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.

On and Off the Grid

Practice, Do You? Part 1-3

by Dom Minasi
July 15, 2014

I began studying the guitar when I was seven years old. I hated my teacher and I didn't practice much, but when I changed teachers' and I went to Joe Geneli, I regained a love for the guitar that I first had when I was four years old when I first saw Roy Rogers sing and play. It was with Joe that I began to practice. I found an hour a day was sufficient, but as I got older and ...

Album Review

The New York Standards Quartet: The New Straight Ahead

Read "The New Straight Ahead" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 14, 2014

The New York Standards Quartet (aka the NYSQ) formed around 2006, its members sharing a love of standards played with a contemporary edge. This, the band's fourth album, is called The New Straight Ahead. As band name and album title suggest, this is a collection of straight-ahead standards, given new arrangements and “redesigns" by the quartet. Re-inventing the standards can be fraught with difficulties--these tunes are, after all, much loved in their original or classic incarnations. Changing tempos ...

Live Review

Dave Holland’s Prism at Copenhagen Jazzhouse

by Jakob Baekgaard
July 14, 2014

Dave Holland's Prism Copenhagen Jazzhouse Copenhagen, Denmark July 10, 2014 In jazz, forming a new group gives the possibility of finding a new musical expression, but it can also be a way of returning to one's musical roots. In the case of bassist Dave Holland's group Prism, it is actually both of these things. The group has brought Holland back in touch with the electrifying fusion that he created with trumpeter Miles Davis on ...

My Blue Note Obsession

The Jazz Messengers at the Café Bohemia, Volumes 1 and 2 – Blue Note 1507 and 1508

by Marc Davis
July 14, 2014

Is it possible for a band to be both legendary and underrated? The Jazz Messengers at the Café Bohemia makes that case. Jazz fans know the Jazz Messengers is the definitive, go-to band for straight-ahead hard bop. Art Blakey was both master drummer and master talent scout--the man who co-founded and sustained the celebrated group. For all his talents as a trailblazing harp bop drummer, Blakey's probably better known for discovering and nurturing several generations of jazz in ...

Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock Octet: Zurich Concert

Read "Zurich Concert" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
July 14, 2014

Even though numbering just eight strong, Ingrid Laubrock makes such skillful use of the talented cast at her disposal on Zurich Concert that the band delivers an almost orchestral experience. She achieves that through the deployment of three chordal instruments in Mary Halvorson's guitar, Liam Noble's piano and Ted Reichman's accordion. Not that you would characterize the music as overly dense. Laubrock exploits the possibilities inherent in her unusual line up to the full. Not everyone plays at the same ...

Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier – Mark Feldman Quartet with Scott Colley and Billy Mintz: Birdies For Lulu

Read "Birdies For Lulu" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 14, 2014

Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman are a dynamic duo within the neoteric strategies of modern jazz, coupled with their substantial artistic output. They intersperse classical inferences with shades of folk, avant-garde schemas, and bristling improvisational segments into the big picture. This incarnation of the quartet now features upper-echelon session bassist Scott Colley and venerable drummer Billy Mintz. Essentially, the artists enrich the avant-classical genre by cultivating an undertow framed on swing, bop and concise opuses tinted with the ...

Extended Analysis

Tyler Blanton: Gotham

by Dave Wayne
July 14, 2014

Tyler Blanton is a young vibraphonist and composer whose second album, Gotham, is nothing short of remarkable. The great playing by Blanton and his extraordinarily talented young band aside, Blanton's compositions are really what sets Gotham apart from the vast majority of new recordings by equally wonderful young jazz musicians. One can only guess that New York City made quite an impression on the young California native when he arrived in Brooklyn in 2007. This shock of the new was ...

Live Review

Bonerama at the Governors Island Beach Club

by Mike Perciaccante
July 13, 2014

Bonerama Governers Island Beach Club NolaFunk's 1st Annual Crawfish & Music Fest Governors Island, NY June 27, 2014 Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler! Those who speak French know what the phrase means. If you have ever been to New Orleans, you've “lived" this phrase. If you've had the pleasure of seeing Bonerama in concert you can't help but scream the phrase at the top of your lungs. French or English. Either way, Let The ...

Album Review

Rich Halley 4: The Wisdom of Rocks

Read "The Wisdom of Rocks" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
July 13, 2014

Over the span of a uniformly superb career, saxophonist Rich Halley and his working quartet have blended sophisticated style and unbridled vigor into impeccable performances that brim with creative energy. Their fourth release The Wisdom Of Rocks is no exception. What is unique about this provocative and exhilarating record is its unadorned beauty and mordant sound. Like the title insinuates, a pervasive theme is a raw, almost primal erudition that permeates its dozen, mostly, short tracks. The hard-hitting ...

Album Review

Tom Chang: Tongue and Groove

Read "Tongue and Groove" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
July 13, 2014

Look at the lineup on Tom Chang's Tongue & Groove! There is literally no way that this album could be anything less than great. Listening, repeatedly, to Tongue & Groove has, in fact, borne this out. Chang utilizes the increasingly popular two-reeds / bass / drums configuration to frame brief, but consistently spectacular, improvisations in the midst of his surprisingly knotty and complex multi-sectioned compositions. Everyone rises to the occasion here because the only way to play Chang's cutting edge ...