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.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Mason Razavi

by AAJ Staff
September 13, 2014

Meet Mason Razavi: Starting out as a self-taught rock guitarist, Mason began studying jazz and playing in working rock bands as a teenager. After hearing an Andres Segovia recording for the first time at age 22, Mason changed directions dramatically and focused on the classical guitar for several years before returning to jazz and the electric guitar. Though first and foremost a jazz guitarist/composer, his diverse background has led him to play in settings ranging from rock bands to ...

Album Review

Chris Walden Big Band: Full-On!

Read "Full-On!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 13, 2014

It's been a while since the jazz world has seen a release from this group. The first three albums credited to the Chris Walden Big Band--the Grammy-nominated Home Of My Heart (Origin Records, 2005), No Bounds (Origin Records, 2006), and Kurt Marti Suite (Origin Records, 2007)--came in quick succession. And then there was silence from Walden. Well, that's not exactly true. Walden's actually been quite busy in the interim, even if his work didn't center on his own big band. ...

Extended Analysis

Robert Plant: lullaby and …The Ceaseless Roar

by Nenad Georgievski
September 13, 2014

Singer Robert Plant's interesting and colorful journey in music continues further with a brilliant new outing named lullaby and ... The Ceaseless Roar. For one thing, this record shows that as Plant gets older he does wondrous things but settle down. His former band casts a long shadow in today's music, with Led Zeppelin as popular as ever, and in a year that saw the band's albums re-released in lavish box sets and various audio formats, Robert Plant takes a ...

Album Review

Andrew McCormack: First Light

Read "First Light" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
September 13, 2014

English pianist Andrew McCormack came to wider attention in the UK with his debut Telescope (Dune, 2006) and his subsequent Rising Star BBC Jazz Award. McCormack was already an established figure on the London jazz scene through his association with Tomorrow's Warriors and J-Life though a decade on he's probably still best known as a sideman in the bands of Denys Baptiste, Jean Toussaint, and Gary Crosby's Nu-Troop, as well as for his duo collaborations with Jason Yarde. That may ...

Album Review

Ken Berman: Sound Poetry

Read "Sound Poetry" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
September 13, 2014

Pianist Ken Berman's friendship with the late poet Eythan Klamka served as the inspiration for Sound Poetry, a musical project of mostly original compositions bookended by two solo reinterpretations of classic jazz standards. Poet Klamka, to whom this album is dedicated, had previously stated that “any true musician is a sound poet" and to this end, poetry and music come together on the pianists fourth album as leader. Along with electric bassist Kai Eckhardt and drummer Akira Tana, the Berman ...

Album Review

Microscopic Septet: Manhattan Moonrise

Read "Manhattan Moonrise" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 13, 2014

In the 80s, the band engendered a cagey slant on mainstream swing and then morphed into the risk-taking New York downtown scene, eventually garnering widespread attention and sell-out crowds at the Knitting Factory and other hip venues. They regrouped in 2006, carrying the torch for what has become a singular sound, ingrained in classic jazz stylizations, bop, funk, and the free-jazz domain. Known for its quirky deviations, razor-sharp horns arrangements and melodic hooks, the septet's spunkiness and tightknit overtures align ...

Album Review

Louis-Michel Marion: 5 Strophes

Read "5 Strophes" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 13, 2014

French double bassist Louis-Michel Marion's sophomore solo double bass album (after his debut solo double bass album Grounds, Emil, 2012) blends influences from European schools of free improvisation and experimental, modern composers. Marion--who collaborates regularly with forward-thinking French improvisers like sax player Daunik Lazro, clarinetist Xavier Charles or pianist Sophie Agnel--describes himself as influenced by seminal, innovative double bass players such as Joëlle Léandre, Barry Guy and Peter Kowald and composers such as Giacinto Scelsi, Iancu Dumitrescu and Iannis Xenakis. ...

Catching Up With

Victor Haskins: Embracing His Audience

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 12, 2014

Victor Haskins is one of those young musicians who seems to be able to do it all. He's an award-winning trumpeter, composer/arranger and educator/clinician--all at 21 years old. His debut recording, The Truth (32 Bar Records, 2013) received significant well-deserved acclaim. Haskins, a young visionary, has developed ImproviStory, what he describes as a new and emerging form of audience-generated extemporaneous musical improvisation. We caught up with Victor as he prepares to perform ImproviStory at this year's Festival of New Trumpet ...

Album Review

Blue-Eyed Hawk: Under The Moon

Read "Under The Moon" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
September 12, 2014

Blue-Eyed Hawk is an exciting new band from the UK, debuting its original songs on Under The Moon. The album title is taken from the poem by W B Yeats: the band's name also comes from that poem. Such choices suggest a literate quartet, a suggestion supported by the intelligent, thoughtful, lyrics and music to be found on this album. Formed by vocalist Lauren Kinsella, trumpeter Laura Jurd, guitarist Alex Roth and multi-instrumentalist Corrie Dick, Blue-Eyed Hawk comes ...

Live Review

John Handy at Yoshi's San Francisco

by Harry S. Pariser
September 12, 2014

John Handy Yoshi's San Francisco San Francisco, California August 31, 2014 If one thinks of iconic Bay Area musicians, saxophonist John Handy immediately comes to mind. Born in 1933 in Dallas, Texas, Handy is an accomplished horn player who, while best known for his work on alto, also plays tenor and baritone sax, oboe, clarinet and saxello. Due to his age, Handy plays only infrequently in public (most notably with visiting luminaries such ...