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

Outbeat Jazz Festival 2014

by Victor L. Schermer
September 26, 2014

Outbeat Jazz Festival Philadelphia, PA September 18-21, 2014 The Outbeat Jazz Festival, touted as “America's First Queer Jazz Festival," where the “Q-word" has become an “in" word, proved to be an innovative event that brought the public's attention to the important role of gay (LGBT) jazz musicians and composers. A series of concerts and discussions drove the point home. It was no accident that the festival was held at venues in and around Center City, ...

Album Review

Miguel Angelo: Branco

by Ian Patterson
September 26, 2014

Portuguese bassist/composer Miguel Ângelo has been much in demand on the Porto jazz scene since graduating in Double Bass and Jazz from the School of Music and Performing Arts in 2008. His collaborations have been numerous and he has guested on five recordings since 2012. Branco, his debut as leader, showcases Ângelo's writing skills as much as his effortlessly lyrical bass playing. The common denominator of these nine originals is their melodic flow. Whislt there are no shortage of solos, ...

Album Review

Steve Heckman Quintet: Search for Peace

Read "Search for Peace" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 26, 2014

Saxophonist Steve Heckman has been dishing up rock solid mainstream jazz in the quartet and quintet settings since 2003's For John (World City Music), a tribute disc to the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane. That debut and his two subsequent offerings, Live at Yoshi's (World City Music, 2005) and Born to Be Blue (Jazzed Media, 2013), held in common Matt Clark in the piano chair. This time around, with Search For Peace, Heckman once again employs Clark, with the keyboard man ...

Album Review

Red Hill: Red Hill

Read "Red Hill" reviewed by John Ephland

by John Ephland
September 26, 2014

Red Hill is the collection of six group-composed pieces, led by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, this very fine aggregate also including keyboardist Jamie Saft, Joe Morris playing acoustic bass and drummer Balazs Pandi. Indeed, Red Hill can't be heard except as a portrait of four vivid musical personalities interacting across musical terrain loaded with many unexpected twists and turns, the playing thoroughly democratic even as it is a collective showcase of distinct musical personalities. Take the opener, “Gneiss." ...

Film Review

Elliott Sharp: Ostryepolya

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 26, 2014

Elliott Sharp / Scott Fields Ostryepolya PanRec / NotTwo Records 2013 The musical meeting of innovative guitarists Elliott Sharp and Scott Fields came by coincidence. Both were aware of each other's work for many years, but the opportunity of playing as a duo never arose. Each is a master composer and improviser with extensive experience accumulated in various formats. Sharp pioneered the usage of fractal geometry, chaos theory, genetic metaphors and using ...

In the Artist's Own Words

The Most Beautiful Thing

by Michael Bisio
September 26, 2014

For me music is full of magic, mystery, spirituality, joy, passion and fire, blue to red, yet my journey to conceptualize finds me chasing the most objective truths I can discover, truths stripped of every aesthetic element possible. In High School during an intro to theory class my teacher announced: music is sound in time. We tapped metal chairs with pencils, scratched blackboards until they screamed, and poked and prodded classmates hoping for squeals of surprise, trying to discover music ...

Album Review

Anna Webber: Simple

by Paul Naser
September 25, 2014

Simple (Skirl 2014) , New York based composer/saxophonist Anna Webber's follow up to her 2013 release “Percussive Mechanics (Pirouet 2013) finds her exploring the expressive capabilities of a trio setting. While the compositional sensibilities introduced in her first album remain, her affinity for polyrhythms being a good example, the new texture provides her the ability to play with more freedom and subtle intricacy alongside her tight arrangements. Of course, her phenomenal bandmates contribute a lot in this respect.

Live Review

Abraham's Cafe at Theatre No 99

by Hrayr Attarian
September 25, 2014

Abraham's Cafe Theatre No 99 Tallinn, Estonia September 19th 2014 The popular repertory theater Theatre No99 on the edge of Tallinn's charming medieval old town becomes a musical showcase on certain Friday nights. On September 19th, the featured artist was the innovative sextet, Abraham's Cafe whose debut album Journey to Haran was released in 2013 . The virtuoso accordionist Kaspar Uljas led the collaborative group as they created dramatic soundscapes with distinctly jazzy sensibilities. ...

Album Review

Alice Babs: Vi minns Alice Babs

Read "Vi minns Alice Babs" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
September 25, 2014

This six-CD box set pays homage to Alice Babs, the Swedish jazz singer who died at the age of 90 in February, 2014. A soprano with a three octave range, she sang with Duke Ellington, most notably in his so-called sacred concerts. At the start of her career, in 1940, at the tender age of 16, Babs (real name Nilsson) was vilified in the Swedish press as a slyna, the politest translation of which is “hussy."

Live Review

Kit Downes/Cormac O'Brien Band at McHughs

by Ian Patterson
September 25, 2014

Kit Downes/Cormac O'Brien Band McHughs Belfast, N. Ireland September 13, 2014 Dating back to 1711, McHughs bar and restaurant is the oldest surviving building in Belfast. As such, McHughs underground cellar, which played host to the Kit Downes/Cormac O'Brien Band seemed like an appropriate venue for a jazz gig. For like McHughs, jazz has survived--and for some practitioners it's changed little since the 1940s--while all around it has changed dramatically. Situated a stone's ...