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

North Sea Jazz Festival 2014

by Henning Bolte
July 31, 2014

North Sea Jazz Festival 2014 Rotterdam, Netherlands July, 11, 2014 The North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam is the biggest indoor festival in Europe. It is organized by Mojo Concerts and The Security Company, both part of Live Nation Entertainment, a worldwide operating live event mega-organizer (240,000 events annually in 33 countries). The amount of parallel concerts and big names in three days and nights-- starting in the late afternoon--is dizzying. It also evokes ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music, Volume 1 – Blue Note 1510

by Marc Davis
July 31, 2014

There's bebop, there's hard bop--and then there's Thelonious Monk. It's not hard to imagine where the bebop pioneers found their new sound in the late 1940s, after World War II. It emerged from the big bands, which were dying. It was a natural progression. Hard-charging, uber-fast soloists pushed the limits of speed and rhythm, to the chagrin of the jazz establishment, but to the thrill of listeners. It was new, but it wasn't a giant leap--more of an ...

Album Review

Pharoah & The Underground: Spiral Mercury

Read "Spiral Mercury" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 31, 2014

With Pharaoh & the Underground we have two generations of musicians whose common bond is their greatness. Tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders--heir to his friend and colleague John Coltrane--and Rob Mazurek, the most inventive cornetist since Louis Armstrong are captured together on Spiral Mercury . The album is a document of a 2013 concert, one of the live performances Mazurek and Sanders have been collaborating on for several years. The two are joined by Mazurek colleagues from various groups; percussionist Maurício ...

Album Review

Yosvany Terry: Yosvany Terry: New Throned King

Read "Yosvany Terry: New Throned King" reviewed by Steve Bryant

by Steve Bryant
July 31, 2014

Yosvany Terry is part of the new wave of young Cuban players who have come to these shores during the last decade and established a solid presence based on their artistry and virtuosity. What has distinguished Terry from his counterparts, however, is that while most of the Cubans are either pianists or drummers, his instruments of choice have been the alto and soprano sax. In the meantime, Terry, who is the scion of one of Cuba's musical first families, Los ...

Bailey's Bundles

Smoke Sessions: Cyrus Chestnut, Orrin Evans and Eric Reed

by C. Michael Bailey
July 31, 2014

Cyrus Chestnut Midnight Melodies Smoke Sessions 2014 Elegance and economy characterize Cyrus Chestnut's art. Chestnut's career was the one Kenny Kirkland could have had had Kirkland's fate been different. Chestnut (and Evans and Reed) represent the generation given way to with the passings of Mulgrew Miller and Cedar Walton. Chestnut is a keeper of the flame, a lyrical and expressive pianist who likes to use notes in sculpting songs. Midnight Melodies was ...

Album Review

Tom Chang: Tongue and Groove

Read "Tongue and Groove" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
July 30, 2014

It's a natural extension of New York guitarist Tom Chang's repertoire to combine heavy metal with jazz improvisation in “Spinal Tap/Goes to 11" the opening track of his release Tongue and Groove. Born in South Korea, he moved to Canada with formative teen years listening to rock icons like Joni Mitchell and Led Zeppelin. What comes as an added surprise in this noteworthy release is the fluency that Chang displays in blending not only a jazz-rock aesthetic but also a ...

Album Review

Roger Davidson: Temple Of The Soul: Rhapsodies & Meditations For Solo Piano

Read "Temple Of The Soul: Rhapsodies & Meditations For Solo Piano" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 30, 2014

Pianist Roger Davidson isn't a fan of repeating himself. With each album he's shined a light on a different facet of his artistry, marrying a classicist's outlook and touch with a fascination for anything and everything musical. He's looked at the sounds of Brazil from different perches, explored the tango in detail, tackled the music of Michel Legrand with bassist David Finck, and delivered a standards-heavy trio program in honor of music industry vet Helen Keane. Now, with Temple Of ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Quanta July: Larry Goldings, Sean Jones and Todd Bishop

by C. Michael Bailey
July 30, 2014

Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart Ramshackle Serenade Pirouet Records 2014 The organ trio in jazz has always been one of the more durable formats. Wild Bill Davis, John Patton, Shirley Scott, Richard Groove" Holmes, Jimmy Smith and Larry Young have all led important trios each giving the music a little bit of themselves and pushing the music to its outer limits. To get the breadth of the jazz organ, compare Big ...

Album Review

Tamara Obrovac: Ulika Revival

Read "Ulika Revival" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 30, 2014

In 1998 singer and songwriter Tamara Obrovac, from Istria in Croatia, released Ulika (CBS), an album dedicated to her grandmother. Ulika Revival revisits a dozen songs from that album, presenting new renditions informed by the 15 or 16 years that lie between the two releases. The revival is a great success, a masterly collection of strikingly affecting songs. In a global marketplace dominated by one or two languages it's refreshing to hear a singer who remains faithful to ...

Multiple Reviews

The Spiritual Language of Soprano Saxophone Player Joe Rosenberg

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 30, 2014

Soprano saxophonist Joe Rosenberg, who splits his time between Paris, France and Bali, Indonesia, has a highly personal approach to playing and improvising. He stresses a spiritual search for an inner sound that may enlighten his music with profound, timeless meaning. Regrettably, Rosenberg records rarely. His last effort with the Signal to Noise quartet, Tag, was released in 2009 (Quark). His highly impressive new albums feature a distinct approach and unique compositions. Joe Rosenberg Ensemble Resolution ...