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.

Extended Analysis

Pink Floyd: The Endless River

by Nenad Georgievski
November 15, 2014

In the past several months the world of music has been shaking with sudden announcements and surprising releases by various artists. When Pink Floyd announced that it will be releasing its 15th studio album it seemed like the Earth stopped rotating for a moment. After all, its band members quietly retired this seminal band from active music making and in the past 20 years concentrated more on archival releases and reissues, and turned their attention more on solo records or ...

Album Review

Cat Conner: Cat House

Read "Cat House" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 15, 2014

On Cat House, the follow-up to her superb debut album, Cat Tales, California-based vocalist Cat Conner shows again that she has the astuteness and chops to leave many other contemporary jazz vocalists floundering in her wake and gasping for air. This time around, Conner has chosen a baker's dozen of what she calls her “lucky tunes," and she gives each one the sort of eloquent reading that should entice the perceptive listener to revisit them time and again.

Album Review

Bebel Gilberto: Tudo

Read "Tudo" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
November 15, 2014

On her seventh studio album, Bebel Gilberto follows a path similar to her last two records: a blend of original electronic-enhanced acoustic music sung in English and Portuguese and a handful of covers. Tudo opens with the gentle ballad “Somewhere Else," a track cleverly arranged with the addition of a string quartet led by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. “Nada Não" is a syncopated breakup tune in which the narrator tells a former lover that he will not be taking anything ...

Album Review

Shauli Einav: A Truth About Me

Read "A Truth About Me" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
November 15, 2014

A quick glance at the song titles on Shauli Einav's third album A Truth About Me reveals a narrative thread concerning restlessness and movement. Song titles such as “Embarcadère," “The Traveler," “Nomads," and “Le Musketeer" suggest that Einav's musical inspirations are tied to journeys; both his own and others.' Listening to A Truth About Me, with its relentless, forward-leaning rhythmic drive (courtesy of the dynamic Paris-based rhythm tandem of Louis Moutin and Florent Nisse), reinforces this impression. And it's no ...

Album Review

kÖök: Imber, Wiltshire

Read "Imber, Wiltshire" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
November 15, 2014

kÖök is a Norwegian minimalist duo featuring guitarists Jørn Erik Ahlsen and Stian Larsen, the sonic aesthetics of both are inspired by the highly personal improvised language of free jazz guitarist Marc Ducret and the ambient landscapes of Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai). The duo began working together in 2010 and recorded a self-titled album for FMR Records in 2012, then released Live in Leipzig with bassist John Hughes a year later. Imber, Wiltshire is a ...

Bailey's Bundles

The Led Zeppelin Papers: Houses of the Holy, Deluxe Edition

by C. Michael Bailey
November 15, 2014

Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy, Deluxe Edition (Atlantic Records) 1973/2014 “For me, Led Zeppelin began as the epitome of everything good about rock: solid guitar work, forceful vocals and rhythmic backing, devotion to primal blues forms, and most of all, thunderous excitement on stage and vinyl. But as superstardom came to them, so too came the gradual evaporation of those qualities from their sound.... Even after a hundred listenings I'm still ...

Bailey's Bundles

The Led Zeppelin Papers: Led Zeppelin IV, Deluxe Edition

by C. Michael Bailey
November 15, 2014

Led Zeppelin Led Zepplin IV, Deluxe Edition (Atlantic Records) 1971/2014 “It might seem a bit incongruous to say that Led Zeppelin--a band never particularly known for its tendency to understate matters--has produced an album which is remarkable for its low-keyed and tasteful subtlety, but that's just the case here. The march of the dinosaurs that broke the ground for their first epic release has apparently vanished, taking along with it the splattering electronics of ...

Album Review

Pamela Hines Trio: Thrive!

Read "Thrive!" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 14, 2014

Pianist Pamela Hines 2013 CD offering, 3.2.1 (Spice Rack Records), was an immersion in the standards, with a big nod to the iconic Bill Evans. It was, perhaps, a bit of a writing respite for Hines, who is a supremely talented tune-smith. She's back, song-writing talents intact, energized even, on this all originals set, Thrive!. Opening with “Emma's Room," Hines and her backing trio-- Dave Clark on bass and Les Harris holding down the drum chair--make a sound ...

Extended Analysis

Graham Collier: Luminosity

by Duncan Heining
November 14, 2014

A new work, posthumously released and recorded--how many of those can there have been in jazz? Luminosity features two late works by composer Graham Collier brought to realisation through the efforts of his partner, author John Gill and conductor Geoff Warren. To say this record is a fine valediction is a statement infused with regret. These two compositions reveal just how much music Collier still had to offer. Fortunately, Gill and Warren were able to bring together a ...

Album Review

Assaf Kehati Trio: Naked

by Dan Bilawsky
November 14, 2014

Guitarist Assaf Kehati has never been one to hide behind the impenetrable or the opaque; his art has always been centered on clarity of thought and communicative expressionism, yet he's reached a new level of musical directness and comprehensibility with Naked. On this, his third release, Kehati winnows away anything that could remotely be thought of as excess. There's still plenty to take in, as Kehati paints and peruses well-conceived canvases with his trio mates, but this ...