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

Wayne Horvitz/The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble: At The Reception

Read "At The Reception" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 3, 2014

Wayne Horvitz already has lovely. It's a tool he wields with ease in his music, be it in his Gravitas Quartet of piano/trumpet/cello/bassoon, his Sweeter Than The Day acoustic quartet or the electric Zony Mash. He even brought lovely to John Zorn's shocking Naked City bands of the 1990s. Horvitz has the ability to distill music, be it classical, jazz, film, or free, down to the essence of melody and harmony.He applies that lovely to his little big ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Introducing the Three Sounds – Blue Note 1600

by Marc Davis
November 3, 2014

This is the moment I've been looking forward to, and dreading. The Three Sounds. A piano trio I've heard of, but never heard. And what I'd heard about them wasn't entirely nice. I was sure I would hate them, but still I was very curious. The Three Sounds. Here's a band that was intensely popular in the late 1950s and '60s, recorded 16 Blue Note albums in 10 years... and yet they have vanished practically without a trace. ...

Album Review

Cat Conner: Cat House

Read "Cat House" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 3, 2014

West Coast Vocalist Cat Conner's debut recording, Cat Tales (Rhombus Records, 2012) was a critical highlight vocal recording of the year. Conner's grace and sophistication come from the same school that produced Shirley Horn, Rebecca Parris and Patti Wicks. She is a master of the slow ballad and that may be the least of her considerable talents as expressed on the present Cat House. Conner's song choice for Cat House was measured and forward thinking. It reflects ...

Album Review

Enten Eller: Pietas

by Mark Corroto
November 3, 2014

There may be an Italian jazz ensemble that has been together longer than Enten Eller, but certainly there's not one that is as innovative and expressive as this quartet. Founded some 25 years ago by guitarist Maurizio Brunod and drummer Massimo Barbiero, the group has maintained its lineup with trumpeter Albert Mandarini and bassist Giovanni Maier for many years. The quartet has expanded occasionally with the invitations to distinguished players such as Tim Berne heard on Melquiades (Splasc(h), ...

Extended Analysis

Chris Weller's Hanging Hearts

by Phil Barnes
November 3, 2014

For a saxophonist the holy grail is the overall sound or tone, that feeling of concise wordless communication that can compress a lifetime into a solo or even a measure. Of course technique is important but it plays a supporting role and can only improve incrementally on what is there naturally. When asked about players that he feels a connection to Chicago born saxophonist, bandleader and composer Chris Weller couched his reply in similar terms. The players he highlighted were ...

Album Review

Kiran Ahluwalia: Sanata: Stillness

Read "Sanata: Stillness" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
November 3, 2014

On this inventive album, Canadian vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia brings forth a different approach to Indian music. While the tablas, percussion and the characteristic singing are all present, those are the only Eastern elements you hear. Backing her are rock-tinged electric guitars and an accordion. This is clearly not an attempt to “Westernize" the music but it is instead a fresh take. The album kicks off with “Hayat," a lively number with unison backing vocals that is followed by ...

Live From New York

Television, J Spaceman, Kid Millions, Thurston Moore & Adrian Belew

by Martin Longley
November 3, 2014

Television/J Spaceman & Kid Millions Skirball Center For The Performing Arts October 25, 2014 New York University's performance theatre has turned into a regular home for these Joshua Light Show mini-seasons. This was the last of three evenings where the veteran old-school psychedelic light outfit was playing host to a pair of acts each night, suitably aligned to its sense of far-out oily-liquid spectacle. Founded by New Yorker Joshua White, the JLS was ...

Live Review

Marcus Roberts & The Modern Jazz Generation at The Flynn Center for The Performing Arts

by Doug Collette
November 2, 2014

Marcus Roberts & The Modern Jazz Generation Flynn Center for the Performing Arts Burlington, Vermont October 24, 2014 The last time pianist Marcus Roberts and his trio of bassist Rodney Jordan and drummer Jason Marsalis inhabited the MainStage of the Flynn Center, it was in the company of visionary banjo master Bela Fleck, and the four of them wasted no time in generating intense improvisation permeated with the joy of seemingly telepathic musicianly communication.

Album Review

Equilibrium: Liquid Light

Read "Liquid Light" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 2, 2014

The concept of equilibrium is all about the balancing of opposing forces, actions, or influences; the music of Equilibrium is largely about the same, though some twists, focal point shifts, and ambient sound plays complicate and muddy the concept a bit. Equilibrium--a trio comprised of Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug, and Norwegian vocalist Sissel Vera Pettersen--quietly yet boldly goes to places unknown, finding and creating the maximum in minimalist settings while blending voices and ...

Live Review

Boz Scaggs at The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

by Doug Collette
November 2, 2014

Boz Scaggs Flynn Center for the Performing Arts Burlington, Vermont October 20, 2014 The Burlington Vermont stop of Boz Scaggs' “Memphis Tour" found the original member of The Steve Miller Band mixing a hearty selection of earthy numbers with the more polished likes of material from his breakthrough album Silk Degrees (Columbia, 1976). In contrast to his previous performance at the Flynn Center in 2010, a greater proportion of truly soulful songs this mid-autumn night ...