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

Alex Mendham And his Orchestra: Whistling In The Dark

Read "Whistling In The Dark" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
November 20, 2014

Can a recreation of an original replicate it? The short, quick answer is NO!, especially for popular and improvised music. However, the longer, more thoughtful, answer is YES!, especially this music from the twenties and thirties as performed by leader Alex Mendham and his Orchestra. Whistling In The Dark is that rare creation where everyone involved has taken extraordinary measures, from recording techniques used, to the use of original arrangements to bring to the listener something approaching the feeling of ...

Multiple Reviews

Party Knüllers: Was Something Lost in Translation?

by John Eyles
November 20, 2014

The duo Party Knüllers is a transatlantic collaboration between Chicago's own Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello & electronics and Norway's Ståle Liavik Solberg on drums & percussion. The two played together in a quartet, also including clarinetist Frode Gjerstad and vocalist Stine Janvin Motland, on VC/DC (Hispid, 2011), the inaugural release of the label that now releases two albums by the duo themselves. One of these albums is a vinyl collaboration with Chicagoan Jim Baker on analogue synthesizer, bearing a bizarre ...

Album Review

Roger Ingram: Roger Ingram Live at the College Hideaway with the Jim Stewart Orchestra

Read "Roger Ingram Live at the College Hideaway with the Jim Stewart Orchestra" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
November 19, 2014

In 1960, there was a forgettable little movie titled Visit to a Small Planet (1960, Paramount Pictures) starring comedian Jerry Lewis (with an uncredited cameo by drummer, Buddy Rich). In the flick, all sorts of Lewis-looney shenanigans occur. Recently, trumpeter Roger Ingram landed his craft in Niantic, Connecticut and recorded a half-dozen neat cuts live with this superb local unit. No Looney Tunes here, the mission's result is a swinging and satisfying first encounter of the most enjoyable musical kind. ...

Album Review

Matt Stevens: Lucid

by Glenn Astarita
November 19, 2014

Among other positives, British guitar-slinger Matt Stevens (Fierce, The Dead) reminds us why King Crimson founder, guitarist Robert Fripp has been such an influential force. And Stevens keeps it in the family by utilizing latter day Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto's fierce chops on one track. The guitarist's zinging sustain lines, gargantuan crunch chords and use of delays, loops and other sonic niceties is supplemented by his energizing compositions and picturesquely executed acoustic guitar interludes. But the proceedings zoom off the ...

Album Review

George Kahn: Jazz & Blues Revue

Read "Jazz & Blues Revue" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 19, 2014

Billed as the “Sass 'n' Soul World Tour," LA jazz pianist George Kahn presents the Jazz & Blues Revue, his eighth album as leader featuring three of LA's finest female jazz vocalist in his first all-vocal project and departure from previous recordings. On tap, fresh new arrangements of thirteen songs that obviously, not only touch on the jazz and blues landscape but, also include elements from the R&B and soul genres. On vocals throughout the session are Gina Saputo, a ...

Film Review

Low Down

by Victor L. Schermer
November 19, 2014

Low Down Directed by Jeff Preiss Screenplay by Amy Albany and Topper Lilien Oscilliscope Laboratories 2014 Low Down is an independent film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2014. It relates to the life of the late Joe Albany, a well accomplished if lesser known swing and bebop jazz pianist during the 1940s through 1980s. Albany performed with the likes of Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims – Blue Note 1530

by Marc Davis
November 19, 2014

The title is Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims, but it should be the other way around. No knock on Jutta Hipp. She's great--a lively, fluid pianist who really could have been a big player in the 1950s bop scene if she hadn't suddenly disappeared and dropped out, forever. This is her date--a 1956 recording with a wonderful hard bop quintet. And if she weren't totally overshadowed by Zoot Sims, listeners might say, “Wow, that's the album where she ...

Interview

Billy Harper: A Life of Persistence and Improvisation

by R.J. DeLuke
November 19, 2014

On stage, Billy Harper puts his lips to the tenor saxophone, stands relatively erect and sings through his horn; a strong, angular, muscular sound. There little physical gesticulation, belying the effort it takes to express feelings and emotions through the instrument. But Harper's creative statements demand attention. Over the last few years, a lot of that energy is expressed on stage with the Cookers, a star-studded septet that has been burning up the scene, gaining fans and critical ...

Album Review

Jeremy Monteiro & Alberto Marsico: Jazz-Blues Brothers

Read "Jazz-Blues Brothers" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
November 19, 2014

There can't be many bands with a piano and an organ in the front line. There are few better exponents of Hammond organ--actually a KeyB--than Alberto Marsico ("I've never heard anybody do it better than Alberto"--Joey DeFrancesco) while Jeremy Monteiro--widely considered as the best jazz pianist in Asia--has cut it with James Moody, Michael Brecker, Jimmy Cobb, Toots Thielemans and, for twenty seven years with Ernie Watts. This is a summit meeting indeed. Guitarist Eugene Pao, drummer Shawn Kelley and ...

Album Review

Jaclyn Guillou: Winter For Beginners

Read "Winter For Beginners" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 18, 2014

If ever there was a voice that could balance an icy chill with fireplace comfort and warmth, it's this one. On Winter For Beginners, Jaclyn Guillou's intoxicating voice takes the ear through an odyssey of the seasons, communing with nature in all of its beauty, be it rich or stark. Guillou's originals are built in a contemporary and exploratory vein, eschewing form(al) simplicities for something more complex and meaningful, yet everything is easy and natural to grasp; ...