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.

Live Review

John Mayall at the YMCA Boulton Center For The Performing Arts

by Mike Perciaccante
October 5, 2014

John Mayall YMCA Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Bay Shore, NY September 19, 2014 During John Mayall's long and storied career, the singer, songwriter, harmonica master, keyboardist and guitarist has used Chicago blues as the foundation for his signature sound, which also melds rock with a slight touch of jazz. His backing band is and has always been known as the Bluesbreakers. Membership in the Bluesbreakers has changed regularly since the late '50s ...

Live Review

Jazz at Bran Castle 2014

by Adriana Carcu
October 5, 2014

Bran Castle Bran Jazz Festival Bran, Romania August 29-September 1, 2014 The castle located in the heights of the Transylvanian Carpathian Mountains known as the dwelling place of the legendary Count Dracula has hosted the second edition of a jazz festival that ushered in a new type of record: the most visited castle in the world- -toured each year by well over half a million tourists--for three days became the scene of a quite ...

Live Review

The Felice Brothers at EAT X NE Festival

by Doug Collette
October 5, 2014

The Felice Brothers Oakledge Park EAT X NE Festival Burlington, Vermont September 20, 2014 When Burlington last saw the Felice Brothers in September of 2013, they were about to steal the show at the Grand Point North Festival at Burlington, Vermont's Waterfront Park with a single song that brought much of the audience to a hush. The rest of their set, unfortunately, was a bit too sloppy for its own good, even by ...

Album Review

Toby Koenigsberg Trio: Drift

Read "Drift" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 4, 2014

Pianist Toby Koenigsberg explored some of bop icon Bud Powell's tunes, the Great American Songbook gem “My Foolish Heart," and Bill Evans' “Show Type Tune" on his outstanding 2005 Origin Records release, Sense. And there was a warped (in a good sense) take on the “Stella By Starlight," also from the Great American Songbook. All of it sounded very modern. He pushes the modernity thing ahead further with his Drift, an homage to the late indy rock artist Elliot Smith. ...

Extended Analysis

Doors: Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

by Doug Collette
October 4, 2014

Given his fascination with media, the late Jim Morrison would no doubt be deeply bemused at the irony of the release of a Doors compilation on cd (a dying configuration) due its popularity as a Record Store Day 2014 issue on vinyl lp (the configuration that won't die). It's no accident that Bruce Harris' original liner notes for Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine have been retained (nor pure expedience either, though there's no indication these tracks have ...

Album Review

Michael O'Neill & Kenny Washington: New Beginnings

Read "New Beginnings" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 4, 2014

Multi-reedist Michael O'Neill gets top billing here, but there's little doubt that the star attraction is singer Kenny Washington, one of the most under-recognized vocal talents operating today. O'Neill, perhaps Washington's greatest supporter and promoter, doesn't hide that fact when discussing the music presented here: he notes that “the arrangements are unique settings, and Kenny's the jewel." Washington, a stunning talent who's appeared on record with O'Neill on more than one occasion, recorded and toured with vibraphonist ...

Extended Analysis

U2: Songs of Innocence

by Doug Collette
October 4, 2014

To accurately assess and analyze the music of U2's Songs of Innocence, it's necessary to exert a herculean effort to shunt aside issues that would otherwise camouflage a clarity of mind. It's been at least eighteen months or more that the new U2 album was supposedly imminent, so the rise and fall of expectation and anticipation leads away from, rather than closer to, a discerning eye and ear. And the recent controversy arising from the auto-appearance of the album as ...

Album Review

Peripheral Vision: Sheer Tyranny Of Will

Read "Sheer Tyranny Of Will" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 4, 2014

If titles are anything to go by, then Canadian quartet Peripheral Vision has a pretty pessimistic world view--if Sheer Tyranny Of Will isn't downbeat enough, “Robbed And Ridiculed," “The Ill Conceived Plan" and “Neurosis And Everyday Life" add further evidence to the pile. Maybe it's circumstantial though: tucked away in the track listing is one of 2014's most wonderful tune titles--a band that performs a number called “Charleston Heston" can't be too downhearted, can it? Bassist Michael Herring ...

Live Review

The Cookers at SFJazz

by Harry S. Pariser
October 4, 2014

The Cookers SF Jazz San Francisco, California September 26, 2014 When the legendary late jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard joined with saxophonist Lee Morgan and other musicians to perform at Brooklyn's Club La Marchal in April 1975, they produced The Night of the Cookers (Blue Note, 1965), one of history's classic live jazz LPs. Little did anyone involved with the project dream that the name would be taken, years later, for that of a super ...

Tell Me More

Boney James: The Beat Goes On

by Belinda Ware
October 4, 2014

Saxophonist Boney James is a prolific musician and songwriter gifted with an ear for creating music inspired by artistic expressionism. As an architect of original songs, James is an intellectual man of modest demeanor who has established himself as a musical pioneer in his intuitive discovery of the formula for longevity in his mellifluous career spanning three decades. At the root of his professional success is his meditative passion for exploring uncharted paths as a songwriter and interpreter of songs. ...