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.

Extended Analysis

Mark Turner: Lathe of Heaven

by John Kelman
September 5, 2014

Given that he's participated on no fewer than six recordings on ECM over the past six years-- two this year alone, with drummer Billy Hart's sophomore effort for the label, One is the Other (2014), and pianist Stefano Bollani's career-defining Joy In Spite Of Everything (2014)--it's no surprise to find Mark Turner finally getting his own date on the venerable German label. That Lathe of Heaven is the saxophonist's first recording under his own name alone since 2001's Dharma Days ...

Album Review

Peter Brotzmann/Sonny Sharrock: WHATTHEFUCKDOYOUWANT

Read "WHATTHEFUCKDOYOUWANT" reviewed by Sammy Stein

by Sammy Stein
September 5, 2014

This album is a release of archived material, recorded live in Luxembourg in 1987. Peter Brotzmann has been delving into his archives a lot lately and this release is one of the gems he found. Now on the Venetian label TROST, this collaboration between Brotzmann and guitarist Sonny Sharrock is widely available. Sharrock died in 1994 and jazz lost one ot its great musicians--he had played with Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders and others during the 1960s before fading from the ...

Catching Up With

Mike Rivard: Entranced By The Music

by Paul Naser
September 4, 2014

As globalization blends cultures and markets more and more everyday, it is only natural that artistic traditions and the artists that study them do the same. Mike Rivard is a leader in this regard, pioneering some of the most unique blends of musical styles and sounds today. Talking to him about his band Club D'elf and his new project, Grand Fatilla, revealed a number of diverse influences that shed some light on the roots of the one of a kind ...

Album Review

Tal Gur: Under Contractions

Read "Under Contractions" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 4, 2014

Uncertainty, synchronicity, discombobulation, frustration, and fragility all come to the surface on Under Contractions--the third album from Israeli-born, New York-based saxophonist Tal Gur. Gur--a practicing music therapist--has a way of coaxing emotions out of his instrument(s), turning his own work into a form of self-examination. It's true that autobiography has a place in the work of most musicians, but the resultant music that's created isn't often as vivid as this. For Gur, a nebulous miniature can serve ...

Album Review

Matthew Shipp: I've Been To Many Places

Read "I've Been To Many Places" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 4, 2014

But is it Jazz? That question gets lobbed at pianist Matthew Shipp's music all the time. Perhaps, “propelled" or “launched" are better terms. His approach to music, whether working with saxophonists David S. Ware and Ivo Perelman or with DJs, is to play authentic music, that which is a bona fide representation of his nature, or better yet his soul. This solo offering, I've Been To Many Places delves deep into that spirit and does (depending on where you stand) ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Gil Melle – Patterns in Jazz – Blue Note 1517

by Marc Davis
September 4, 2014

Sometimes, Blue Note surprises you. Often, the Blue Note catalogue is predictable, especially in the '50s and '60s. Some say it is too predictable. But if you dive deep, there are hidden gems slightly off the beaten hard-bop path. Case in point: Gil Melle's Patterns in Jazz. West Coast jazz was never at home at Blue Note. Stan Getz and Dave Brubeck did not record here. But Gil Melle did, briefly, before he went ...

Album Review

Ginger Berglund and Scott Whitfield: Solitary Moon

Read "Solitary Moon" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 4, 2014

The canon gifted us by composer Johnny Mandel, whether film scores, television themes or individual compositions, is bathed in distinctive melodic beauty. And, both memorable and lesser-known Mandel selections offer lyrics from some of the greatest wordsmiths of our time--Johnny Mercer, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Dave Frishberg, and others. Thus the material presented in Solitary Moon -by its very nature -warrants nothing less than a superbly-delivered interpretation. Anything even a hair less simply does not cut the Mandel mustard.

Live Review

Miles Electric Band at SFJAZZ

by Harry S. Pariser
September 4, 2014

Miles Electric Band SFJAZZ San Francisco, CA August 23, 2014 “This is not a ghost band--just a great group of musicians who loved playing with Miles and had admiration for the Chief." --Miles Electric Band leader Vincent Wilburn, Jr. Many who first became interested in jazz in the 1970s will remember an album which came to stores at the commencement of that glorious decade. An affordably priced, two-LP set, it came with ...

Extended Analysis

Hiromi: Alive

by Jeff Winbush
September 3, 2014

If jazz has become a niche market in the music industry (and it is), a contributing factor for its slide into cultural irrelevance is a failure to promote and support new artists. No matter what sub-genre of jazz you personally love, across the board there is no sustained effort to develop a roster of first-tier talent in jazz. Every so often along comes a Esperanza Spalding who joins the long list of previous “saviors" of jazz such as Wynton Marsalis ...

Album Review

Marialy Pacheco: Introducing

Read "Introducing" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
September 3, 2014

The album title is something of a misnomer as Introducing is Marialy Pacheco's seventh release as leader since Benediciones (Weltwunder Records, 2005). The Melbourne-based Cuban's stock has certainly risen since that introduction, notably as a result of becoming the first female winner of the Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition in 2012. A noted classical pianist too, Pacheco has recited Bach with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and guested with the Queensland Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata of St. John's. For her ...