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.

Jazz Near Me

The Dave Stryker Trio Swings A Log Church

by Gloria Krolak
October 10, 2014

Once through pastoral Medford Village in Burlington County, NJ, you arrive at Medford Lakes, a community of period log cabins under towering pine trees just off Stokes, the main road. In this onetime lakeside resort, hand-hewn from local wood, beckons a big cabin called Cathedral of the Woods. Russell Quigliata, who managed Cecil Payne until the renowned baritone saxophonist died in 2007, runs a monthly jazz series in the cabin cathedral. Somehow, he lures first-rate talent here. For only $20- ...

Jazz Near Me

Mauricio de Souza Strikes the Right Note

by Gloria Krolak
October 10, 2014

Moonstruck Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge owners Luke Magliaro and Howard Raczkiewicz hired a trio not long ago for a Friday night gig at their popular bistro in Asbury Park, and they got a quartet. Drummer Mauricio de Souza and bassist Gary Mazzaroppi teamed up with pianist-trumpeter Alan Chaubert. Close your eyes and you hear a quartet. That's because Chaubert plays both instruments at the same time. The technique may require a split personality, but the result is Chaubert's ...

Album Review

Anja Lechner / François Couturier: Moderato cantabile

Read "Moderato cantabile" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 10, 2014

ECM Records has long divided its discography in two: the regular series, representing music of a more improvisational bent; and its New Series, featuring largely classical music ranging from the contemporary to the archaic, but more truly defined in its through-composed nature. Still, the line between the two has, however, often been a porous one, where artists perhaps most associated with one side of the fence are able to make the occasional excursion to the other side. Perhaps the artist ...

Album Review

Daniel Schlaeppi: Essentials

Read "Essentials" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
October 10, 2014

Bassist Daniel Schlaeppi, in response to his efforts in playing, recording and producing top-notch jazz for the past ten years, won a six month scholarship to come to New York in 2010. During his stay, he heard Marc Copland's New York Trio with Gary Peacock and Bill Stewart, and afterward sent Copland an email with links to mp3s on his site. Copland responded positively and, in the end, he and Copland spent weeks playing together, ultimately resulting in ...

Album Review

Sarah Marie Young: Little Candy Heart

Read "Little Candy Heart" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 9, 2014

Sarah Marie Young's Little Candy Heart occupies the space where jazz, soul and classic R&B meet and exchange ideas. On this evidence, it's a great place to be. Young's first release on Dutch download-only label SnipRecords is one of the most beautiful albums of 2014. Stylistically there's an old-school vibe going on: song-focussed and soulful. Chicago-based Young has a talent for writing songs that feel familiar but never sound clichéd or sterile--proper songs, with universal themes, memorable melodies ...

Album Review

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Blue

by Mark Corroto
October 9, 2014

Imagine coming home from work to find the furniture in your house was moved and say, your tooth brush is now on the other side of the bathroom sink. A few inches here, and a few inches there. Would you notice? Maybe yes, if you had been gone just a day. What happens in the same scenario if you returned after a month's vacation. You may never discern the change. Now, consider Mostly Other People Do The Killing's ...

Live Review

Mark Turner Quartet at The Wexner Center

by C. Andrew Hovan
October 9, 2014

Mark Turner Quartet Wexner Center for the Arts Columbus, Ohio September 26, 2014 Some 20 years ago, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner tipped the ears of more than a few critics with his debut release for the Dutch Criss Cross label, Yam Yam. He was rightly touted as an up and coming talent worthy of wider recognition. A distinguished set of further albums for Criss Cross and then Warner Bothers followed, although it seemed that Turner ...

Album Review

The Grip: Celebrate

by John Eyles
October 9, 2014

The Grip is an exciting new trio consisting of three well-connected London-based players each with a track record of proven success and innovation in a variety of contexts--saxophonist and flautist Finn Peters, tuba player Oren Marshall and drummer Tom Skinner. The group name is a reference to the cIassic Arthur Blythe album The Grip (India Navigation, 1977) because, back in 2009, Peters worked with that album's drummer, the late great Steve Reid, and, separately, Marshall has collaborated with the album's ...

The Big Question

I love jazz. Why do you?

by Michael Ricci
October 9, 2014

I started listening to jazz at an early age, thanks to my father and his record collection. He also took me to shows. I was 9 or 10 when I saw Maynard Ferguson and his band (circa Live at Jimmy's)... those guys knew how to dress! I played the trumpet in bands and junior phils for a dozen years and loved Music Minus One. I stopped playing in college but continued to collect jazz music (thousands of vinyl ...

From the Inside Out

Different Shapes & Sounds: Solo, Trio, Small & Large Ensembles

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 9, 2014

Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra Pulsion Ubiquity 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 ...