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

Supersilent: 12

by John Eyles
October 17, 2014

There is a widely-used saying about London's famous red buses, “You wait ages for one, and then three turn up at once..." Back in the autumn of 2010, it seemed as if it could equally well apply to Supersilent releases. After the quartet's first four albums were all released in 1997-8 (1-3 as a triple, then 4 on its own), by 2009 only four more (plus the DVD 7) had been released since the turn of the millennium, usually with ...

Album Review

William Hooker & Liudas Mockūnas: Live at Vilnius Jazz Festival

Read "Live at Vilnius Jazz Festival" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 17, 2014

Did somebody say “bring it?" Must have, because the combination of muscleman drummer William Hooker and Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas surely delivers the goods in this 53-minute duo improvisation performance at the Vilnius Jazz Festival in October 2013.The four lengthy tracks are part of a continuous set the two seared into their audience's ears. Certainly, the combination of Hooker's dynamo and Mockūnas' lung bursting breath are present here, so is a discriminating subtle sound. Hooker, a ...

Album Review

The Eric Ineke Jazzxpress: Cruisin'

by Marta Ramon
October 17, 2014

A strong hard-bop soul shapes this album. Throughout his long career, charismatic drummer Eric Ineke has shared the stage with many great figures from the 50's and 60's like Hank Mobley, Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Hubbard. Ineke, an authentic musician, has consistently followed this beating-feeling and allowed himself enough freedom to develop it over the years. Cruisin' is an energy explosion from beginning to end. The band, complimented by prominent Dutch jazz men, have established an original personality ...

On and Off the Grid

Free Jazz Versus Free Improvisation

by Dom Minasi
October 17, 2014

Free jazz versus free improvisation. Are they the same? I submit they are not. Let's take a look at what makes up music. I was taught from the very beginning that music is composed of three parts: 1. Melody; 2. Harmony; 3. Rhythm. Now add improvisation to the mix, and call it melody, and we have what is known as jazz. The main components of jazz are the improvisations and the rhythms. Without improvised ...

Album Review

EFT: Spatial Awareness

Read "Spatial Awareness" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 17, 2014

The third album of the Israeli Electro Free Trio--EFT--marks the constant evolution of this working band. This powerful outfit always searched for ways to blend on-the-spot free improvisation strategies with live electronics, noise and metal but now has reached a balanced interplay that stresses the original, constant-evolving voices of each of the musicians--guitarist Ido Bukelman, in his many solo projects, drummer Ofer Bymel, the drummer of choice of countless local experimental outfits, and electronics wizard Daniel Davidovsky, who keeps expanding ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Rik Wright

by AAJ Staff
October 17, 2014

Meet Rik Wright: A graph of Rik Wright's influences would read like a wave, running a gamut from jazz to rock and back again. As a guitarist he has taken on influences, often subconsciously, as varied as Andy Summers of The Police and John Abercrombie. Compositionally speaking, Wright hangs with a different crowd altogether, mingling instead with the spirits of Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis. Of this alliterative trio, Miles has been a decidedly conscious influence in ...

Interview

Bill Dixon: An In-depth Look into the Accomplishments, Philosophies, and Convictions of the Man

by Frank Rubolino
October 17, 2014

When one reflects on the innovators who were fundamental in propelling the second wave of the new music movement in the 1960s, Bill Dixon's name always appears near the top of the list. His accomplishments as a musician and educator are vast, a small sampling of which includes his work as architect of the Jazz Composers' Guild in 1964; the formation of the Black Music Division at Bennington College, Visiting Professor in the School of Music at the University of ...

Interview

Jeremy Begbie: What can Jazz teach us about being a Christian?

by K. Shackelford
October 16, 2014

Jazz has long conciliated a sonic language that speaks of the nubilous, mystifying aspects of the human journey. Through jazz, we find the evocation of diverse emotions of the human spirit--depression, happiness, pain and love--sonically conjured through its dissonant chords and jagged rhythmic constructions. Indeed, the deepest and most hidden emotions are provoked and dealt with, sensitizing a greater awareness about ourselves which can elicit self-reflection and divine peace. In this way, a jazz piece can have a spiritually anodynic ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Mboko

by John Kelman
October 16, 2014

For a relatively young musician nearing his 31st birthday in 2014, pianist David Virelles has managed to both garner a strong reputation and emerge with a singular voice in a relatively short period of time. While his early experiences in North America were within the confines of what might be expected from a Cuban expat, playing with Canadian saxophonist Jane Bunnett, whose career has been predicated on a decades-long fascination with the music of Virelles' native country, in recent years ...

Album Review

Millennium Jazz Orchestra: Safety Zone

Read "Safety Zone" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 16, 2014

With the release of its eighth album, Safety Zone, the Millennium Jazz Orchestra from the Netherlands marks its twenty-fifth year under the astute guidance of composer / arranger Joan Reinders who formed the band in 1989 and recorded for the first time two years later. As interesting as the orchestra's growth as a unit has been during that span, Reinders' development as a composer / arranger is even more so. Based on what he has produced here, one impression that ...