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

Stella Bass: Too Darn Hot

Read "Too Darn Hot" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
October 20, 2014

Singer Stella Bass is a stalwart of Dublin's live music scene, leading small jazz ensembles and collaborating with the HotHouse Big Band and the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra. Bass's debut jazz recording follows Smoke and Sound (Self Produced 2010), her cabaret tribute to Kurt Weil, Bertold Brech, Marlene Dietrich et al. In the main, Too Darn Hot sees Bass mine the jazz standards of the 1930s and 1940s, repertoire she's polished every Sunday for years in Dublin's chic Cafe en ...

Album Review

The New York Standards Quartet: The New Straight Ahead

Read "The New Straight Ahead" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 20, 2014

The New York Standards Quartet (NYSQ) delivers their fourth overall album and their first for the Whirlwind Recording label on The New Straight Ahead, where the band offers a repertoire of ten familiar songs presented with a new modern twist which, incidentally, has become the group's raison d'etre. Founded in 2006, NYSQ have focused their musical efforts on taking old pop and Broadway show tunes and giving them a new radical design by tweaking the melodies and reconstructing harmonies to ...

Album Review

Peter Zak: The Disciple

Read "The Disciple" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 20, 2014

Pianist Peter Zak had a transcontinental shift from Los Angeles to Columbus and Kent Ohio and, finally, to New Your City, where he has remained since 1989. He has released critically well-received CDs for the Danish SteepleChase label: The Eternal Triangle (2012), Nordic Noon (2011) and Down East (2011). He returns with the present trio recording, The Disciple. The jazz market is a small land finicky one. It is really no longer possible to simply put together ...

Album Review

Bob Lark and his Alumni Big Band: Sweet Return

Read "Sweet Return" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 20, 2014

Trumpeter/educator and big band leader Bob Lark, reunites his Alumni Big Band after their critically acclaimed debut Reunion (Jazzed Media 2012), produced some of the best Jazz orchestrations in the business. Sweet Return is the group's encore performance, their return engagement, their audacious follow up and another masterful stroke by leader Lark. This Alumni band is comprised of eighteen players that the trumpeter has directed throughout his nearly thirty years as a band leader and draws on their talents for ...

Interview

Shai Maestro: Music as a journey of being a human

by Urszula Orczyk
October 20, 2014

This article was originally published in the Polish magazine JazzPRESS Shai Maestro, talented 27-year-old pianist and a composer, has earned his spurs being a part of Avishai Cohen's band. Now he has a band of his own--Shai Maestro Trio (although he says it's not “his" band but “theirs": Shai, Jorge Roeder and Ziv Ravitz). The group has released two albums so far--in 2012 Shai Maestro Trio and in 2013 The Road to Ithaca. In this interview, taken at ...

Multiple Reviews

The Poetry of Places: Paula Shocron and Bjørn Solli

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 20, 2014

There is something about places. A particular place can create a special mood. When it comes to music, a place can create a unique frame that adds inspiration and ambience. Just think of the music recorded at the Village Vanguard. The name itself is enough to send shivers down the spine. However, unique musical places do not have to be connected with legendary venues. Sometimes, a surprising setting can have an equally enchanting effect and this is ...

Album Review

Larry Corban & The Aperturistic Trio: The Corbanator

Read "The Corbanator" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 19, 2014

New York-based guitarist Larry Corban took his time creating a follow-up to his debut-- Moving 4-Ward (Self Produced, 2002); it would be more than a decade before album number two--The Circle Starts Here (Nabroc Records, 2013)--would appear, but that one got the ball rolling again. Corban formed a strong connection with his trio mates on that project--bassist Harvie S and drummer Steve Williams--so he wisely brought them back for this album, adding pianist James Weidman--their band mate in The Aperturistic ...

Live Review

Lila Downs at Jazz at Lincoln Center

by Ernest Barteldes
October 19, 2014

Lila Downs Jazz At Lincoln Center New York, NY October 11, 2014 On her two-day residence at Jazz At Lincoln Center, Lila Downs showcased a solid set of old favorites alongside new material from Raiz (Sony Latin, 2014), a collaboration with singers Soledad and Niña Pastori. Backed by an eight-piece band rounded out by Paul Cohen (Musical Director/tenor saxophone), Jugo Moreno (trumpet), George Saenz (trombone & accordion), Leo Soqui (accordion/keys/jarana and shoe ...

Album Review

Tommy Igoe: The Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy

Read "The Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 19, 2014

Known as one of the best drummers in the jazz world today, Tommy Igoe is also one of the most in-demand musicians around and since 2006, Igoe and the Birdland Big band have been holding residency at New York's Birdland Jazz Club which apparently, is not enough to keep the drummer grounded. Igoe now lives in San Francisco where--simultaneously with the Birdland Club gig--he is also holding weekly residency at the Bay Area's most famous jazz club, Yoshi's and now ...

Bailey's Bundles

Classical Gas – Anne Akiko Meyers & Orion Weiss

by C. Michael Bailey
October 19, 2014

Anne Akiko Meyers American Masters: Barber, Corigliano, Bates Entertainment One 2013 Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers follows up her superb Vivaldi, The Four Seasons (eOne, 2014) and provides a partner to her The American Album (RCA Victor, 1996) that featured the music of Copland, Ives, Baker and Piston. On the present recording, Meyers opts for a more contemporary fare composed by Barber, Corigliano and Bates, three composers whose careers overlap mightily.