tunes and reinvents them into their own flavor, either going into a New Orleans-tinged feel or just improvising around the melody. An example is Stevie Wonder's “Tell Me Something Good," which is re-purposed here into a marching band-like vibe. The Beatles' “Blackbird" (incorrectly credited solely to Paul McCartney) begins with the original guitar line as a duet. The ensemble then improvises freely around the melody.

Interview

Jason Moran: Joyful Proclamations

by Franz A. Matzner
November 24, 2014

Jason Moran requires no introduction, either as an artistic alchemist or a spokesperson and educator. Moran has left an indelible mark on modern jazz and is now seated at one of the nation's most preeminent performing spaces--the Kennedy Center--as its artistic director for jazz. Already, his capacity for insight, humor, and innovation have launched a new era for the Center's jazz programming, defined in equal measures by careful regard for the music's history, a broad artistic view, and pointed political ...

Album Review

Bill O'Connell: Imagine

by John Ephland
November 24, 2014

Bill O'Connell's version of the standard “Willow Weep For Me" is one of those rare items: playing totally against type as a Latin burner with that classic, mesmerizing two-chord piano vamp, the only thing missing would be someone actually trying to sing this lament amidst the happy sprawl of players and arrangement O'Connell's dished up. Unlike other gestures into Latin-land that sprout from tune to tune with other jazz musicians, what makes Imagine notable is the combination of writing with ...

Album Review

Jennifer Leitham: Future Christmas

Read "Future Christmas" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 24, 2014

The spirit of Christmas past, present and future overspreads this charming holiday album by virtuosic bassist Jennifer Leitham's working trio (Andy Langham, piano; Randy Drake, drums) on which she offsets a program comprised mainly of established seasonal favorites with some tantalizing curves (for example, her own “Future Christmas," a.k.a “The Global Warming Winter Holiday Blues," or Bob Dorough's clever “Blue Christmas" --not to be confused with Elvis Presley's version from the '50s). Such uncommon departures seem only proper, as there ...