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

Philip Corner: Satie Slowly

Read "Satie Slowly" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 30, 2014

Pianist Philip Corner slows down Erik Satie and shows where Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Steve Reich came from. Satie Slowly is exactly that: the piano music of Satie vastly slowed down compared to most contemporary performances and recordings. The lengthy subtitle to the release says it all: “Avoid All Sacrilegious Exaltation." The large insert, assembled from Corner's papers over the last 40 years, note: If his piano pieces are so easy why are they so badly ...

Extended Analysis

Ray Charles: Genius Love Company – 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

by C. Michael Bailey
September 30, 2014

"The way these days just rip along, too fast to last, too vast, too strong..." --Jackson Browne The final recording of Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company, enjoys its tenth anniversary. It is striking to consider that it has been over ten years since the death of Ray Charles, one of the most imposing figures in American music. The music made in the second half of the twentieth century has had a remarkable staying power owing partially to ...

Album Review

Tyshawn Sorey: Alloy

by Karl Ackermann
September 30, 2014

From an early age composer/drummer/educator Tyshawn Sorey has found creative outlets in not just music but in painting and literature as well. Never one to compartmentalize his own imagination, he has enthusiastically explored blues, gospel, classical and music for dance so it seems quite natural that his current music defies categories. Whether listening or writing, he takes a non-judgmental approach to the way he engages with music, preferring possibilities over prescription. Sorey has recorded or performed with a veritable who's-who ...

Album Review

Tommy Igoe: The Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy

Read "The Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 29, 2014

Jazz audiences in the Bay Area are starting to realize what their New York counterparts have known for years--namely, that drummer Tommy Igoe puts together a hell of a band and puts on a hell of a show. Igoe, the man who gave rhythmic life to Broadway's The Lion King and changed the face of drum set pedagogy with his Groove Essentials books, has been tearing it up on Friday nights with The Birdland Big Band since ...

Album Review

Roseanna Vitro: Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer

Read "Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 29, 2014

Roseanna Vitro is a “singer's singer." What does that mean? It means she is so excellent and still warranting much more attention. Her deep and precise alto is perfectly tuned and balanced. Her phrasing is textbook. This is what a jazz singer sounds like. But Vitro's skill set does not stop at vocal prowess. She is also a crack arranger, programmer and music journalist. That is a wealth of grace and talent from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Vitro's ...

Album Review

Pete Roth Band: Circus In The Sky

Read "Circus In The Sky" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
September 29, 2014

It's virtually impossible for any contemporary musician to have emerged in isolation--to have developed a style or technique unaffected by those who have gone before. Guitarist Pete Roth is no exception--the press release name checks John McLaughlin, Jonathan Kreisberg and John Scofield as contributing to the German-born, London-based player's approach to his chosen instrument. On Circus In The Sky, Roth's second album, he makes use of these influences--and more--to craft some skilfully written and played tunes. Roth's writing ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Marcin Olak

by AAJ Staff
September 29, 2014

Meet Marcin Olak: Marcin Olak is one of the most interesting Polish jazz guitar players. He is one of the few who play modern jazz on classical and acoustic guitars, using the specific sound and articulative possibilities of those instruments; sometimes he also plays electric guitar. He moves between various styles: jazz, classical and contemporary, from fully composed pieces to improvised music. Marcin Olak performs solo and with various bands ranging from free-jazz combos, through classical guitar ensembles, to ...

Album Review

Eric-Maria Couturier / Henri Roger / Emmanuelle Somer /Bruno Tocanne: Parce Que!

Read "Parce Que!" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 29, 2014

The cover of French pianist Henri Roger's latest album, Parce Que! , delivers no information about its title, musicians, the recording etc. Just a plain dark painting and a barcode on the back cover. The mysterious cover, designed by Anne Pesce, is the inspiration for a set of collective improvisations by Roger, together with cellist Eric-Maria Couturier, woodwinds and reed player Emmanuelle Somer and drummer Bruno Tocanne, all participants in previous Roger projects. The improvisations, as ...

Shrinktunes

Playing it Forward: The Boys at the Blue Note

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
September 29, 2014

It seemed to happen overnight. One minute it was all video games, with the boys totally immersed in furious thumbwork. They'd sit together for hours on end, staring at a busy screen, manipulating cartoon adversaries to kill each other in great bursts of color and noise. There was considerable musical talent among them, and assorted lessons here and there, but no burning interest that any adult could detect. Then suddenly the group shifted, like a flock of birds ...

Album Review

Cantus: A Harvest Home

Read "A Harvest Home" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 28, 2014

There are two major names on the block regarding male vocal ensembles: San Francisco's Chanticleer and Minneapolis' Cantus. The latter releases A Harvest Home, a collection of Autumn pastoral affairs celebrating the traditional season of Thanksgiving. This follows last year's release of Songs of a Czech: Dvorak and Janacek for Men's Voices (Cantus, 2013), a fine if narrowly focused affair. With the Christmas holiday market clotted with recordings, it made perfect sense of Cantus to branch out into the anticipatory ...