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

Kaye Bohler: Handle the Curves

Read "Handle the Curves" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 19, 2014

"The White Tina Turner." Them is fightin' words. West coast vocalist and composer Kaye Bohler might be better described as Tina Turner covering Etta James at Muscle Shoals. Handle the Curves is a decade of original compositions that span from the Aretha Franklin-inflected “Diggin' on My Man" to the Van Morrison-ish title tune. “Backbone" is all Memphis: Hi Records and Stax. Bohler's horn section could have had their tutelage under the Memphis Horns. Bohler stays close to ...

Album Review

Frank Lowe: Out Loud

Read "Out Loud" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 19, 2014

Musical archeology has become somewhat of a trend these days. It might be explained, in part by the rebirth of vinyl and the excavation of long out-of-print titles, but also there are scores of devoted collectors who've discovered unpublished recordings of significant artists. For the serially neglected avant-garde of jazz, some of these finds have been significant. Albert Ayler's Holy Ghost: Rare And Unissued Recordings (1962-70) (Revenant, 2004) box set and the more recent Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987 (No ...

Multiple Reviews

Dave's Picks Volume 11: 11/17/72 and Wake Up to Find Out: 3/29/90

by Doug Collette
October 19, 2014

The story of the Grateful Dead may be the most fascinating in the history of rock and roll, the chapter dealing with the archiving of their live recordings perhaps the most absorbing of all, if only because it continues to be written with the ongoing release of various projects from various stages of the iconic band's career. Under the tutelage of current archive chief David Lemieux, his quarterly series of concert pieces unearths stellar performances that illustrate the changes the ...

Album Review

Brian Charette: Good Tipper

Read "Good Tipper" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 18, 2014

Nine of the eleven tracks on organist Brian Charette's Square One (Posi-Tone, 2014) were originals, but that doesn't mean he's uninterested in tackling the music of others. In fact, judging by this album, it would seem that he really digs digging into covers. Everybody from film score icon John Barry to tunesmith Jimmy Webb to saxophonist Joe Henderson gets a nod during the fun-filled Good Tipper Charette has built a reputation as one of the most adventuresome ...

Live Review

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters at the Fillmore Auditorium, Denver

by Geoff Anderson
October 18, 2014

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters Fillmore Auditorium Denver October 4, 2014 Robert Plant's new album, Lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar (Nonesuch, 2014), is an atmospheric affair; music suitable for horseback riding at twilight in misty woods while on the lookout for the Headless Horseman. Perhaps the Led Zeppelin tune most closely matching the feel for many of the songs on the new album is “No Quarter." So it was entirely appropriate that Plant ...

Album Review

Mammal Hands: Animalia

by Phil Barnes
October 18, 2014

Tough economic times have seen a lot of musicians aggregate into trios of one sort or another of late. Sonically the more minimalist sound has the upside that it is more easily reproduced live and avoids the logistical and financial difficulties of maintaining a large ensemble. The trouble is that it becomes more and more difficult for trios and other small ensembles to stand out from the crowd -fine if you have the postmodern verve of say GoGo Penguin or ...

Album Review

Alister Spence and Myra Melford: Everything Here Is Possible

Read "Everything Here Is Possible" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 18, 2014

This exceptional piano duo featuring American Myra Melford and Sydney-based Australian Alister Spence, known for his local trio and an acclaimed duo with Scottish saxophonist Raymond MacDonald ; (Stepping Behind The Shadows, Rufus, 2012), was recorded during late 2012 while Melford toured Australia with her Trio M. The pianist/composers got to know each other through a mutual friend, Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii, who recorded a duo with Melford, Under The Water, Libra, 2009). This aptly-titled session ...

Multiple Reviews

David Bowie: Excerpts from 1.Outside and Earthling

by Nenad Georgievski
October 18, 2014

The '80s were very good to singer David Bowie, and maybe too good for his own good. After producing Let's Dance(EMI, 1983), his best selling one, which was followed by a very successful world tour, he went on to reproduce his successes in a very grand and hefty way, mostly by reproducing the same pop formula endlessly. That resulted in a string of below average pop records that only served to increase his popularity and income rather than breaking new ...

The Mort Report

Some Thoughts from the worlds greatest out of work Bebop clarinet player

by Mort Weiss
October 18, 2014

As many of you know, I've discontinued my column here at All About Jazz called “the Mort Report." See my final one (number 22), aptly named “My Final Mort Report." Clever, what? My reports were mostly autobiographical, as I kind of put myself on automatic pilot and opened the storage lockers of my brain to let the good times and the bad times roll. In retrospect, they sure as hell did. I read some awhile back, as I was kicking ...

Album Review

Hilary Gardner: The Great City

Read "The Great City" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 17, 2014

New York City has its fair share of sobriquets--"The City That Never Sleeps," “The Big Apple," and “Gotham" are just a few that spring to mind. It's a place of joy and frustration, triumph and tragedy, hope and despair, and all that exists between the extremes. It's a microcosm of the world we know, existing not as a great city, but as the great city. Just ask vocalist Hilary Gardner, an Alaskan-turned-New Yorker who's been soaking up New York City's ...