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 From New York

The Music Of William Onyeabor, Mott The Hoople, David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti & Fela Kuti

by Martin Longley
October 27, 2014

Atomic Bomb! Central Park October 4, 2014 This was the climactic set on the first day of the inaugural New York version of the Modern Sky festival, an event that originates in Beijing. There could have been a percentage of audience members concealing their nine-album box sets of William Onyeabor's complete works, but it was probably small. A much less intimidating collection of this retiring Nigerian funk- pop master's output can be found ...

Album Review

Anja Lechner / François Couturier: Moderato cantabile

Read "Moderato cantabile" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 27, 2014

On Moderato Cantabile cellist Anja Lechner and pianist Francois Couturier interpret music that is simultaneously spiritual and folklore-ish with supple eloquence and sophisticated vibrancy. Intermixed with works from Greco-Russian guru George Gurdjieff, Armenian musicologist Komitas and Spanish composer Federico Mompou are Couturier's own jazz inflected pieces that maintain the overall mystical theme of the release. Gurdjieff was not a formerly trained musician. Most of his oeuvre, therefore, consists of central Asian folk melodies infused with his own ethereal ...

Album Review

Bob Lark and His Alumni Big Band: Sweet Return

Read "Sweet Return" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 27, 2014

As was the case two years ago (2012) with its first album, Reunion, trumpeter Bob Lark's Alumni Big Band on Sweet Return is comprised of musicians he has supervised in various groups during a long and eminent career that embodies more than twenty years as director of Jazz Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. Even so, this isn't quite the same band as before; while more than a dozen sidemen from Reunion have returned to lend a hand, there's a ...

Album Review

KÖök: Imber, Wiltshire

Read "Imber, Wiltshire" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 27, 2014

Tom Waits sung (spoke) the following lyrics on his Mule Variations (Epitaph, 1999) LP, “What's he building in there?/What the hell is he building In there?/He has subscriptions to those magazines.../He never waves when he goes by/He's hiding something from the rest of us.../He's all to himself.../I think I know why..." But, of course he has no idea.Neither do Norwegian guitarists Stian Larsen and Jørn Erik Ahlsen, the protagonists from the electronics duo KÖök. Their improvised ...

Album Review

Stéphane Escoms Trio+: Meeting Point

Read "Meeting Point" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
October 27, 2014

On Meeting Point, French pianist and composer Stéphane Escoms augments his working trio with a dizzying array of musical guests. Ostensibly, the title is a reference to Escoms' flexibility and range as an improvising musician, because each of the collaborations carries with it a distinct ethnic flavor. Fortunately, there's enough space left over for the trio to strut its own unique stuff on five tracks, one of which-"K.M.A."-was written by Escoms' mentor, the brilliant Bulgarian pianist Mario Stantchev. Stantchev's tune ...

Multiple Reviews

Another Timbre’s Berlin Series goes from strength to strength

by John Eyles
October 27, 2014

Another Timbre's Berlin Series began slowly and gathered momentum gradually. The first issue in the series appeared in spring 2013 and set a pattern for the series by being split between two of the city's fine duos--Michael Thieke/Olivier Toulemonde and Lucio Capece/Jamie Drouin. Despite that volume garnering considerable praise, the second one did not appear until a year after it and may have been somewhat overshadowed by its inclusion in a batch of releases with the extraordinary Despairs Had Governed ...

Multiple Reviews

Diatribe Records Solo Series II

by Ian Patterson
October 27, 2014

Four years on from Diatribe Records' outstanding Solo Series I, which featured solo piano recordings by Izumi Kimura and Isabelle O'Connell, a guitar solo offering from Simon Jermyn and a clarinet solo work from Paul Roe, the Dublin label is back with the equally impressive Solo Series II. The four musicians presented in this second round of solo CD releases are cellist Kate Ellis and violinists Cora Venus Lunny, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Adrian Hart. The four CDs capture the ...

Book Review

Please Be With Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman by Galadrielle Allman

by C. Michael Bailey
October 26, 2014

Please Be With Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman Galadrielle Allman 400 Pages ISBN: # 978-1400068944 Spiegel & Grau 2014 Galadrielle Allman was two-years old when her father, Allman Brothers Band founder Duane Allman, was killed in a motorcycle accident October 29, 1971. Since that time, she has been chasing a phantom and that chase has manifested as Please Be With Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman. It ...

Album Review

Tara Davidson: Duets

by Dan Bilawsky
October 26, 2014

Saxophonist Tara Davidson has continually expanded the size of her band to suit each of her recording projects. Until now, that is. After working with a quartet, a quintet, and a nonet on record, Davidson has gone the other way, trimming things back and releasing a collection of artful duets that pair her with some of her favorite musician friends. Four of Davidson's six duet partners--tenor saxophonist Mike Murley, pianist David Braid, tenor saxophonist Trevor Hogg, and ...

Album Review

Jim Cutler: Gimme Some Sugar. Baby!

Read "Gimme Some Sugar. Baby!" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 26, 2014

The music on Seattle-based saxophonist Jim Cutler's second big-band album is thematic; that is to say, it was written with people, places or experiences in mind. Half of the album's ten engaging essays were written by trumpeter Daniel Barry, four by Cutler and one ("Visions at the Monkey Bar") by baritone saxophonist James DeJoie who has his own tour de force, Barry's presumably Sauter-Finegan inspired “Spirit World." The shuffling opener, “Bella's Boogie," was penned by Cutler for ...