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

Fo' Reel: Heavy Water

Read "Heavy Water" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 25, 2014

Journeyman musicians have an ease about them that enables them to readily collaborate, making exceptional music in the bargain. New Orleans's Fo' Reel is such a band. The core of Fo' Reel is made up of New Orleans soul singer C.P. Love, guitarist and producer Mark Domizio, keys player Johnny Neel and bassist David Barard. The group is supplemented with drums and percussion and a tight, bottom-tone horn section. The music is stylistically the blues, though there is nothing gut-bucket ...

Book Excerpts

On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom

by Dennis McNally
September 24, 2014

The following is an excerpt from the “Spirituals to Swing" chapter of On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom by Dennis McNally (Counterpoint Press, Berkeley, 2014). Danny Barker, who in the 1930s was Cab Calloway's guitarist, told a particularly revealing story of working at the Nest Club, a Harlem after-hours joint. Business would be dead when the doorman buzzed three loud rings to indicate that they had prospects coming. The band would strike ...

Album Review

Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joakim Milder: Spark of Life

Read "Spark of Life" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
September 24, 2014

At about the same time Louis Armstrong was “inventing" modern improvised jazz--Poland was already immersed in a jazz tradition that included American influences and an ethnic take on swing. Despite bouts with repressive regimes that sent jazz underground, Poland continued to be a progressive haven for the form. Through the 1950s and 1960s pianist/composer Krzysztof Komeda developed a unique and influential European style of music with free jazz elements. Particularly influenced by Komeda was trumpeter Tomasz Stanko who worked extensively ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Ron Kaplan

by AAJ Staff
September 24, 2014

Meet Ron Kaplan: Ron Kaplan's musical style is reminiscent of the great singers of the 1950's continuing the tradition of performing songs from the Popular and Jazz Standards of the Great American Songbook. Critics note Kaplan's phrasing, tone, relaxed style, and his ability to get to the heart of a song with his own mark of musicianship, while featuring superb musicians in his live performances and on his recordings, enjoyed around the world. His latest ...

Album Review

Thelonius: Crows On The Beeline

Read "Crows On The Beeline" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
September 24, 2014

Thelonius announced its arrival on the scene with a brief-but-fun self produced EP, Reminisce, in 2012. The quintet, from Bristol in the west of England, blended its mix of influences--most notably hip-hop and Thelonious Monk--into a hook-laden and imaginative set of tunes. It was over all too quickly. Thelonius returns with the download-only Crows On The Beeline--a whopping 29 and a bit minutes of music. It's still hook-y, still infectiously danceable, still mixing hip-hop, bebop and a few other things ...

Album Review

Charles Lloyd: Manhattan Stories

Read "Manhattan Stories" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 24, 2014

In most cases, the folklore of a happening is much stronger than the actual event. The “older I get, the better it was" credo applies to so much of the remembered past. Not so for the only documented recordings by Charles Lloyd's Quartet of guitarist Gábor Szabó, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Pete La Roca. Lloyd who, in 1965, had left his residency as musical director for Chico Hamilton and member of Cannonball Adderly's band, gathered Szabó (from ...

Album Review

Mark Elf: Mark Elf Returns 2014

Read "Mark Elf Returns 2014" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 23, 2014

Nothing can stop guitarist Mark Elf from making music. He's battled serious health problems, contended with the ups and downs of the music industry for decades, and, most recently, dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the massive storm that flooded his home, delaying the recording of this record for a year. In spite of all of those setbacks and hardships, Elf still manages to have a fairly sunny musical outlook when he straps on the guitar for this, his ...

Interview

Erland Dahlen: Rolling Bombers and Blossom Bells

by Adriana Carcu
September 23, 2014

The drummer, percussionist and composer Erland Dahlen is one of the most proficient musicians of the Nordic jazz community. His collaborations with top ranking musicians, such as Nils Petter Molvaer, Stian Westerhus, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang, as well as his solo projects, have an unmistakable rhythmic signature owing to his singular instrumental voice. The natural roundness and the musicality of his drums as well as the spatiality of the cymbals and bells create an inspiring rhythmical halo. ...

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Album Review

Jack Cooper: Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra

Read "Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 23, 2014

Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954), one of the first American composers of classical music to earn an international reputation, derived his inspiration from themes he had heard while growing up in Connecticut: hymns, traditional folk songs, marching bands (his father led one), patriotic songs, parlor ballads, Saturday night dances, and especially the melodies of the great Stephen Foster. Jazz composer / arranger / orchestrator / educator / saxophonist Jack Cooper, who was introduced to Ives' music by his mother, Georgie Cooper, ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Herbie Nichols Trio – Blue Note 1519

by Marc Davis
September 23, 2014

OK, now I'm cheating. At least it feels that way. The next CD on my quixotic Blue Note odyssey is Herbie Nichols Trio, a 1955-56 trio record by the criminally under-appreciated pianist. Great--I'm looking forward to it! I know almost nothing about Herbie Nichols, except that he was an overlooked talent who was often compared to the quirky Thelonious Monk. How can that be bad? Except... you can't really buy this CD. Not easily. And not ...