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

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Shiki

by Hrayr Attarian
October 16, 2014

Pianist Satoko Fujii's Shiki is an intriguing albeit somewhat flawed album. Its dramatic title track and centerpiece clocks over 35 minutes and is filled with sweeping and thrillingly dissonant harmonies and provocative musical ideas. Opening with mournful, expectant drone it goes through a series of alternating symphonic vamps and stimulating instrumental conversations and monologues. These individual expressions, however, are like brilliant fragments of poetic narrative and never coalesce into a cohesive entity. The fascinating cinematic theme provides a ...

The Big Question

Not a jazz fan? Tell us why.

by Michael Ricci
October 16, 2014

We have folks telling us why they love jazz over here. And yeah, we know, odd question coming from a website like All About Jazz, but we're hoping you'll share this page with your jazz-hating friends so we can better understand why they don't dig the music like us. If you have thoughts to share, please post them in the comments section below. A Google image search on “hate jazz" turned up this Jimmy Rowles ...

Album Review

Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra: Pulsion

Read "Pulsion" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 16, 2014

A musician friend whose opinion I greatly respect shared with me that he enjoys listening to Pulsion, the fourth release by the Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra (ALVO), in two layers: The frothy jazz-influenced horn, brass and string arrangements on top and, like a musical parfait, the churning Latin, AfroCuban and other funk rhythms underneath. ALVO was founded in 2007 around the core band of Masta Conga (percussionist, ringleader and spokesman), Benjamin Peyrot de Gachons (keyboards), Jean-Baptiste Feyt (trumpet), ...

Album Review

Eric Vloeimans' Oliver's Cinema: Eric Vloeimans' Oliver's Cinema

Read "Eric Vloeimans' Oliver's Cinema" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 15, 2014

Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans isn't afraid to try different things. In fact, he seems to relish the opportunity to work in a variety of settings. Vloeimans tangled with pianist John Taylor, bassist Marc Johnson, and drummer Joey Baron on Bitches and Fairy Tales (Challenge Records, 1999); he went the electric route with a quartet known as Gatecrash; he recorded with The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra on Evensong (Challenge Classics, 2013); and he pared things down, conversing openly with pianist Florian Weber ...

Album Review

Dave Liebman Big Band: A Tribute to Wayne Shorter

Read "A Tribute to Wayne Shorter" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 15, 2014

In a career spanning almost half a century, soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman has appeared on more than five hundred recordings including seventy as leader of various groups. His latest, A Tribute to Wayne Shorter by the Dave Liebman Big Band, may well be the best one yet. Why? Because every single component, from choice of material to arrangements, performance to production, is no less than superlative. In other words, there is simply nothing on this brilliantly conceived and splendidly consummated ...

Album Review

Zebrina: Hamidbar Medaher

Read "Hamidbar Medaher" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 15, 2014

Eminent American clarinetist Ben Goldberg is an integral component of this Canadian ensemble's buoyant and cleverly articulated blend of traditional Jewish music, rock and modern jazz for John Zorn's enterprising New York-based Tzadik record label. In effect, the band traverses through luxuriant musical terrain, comprised of popping grooves, hummable melodic hooks and crisp, keys-based jazz fusion amid some multihued electronics effects for shading and to intersperse a few off-kilter foibles into the program. Moreover, Goldberg's supple lines often outline the ...

Album Review

Paul Jost: Breaking Through

Read "Breaking Through" reviewed by Peter McLaren

by Peter McLaren
October 15, 2014

Paul Jost's second outing on Dot Time Records is an eclectic collection of standard repertoire performed in a fresh and exciting manner that leaves no doubt this artist is a creative force that deserves to be added to the list of great male jazz vocalists of all time. The album opens with a version of “Singing In The Rain" that pays homage to the original while allowing Jost all the room needed to show off his vocal prowess ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Horace Silver: Six Pieces of Silver – Blue Note 1539

by Marc Davis
October 15, 2014

Yep, this is the “Senor Blues" album. That's not the name, obviously, but it could be. This outstanding hard bop CD, recorded by Horace Silver's quintet in 1956, has 10 tracks, and three of them are “Senor Blues." No wonder. It's arguably the best track in the collection--a Spanish-tinged slow blues toe-tapper. Even so, three versions may be one too many. First, there's the album version. It's a 7-minute original by Silver himself. It's a groovy ...

Album Review

Dimitrije Vasiljević: Metaphor

Read "Metaphor" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 15, 2014

The second solo piano release by composer, pianist and Serbian native Dimitrije Vasiljević, Metaphor seems to embody the very best of the European (Eastern and Western) and American classical and jazz piano traditions. With his austere yet light approach to melody and rhythm, Vasiljević reflects both emerging pianists such as Eldar Djangirov and more longstanding stalwarts such as Keith Jarrett. In fact, Vasiljević studied under the same jazz piano professor who instructed Jarrett, Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea ...

Interview

Don Glanden: Remembering Clifford Brown

by Victor L. Schermer
October 15, 2014

Benny Golson's timeless ballad, “I Remember Clifford" is but one measure of the reverence and love with which Clifford Brown was regarded by musicians, friends, family, and fans. The affection in which he was held during his lifetime was made all the more poignant by his untimely death at the peak of his rapidly advancing career. Over the years, legends and myths have grown up around Brownie, and, although most are based on loving memories, many of the details of ...