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

The Jazzmasters: The Jazzmasters VII

Read "The Jazzmasters VII" reviewed by Jeff Winbush

by Jeff Winbush
July 8, 2014

Jazz: noun, often attributive \'jaz\ a type of American music with lively rhythms and melodies that are often made up by musicians as they play Jazz. Say the word. J-A-Z-Z. Paul Hardcastle calls his side project “The Jazzmasters." If he means he plays instrumentals, it is. If he means truly understanding the idiom, it's not. The not-so Secret Sauce of Hardcastle's success is his music is designed, calculated, formulated and manufactured so as not to deviate ...

Album Review

Daniel Ögren: Brev till Kristinehamn

Read "Brev till Kristinehamn" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 8, 2014

Swedish guitarist Daniel Ögren continues to offer sonic tributes to the landscapes of Sweden. In his past releases-- Laponia (Hoob, 2011) and Laponia II (Havtorn, 2013)--Ögren, known as a guitarist in singer-songwriter and organist Anna von Hauswolff's band, focused on the scenery of northern Sweden. Brev till Kristinehamn (letter to Kristinehamm} is dedicated to his home town, a railroad and road center situated by the shores of lake Vänern and exactly 250 km away from Stockholm, Gothenburg and Oslo.

Album Review

Party Knüllers meets Jim Baker: Four Images of Wank

Read "Four Images of Wank" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 8, 2014

The duo Party Knüllers--Chicagoan cellist and electronics player Fred Lonberg-Holm and Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg--wanted to intensify its already dense mix of sounds and added Lonberg-Holm's frequent comrade, synth player Jim Baker. The trio did a short tour in the United States before recording recording Four Images of Wank in the studio. Apparently, according to the amused liner notes of Baker, presented as a letter from him to Lonberg-Holm and Solberg, Baker was not happy ...

Album Review

Andrew Rathbun: Numbers & Letters

Read "Numbers & Letters" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 7, 2014

Toronto-born saxophonist/composer Andrew Rathbun is no stranger to pushing the boundaries. He has released a dozen superb modernistic CDs under his own name, perhaps most notable of these his nod to his fellow Canadian, writer Margaret Atwood, Sculptures (Blue Moon, 2002), and 2009's and Where We Are Now (Steeplechase Records). Rathbun, on all of his previous outings, has shown a true talent for putting together great bands. The disc at hand, Number & Letters is right there in that regard, ...

Interview

Orrin Evans: Hot Irons In The Fire

by R.J. DeLuke
July 7, 2014

A pianist with great chops, great touch and an attack that fancies many influences from fierce swing to gospel, Orrin Evans is one of the outstanding creative musicians on the New York City scene. His work, no matter what the context--and he loves different contexts--is downright riveting at times. But for the 38-year-old who hails from Philadelphia, jazz, though a pleasure, was a bit of a mystery when he was first experimenting with it. “I didn't ...

Extended Analysis

Jeff Cosgrove: Alternating Current

by Ian Patterson
July 7, 2014

"Playing music is like doing heart surgery," bassist William Parker told interviewer Radhika Philiip in Being Here: Conversations on Creating Music (Radio.org, 2013). “Every time you hit a note, someone's life is on the line, and so you can't fool around." Serious intent and intense focus are the cornerstones of these playful dialogues between Parker, drummer Jeff Cosgrove and pianist Matthew Shipp. A similar approach is also recommended in approaching this music--background noise it ain't. Drummer Andrew Cyrille--to ...

Album Review

The Dan DeChellis Trio: Strength And Anger

Read "Strength And Anger" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 7, 2014

On Strength And Anger, Pianist Dan DeChellis' continues his original explorations within the trio format, building on his work on such albums as My Age Of Anxiety (Self Produced, 2012), The Getback (Self Produced, 2009), Organic Material (Self Produced, 2008), and Climbing (Self Produced, 2006). The seventeen songs presented herein--most in the three-to-five minute range--are autobiographical in nature. DeChellis references the highs and lows in his life, looking back fondly on twenty years of marriage ("20 Year ...

Multiple Reviews

The Latest Adventures of Dutch Sound Poet Jaap Blonk

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 7, 2014

Innovative Dutch vocal artist Jaap Blonk has created his own highly personal sound poetry. His vocal acrobatics are still an essential element of his sound palette but not an exclusive one. Since 2000 Blonk has developed new means and methods to expand and experiment with his vocals, with live sampling of his vocals, addition of electronics, morphing and mutating his voice with his own software and with like-minded improvisers. His latest three releases feature the breadth of his musical language. ...

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Album Review

Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra: Shrimp Tale

Read "Shrimp Tale" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 7, 2014

Light flourishes, grand pronouncements, fleeting and flitting figures, sudden shifts in mood, and wide emotional arcs are part and parcel of the music created by the Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra. Chan, a classically trained pianist who came up in Hong Kong, hopped all over the United States while honing his writing skills. He studied jazz arranging as an undergraduate at the University of Miami, acquired a master's degree in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, did ...

Album Review

Jan Sturiale: Electric Water

Read "Electric Water" reviewed by Marta Ramon

by Marta Ramon
July 7, 2014

Jan Sturiale returned to the studio with a new quintet formation. Recorded at Tritone Studios, in Los Angeles, this is Sturiale's most international work, as much in the recording locations as in the musicians (and the featured vocalist) which shape his quintet. In this record, Electric Water (Drawtheline Records, 2014), he keeps developing his compositional language into a more accurate one. Equilibrium is a term that better defines the final result of the nine tunes here that show ...