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

Éric Normand 5: Sur un fil

Read "Sur un fil" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 18, 2014

The quintet of electric bassist Éric Normand features reed player Jean Derome and percussionist Michel F. Côté, leading improvisers from Montreal's creative scene who have developed highly original free improvisations based on graphic scores, drawings and notated melodies that include an imaginative John Tchicai cover. This excellent quintet was recorded live in 2009 in Normand's countryside hometown, Rimouski, Quebec. The compositions drift freely between ambient, often noisy textures and minimalistic chamber and free jazz attacks. The ...

Album Review

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra: The L.A. Treasures Project

Read "The L.A. Treasures Project" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
July 18, 2014

The exciting opener of this CD--the high-swinging welcome of “I Love Being Here with You"--foreshadows the next 64 minutes of tight, crackling arrangements that are impeccably rendered and full of joy. The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, (CHJO) founded in 1985, has always been known for its full-hearted, world-class playing. The “L.A Treasures" of this title refers to the soulful veteran vocalists, Barbara Morrison and Ernie Andrews, who get four splendid features apiece, each one gleaming anew in its luscious orchestral setting. ...

Album Review

Michael Lake/Gerry Pagano: Roads Less Traveled

Read "Roads Less Traveled" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 17, 2014

The title of this album isn't just talk; it basically defines Michael Lake's entire career in music. Lake has made his way in the music world by playing the alto trombone--an instrument that many would simply look at as a novelty horn. Many years ago, his teacher at Arizona State University--a graduate assistant named Kevin Hedges--turned him onto this lesser-used little brother of the tenor trombone; it's been his go-to horn ever since. As Lake worked his ...

Extended Analysis

Jon Hassell: City: Works of Fiction (Expanded Edition)

by John Kelman
July 17, 2014

Originally released in 1990 on Brian Eno's forward-thinking Opal Records and reissued again, two years later, on All Saints Records, Jon Hassell's City: Works of Fiction was the trumpeter/keyboardist/conceptualist's fourth “official" installment in the Fourth World series that began with Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics (EG, 1980), followed by Fourth World Vol. 2: Dream Theory in Malaysia (EG, 1981) and Aka / Darbari / Java--Magic Realism (EG, 1983), though this groundbreaking and ultimately vastly influential concept truly began to ...

Album Review

Peter Brotzmann/Sonny Sharrock: WHATTHEFUCKDOYOUWANT

Read "WHATTHEFUCKDOYOUWANT" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 17, 2014

Gone, now more than twenty years ago, guitarist Sonny Sharrock passing in 1994 seems like just yesterday. Maybe it is because his inexhaustible larger-than-life sound still permeates the music of today's free jazz community. This recording, from 1987 is a hidden gem and treasured fragment, perhaps another Rosetta Stone that allows listeners to appreciate how the jazz and rock music worlds shattered into a million pieces in the 1960s, only to reconfigure into new and challenging ways. Sharrock ...

Multiple Reviews

Rodrigo Amado's Motion Trio and Peter Evans

by John Sharpe
July 17, 2014

Ever since the 2009 debut of the Motion Trio, Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado has sought to broaden the options available through the addition of more fire power. On both Burning Live (Jazz Ao Centro, 2012) and The Flame Alphabet (Not Two, 2012), Chicago trombonist Jeb Bishop occupied that berth, his garrulous melodicism proving a winning match to Amado's brusque tenor. Two years on and the reedman has a different collaborator on board, as American trumpeter Peter Evans joins him on ...

Album Review

Duo Gazzana: Poulenc Walton Dallapiccola Schnittke Silvestrov

Read "Poulenc Walton Dallapiccola Schnittke Silvestrov" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
July 17, 2014

The unifying theme of Italian sisters, violinist Natascia Gazzana and pianist Raffaella Gazzana's second release is a celebration of neoclassicism in modern music. The Duo Gazzana performs five 20th and 21st century compositions that, in one manner or another, draw inspiration from mostly the Baroque era.The focal point of the album is one of composer William Walton's early gems, the seldom- heard “Toccata For Violin & Piano." A haunting reading of this sublime piece opens with Natascia's passionate ...

Extended Analysis

Danny Fox Trio: Wide Eyed

by Dave Wayne
July 17, 2014

So many jazz piano trios, so little time! With Wide Eyed, the Danny Fox Trio proves very definitively that they are worthy of your attention. Fox' wickedly humorous, tightly-conceived, multi- stylistic compositions and his trio's remarkably sensitive interplay are completely attention-grabbing. One listen was enough to make me a believer. Like a lot of the more interesting piano trios working today, these guys are youngsters. Fox, a New York City native and Harvard grad, formed the trio in 2008. A ...

Album Review

U.S.U. Jazz Orchestra: Europa

Read "Europa" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 16, 2014

Most jazz fans probably don't go chasing college ensembles around looking for the next hot CD release. Those college orchestras are learning grounds. But a well directed college group can indeed treat the ears to top level sounds. The proof is here, with Europa, by the U.S.U. (Utah State Universality) Jazz Orchestra. Under the directorship of Jon Gudmundson, the group takes on music arranged by some of Europe's finest composers and arrangers. Tunes choices are unusual--three Frank Zappa ...

Catching Up With

Stanton Moore Goes Indie

by Gabriel Medina Arenas
July 16, 2014

Drummer Stanton Moore is one of the prodigal sons of New Orleans. His fans know him well from projects like Galactic, Garage a Trois and Dragon Smoke, which prodigiously fuse rock, jazz and funk. Moore, whose musical career spans nearly 25 years, is also an educator and has released several instructional books and DVDs. However, he had never recorded a jazz-only album. Before taking that step, he immersed himself in the jazz world, and played with ...