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

Connie Crothers: Concert In Paris

Read "Concert In Paris" reviewed by John Ephland

by John Ephland
October 22, 2014

Connie Crothers' piano sounds like nothing you've heard before. Sure, it's acoustic, she plays melodies, she can be inside or outside the music. One thing she isn't, though, is wishy-washy. One of her latest, Concert In Paris, is a solo effort. And for anyone who loves the intimacy of a solo-piano recital, this one more jazz than classical in nature; for anyone who digs the feeling of being played to and for in a cozy setting; for anyone who likes ...

Album Review

Natsuki Tamura, Alexander Frangenheim: Nax

by Karl Ackermann
October 22, 2014

Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura has long straddled the divide between free improvisation and lyrical jazz. The latter has been adequately and beautifully represented in his work with Gato Libre. That quartet features his wife and occasional duo partner--the pianist and accordionist Satoko Fujii--and combines elements of folk, chamber and modern jazz. In contrast, much of his solo work such as A Song for Jyaki (Leo Records, 1998) is full of distorted multi-phonic explorations. Nax, a duo outing with German bassist Alexander ...

Album Review

Azure: Hiptronics

Read "Hiptronics" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
October 22, 2014

Such is the musical shift between Azure's When She Smiles (Azuremusic, 2009) and Hiptronics that they sound like different bands; effectively, they are. The main songwriter, classically influenced pianist Pierre-Francois Blanchard has been replaced by keyboardist Federico Solazzo and only co-founder, guitarist Rogier Schneemann remains from the original group, which has grown to a quintet with the addition of trumpeter Rik Mol. In interior design terms it would be akin to gutting a property and going for a futuristic styling ...

Album Review

Ezra Weiss Sextet: Before You Know It [Live In Portland]

Read "Before You Know It [Live In Portland]" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 21, 2014

Recorded over two nights in Portland's Ivories Jazz Lounge during late-2013, Before You Know It [Live In Portland] is pianist and composer Ezra Weiss' seventh album and his first live recording. Weiss' previous releases have featured big bands (Our Path To This Moment [Roark Records, 2012]) and trios (The Shirley Horn Suite [Roark Records, 2011]). However, it's the sextet format that has featured most strongly on Weiss' recordings and it's this line-up that returns for Before You Know ...

Album Review

The Spin Quartet: In Circles

Read "In Circles" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 21, 2014

2014 has been a stellar year for jazz quartets working without chording instruments--two horns, bass/drums, no piano, no guitar. Trumpeter Tom Harrell released the marvelous a very groove-based Trip (High Note Records); a somewhat old-timey sounding Riverside (Greenleaf Music), featuring trumpeter Dave Douglas; the smoldering and hypnotic The Lathe of Heaven (ECM Records) by the Mark Turner quartet. Add to the list The Spin Quartet's In Circles (Origin Records). Influenced, in a bold, even brash fashion ...

Album Review

Gato Libre: DuDu

by Hrayr Attarian
October 21, 2014

Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's quartet Gato Libre has always recorded stimulating, progressive music heavily laced with a Spanish lyricism. DuDu is no exception. “Mouse" is the prime example of this. On it the musicians push far the harmonic boundaries of their respective instruments creating delightfully jarring cacophony intertwined with intensely melodic explorations.Despite the personnel change after bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu's untimely death, the group remains remarkable cohesive. The new recruit, trombonist Yasuko Kaneko brings a warm fluidity to the bottom ...

Book Excerpts

And All That Motive: A Casey McKie Mystery

by Joan Merrill
October 21, 2014

The following is an excerpt from the first chapter of And All That Motive: A Casey McKie Mystery by Joan Merrill (CreateSpace, 2014). Who the hell was calling me this early on a Sunday morning? After a night of music and drinking. Jesus. “Casey McKie," I mumbled, not hiding my annoyance. “Casey, Casey, can you hear me? I need you to come over--shee-it--how do you work this goddamned thing--fuck it." And ...

Album Review

Annie Ross: To Lady with Love

Read "To Lady with Love" reviewed by John Ephland

by John Ephland
October 21, 2014

Her spoken-word introduction is like an incantation. “To Lady" may only be 46 seconds long, but it has a lasting impact on everything that follows. Veteran singer (and actor) Annie Ross' To Lady With Love has the potential to unsettle, calm the nerves, transport you to another time and place. Whatever it does, if you let it affect you, this music will likely alter everything that happens to you the rest of the day, or night. After all, along with ...

Live Review

Tribute to Prentice “Pete” Douglas at Douglas Beach House

by Bill Leikam
October 21, 2014

Tribute to Prentice “Pete" Douglas Douglas Beach House Half Moon Bay, CA October 4-5, 2014 In some ways, for all of us who time and again came to the Douglas Beach House in Half Moon Bay to listen to some of the finest jazz anywhere, the passing of Prentice “Pete" Douglas--the absence of the man who sat along the east wall sucking on his dead pipe, listening to the music, sometimes kicking his leg ...

Interview

Tony Miceli: Vibes Matter

by Victor L. Schermer
October 21, 2014

Tony Miceli is a long-time master vibraphonist who, until a few short years ago, was relatively unknown outside of the Philadelphia area, when he started getting requests to perform and teach all over the world. Now, he is in demand in Ireland, South Korea, Argentina, and Australia, not to mention New York and the West Coast, and the list of places is growing every day. Miceli deserves the newfound renown. He is widely regarded by the cognoscenti, including vibraphonists Gary ...