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

Dee Alexander: Songs My Mother Loves

Read "Songs My Mother Loves" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 25, 2014

The maternal influence on a musician should never be underestimated. There's a degree of love, guidance, nurturing and support that only a mother can provide, and plenty of jazz artists have taken the time to express their appreciation for this fact: violinist Regina Carter did so with the touching I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey (Verve, 2006), trumpeter Dave Douglas explored the hymns and folk songs that his mother had asked to be played at her funeral on Be ...

Album Review

Brian Groder: Reflexology

Read "Reflexology" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 25, 2014

A long-time fixture in the his native New York City jazz scene, trumpeter and flugelhorn player Brian Groder has devoted a considerable part of his career to the frequent use of free-form approaches. His previous trios have included bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. Groder has also worked with trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum and many others. On Reflexology he surrounds himself with very like-minded improvisers in bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Jay Rosen. Bisio has led virtually every ...

Multiple Reviews

Three new releases on Rune Grammofon

by John Eyles
August 25, 2014

Norway's Rune Grammofon label long ago established itself in the front rank, initially based on releases by the group Supersilent plus releases including its members Deathprod (Helge Sten), Ståle Storløkken and Arve Henriksen. In addition, the label has gradually built up an impressive roster including such Scandinavian artists as Alog, Fire!, Jenny Hval, Motorpsycho and Susanna and the Magical Orchestra. Consequently, although Supersilent 12 cannot be far away, Rune Grammofon has been well placed to cope with the group's relative ...

Album Review

Mirage Ensemble: Memory Happens Now

Read "Memory Happens Now" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
August 25, 2014

One of the things that is worth noticing about the new generation of jazz musicians in Norway is how they seamlessly combine genres and create their own expression. Of course, blending genres has been a part of jazz music almost since the beginning, but jazz has also become an idiom of its own with certain conventions: solos, swing, standards and not least improvisation. Like much post-modern jazz, Mirage Ensemble challenges these conventions, but the musicians keep in ...

Extended Analysis

Arve Henriksen: The Nature of Connections

by John Kelman
August 25, 2014

Few artists could call an album The Nature of Connections with as much veracity as Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. There's been the myriad of collaborations on his own albums--just a small handful of the contributors to recordings including Places of Worship (Rune Grammofon, 2013), Cartography (ECM, 2008), Strjon (Rune Grammofon, 2007) and Chiaroscuro (Rune Grammofon, 2004) including producers/Punkt Festival co-directors Jan Bang and Erik Honoré; bassist Lars Danielsson; drummer Audun Kleive; Supersilent mates, keyboardist Ståle Storløkken and guitarist Helge Sten; ...

Live Review

Gov't Mule at Paramount Theater

by Doug Collette
August 24, 2014

Gov't Mule Paramount Theater Rutland, Vermont August 15, 2014 The cozy confines of the stage at Rutland's Paramount Theater barely held Gov't Mule's equipment set up this mid-August Friday night and, similarly, the beautifully restored venue's walls and ceiling barely contained the thunderous sound of the quartet. Luxuriating in its movement through a two-set, three-hour performance (perhaps to a fault), the quartet nevertheless finished with a fast flourish, in doing so confirming this late summer ...

Album Review

Claire Martin: Time And Place

Read "Time And Place" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 24, 2014

Few vocalists are as elegant and eloquent as Claire Martin. She's been dubbed “The First Lady of British Jazz," but she doesn't simply belong to her own people; she's one of the crown jewels of the jazz world, contributing classy and intelligent music via her steady flow of albums on the Linn imprint. In the past, Martin has tried plenty of different things. She collaborated with pianist-composer Richard Rodney Bennett, tipped her cap to Shirley Horn, visited ...

Album Review

Gio Yáñez: Zero Point Energy

Read "Zero Point Energy" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 24, 2014

Guitarist Gio Yáñez makes his debut as a bandleader and recording artist with Zero Point Energy. He leads an impressive group of Spanish and Portuguese musicians on a set of original compositions that draw on contemporary jazz and rock as well as on the music of Galicia, where the guitarist began his studies with players such as Marcos Pin and Manolo Gutierrez. There's a mid-album triumvirate of song titles that suggest more than a hint of doom-laden angst--"Please ...

Live Review

The Swallow-Talmor-Nussbaum Trio at the Douglas Beach House

by Bill Leikam
August 24, 2014

Swallow-Talmor-Nussbaum TrioDouglas Beach House Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society Half Moon Bay, California August 10, 2014 A rare U.S. performance by the highly sophisticated and seasoned jazz trio of Steve Swallow, electric bass; Ohad Talmor, tenor saxophone; and Adam Nussbaum on drums, set the stage for a two-set performance. Before his passing on July 12, 2014, Pete Douglas, the legendary club owner and founder of the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, talked about this ...

Album Review

Jose James: While You Were Sleeping

Read "While You Were Sleeping" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
August 24, 2014

Jazz has always had a soft spot for pop music. Icons like trumpeter Louis Armstrong blessed the masses with his positivity and raspy voice in 1967's “What a Wonderful World" and saxophonist John Coltrane transformed Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1960 musical smash “My Favorite Things" into a swinging affair. Fast forward to 2014 as singer, songwriter and producer Jose James continues the practice with a fine rendition of 1972's “Simply Beautiful" by the one-time prince of R&B, vocalist Al Green.