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

Greg Reitan: Post No Bills

Read "Post No Bills" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 28, 2014

Los Angeles-based pianist/composer Greg Reitan's Some Other Time (Sunnyside Records) vied for the honors of “Debut of the Year" in 2009. Using his same trio--with bassist Jack Daro and drummer Dean Koba--Reitan followed up that auspicious start with two more outstanding sets, Antibes (2010) and Daybreak (2011), both for the Sunnyside label. With this same trio--they have been together since 1996--he has honed an elegant and polished sound, drawing on a Bill Evans influence--the light touch, subtle dynamics, ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Vocals July - Stacy Kent, Patrice Jegou, and Vanessa Perea

by C. Michael Bailey
July 28, 2014

Stacy Kent The Changing Lights Warner Bros. Records 2013 Stacey Kent has had an impressive musical run: Breakfast on the Morning Tram (Blue Note, 2007, for which she was nominated for a Grammy Award), Raconte- moi... (Blue Note, 2010), Dreamer In Concert (Blue Note, 2011) just being her previous three recordings of her ten releases as a leader. She is intelligent, polyglot and capable of performing in any genre ...

Album Review

Mike LeDonne: I Love Music

Read "I Love Music" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 28, 2014

The uncommonly talented Mike LeDonne continues his transition from piano to Hammond B3, if that is what one may call it, with yet another superb album, the suitably named I Love Music. And while using the organ throughout is a good idea, it is but the first of two, as whenever LeDonne schedules a recording session he's almost sure to invite his friend and colleague, the stellar tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, a decision that is bound to please almost any ...

Talking 2 Musicians

Oz Noy

by Alan Bryson
July 28, 2014

As a top session guitarist in his native Israel, Oz Noy was at home playing jazz, blues, funk, and rock. Since emmigrating to the United States in 1996 he has been based in New York City where he has become a regular fixture on the local jazz scene, including his standing gig at the Bitter End. He plays a Stratocaster with a tone, feel, and energy that is likely to appeal to fans of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, ...

Album Review

Steve Wilson/Lewis Nash: Duologue

Read "Duologue" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 27, 2014

Saxophone and drum duos aren't as rare as some might believe, but a good percentage of such encounters are challenging, left-leaning affairs. John Coltrane's edgy encounters with Rashied Ali on Interstellar Space (Impulse!, 1974) emboldened many in the so-called avant-garde to marry these instruments time and again over the ensuing decades, yet few centrists seem as interested or willing to explore that territory. That's why a recording such as this, featuring man-for-all-seasons saxophonist Steve Wilson and paragon-of-class drummer Lewis Nash, ...

Album Review

The Gascoyne O'Higgins Quartet: The Real Note Vol. 2

Read "The Real Note Vol. 2" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 27, 2014

It's the facts. Many inquisitive people spend their lives in pursuit of the facts. For the questing jazz musician, by contrast, the contrafacts take precedence. That's certainly the case for the UK's Gascoyne O'Higgins Quartet. The band's second collection of such tunes based on the chord changes from Songbook standards, The Real Note Vol. 2, features nine of them. Bassist Geoff Gascoyne and saxophonist Dave O'Higgins co-lead the group, which is completed by pianist Graham Harvey and drummer ...

Live Review

John Hiatt at Shelburne Museum

by Doug Collette
July 27, 2014

John Hiatt & the Combo The Green at Shelburne Museum Shelburne, Vermont July 10, 2014 John Hiatt has become a past master at creating songs populated with characters full of real-life detail . Playing with the Combo on the Green at Shelburne Museum, he offered a selection of his original material that painted a self-portrait rendered even more vivid by the expertise of the musicians around him. And it began from the very ...

Album Review

Jeff Cosgrove: Alternating Current

Read "Alternating Current" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
July 27, 2014

Alternating Current is a completely entrancing recording that captures three master players listening and responding in real time. Both Matthew Shipp and William Parker thrive in the completely improvised arena, which is why drummer Jeff Cosgrove wanted them for this project. A second reason might have been that neither musician had ever played a composition by Paul Motian, who is one of Cosgrove's idols, along with Andrew Cyrille, who has connections with all three musicians and who helped ...

Live Review

Cowboy Mouth at B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill

by Mike Perciaccante
July 27, 2014

Cowboy Mouth with the Cringe B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill New York, NY July 17, 2014 Cowboy Mouth is a rock 'n' roll band formed in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the early 1990s during grunge's heyday. Its sound is best described as a musical gumbo mixing gritty rock, punk, blues, new wave, swamp pop, rockabilly and a touch of New Orleans funk. Some of the band's most popular songs include “Voodoo Shoppe," “Joe ...

Album Review

Eric Wyatt: Borough Of Kings

Read "Borough Of Kings" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 26, 2014

The borough of Kings (County)--a.k.a. Brooklyn, NY--has been saxophonist Eric Wyatt's home base from birth. It was there that he was exposed to jazz, met some of the legends of the music, and began to forge his own voice on saxophone. Here, on his fifth album to date, he delivers an intense brew that speaks volumes about what he's learned during his time in Brooklyn. Wyatt is a no holds barred player with an edge to his ...