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

Tommy Smith/Brian Kellock: Whispering of the Stars

Read "Whispering of the Stars" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 30, 2014

Tommy Smith is known best for his directorship of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. The group has emerged as one of the finest of big bands with offerings like the classic In the Spirit of Duke (Spartacus records, 2013), a tribute to Duke Ellington, Rhapsody In Blue (Spartacus Records, 2006), an extended and stunning remake of George Gershwin's classic tune, and the inspired backing of Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen on the 2012 ECM Records release, Celebration. But Smith is also ...

Live Review

TD Ottawa Jazz Festival 2014, Days 4-6

by John Kelman
June 30, 2014

Days 1-2 | Days 4-6 | Days 7- 9 Tedeschi Trucks Band Bill Frisell Guitar in the Space Age! Julian Lage & Nels Cline / Bill Frisell Go West TD Ottawa Jazz Festival Ottawa, Canada June 20-July 1, 2014 While not necessarily an intentional decision, the next three days of the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival were a guitar lover's dream: two performances by festival stalwart Bill Frisell; the return of ...

Album Review

Andres Thor: Nordic Quartet

Read "Nordic Quartet" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 30, 2014

Even though it is a small country, Iceland has produced many interesting jazz musicians. Among them, pianists Sunna Gunnlaugs and Eythor Gunnarsson, saxophonist Óscar Gudjónsson and bassist Skúli Sverrisson. Add to this list guitarist Andrés Thor. As a musician, Thor has the distinctive lyrical beauty of many of his countrymen, but he is also a cosmopolitan at heart who stretches across geographical boundaries and this is reflected on his album Nordic Quartet. His group includes Danish bassist ...

Live Review

Angelique Kidjo at Nourse Auditorium, San Francisco

by Harry S. Pariser
June 30, 2014

Angelique Kidjo California Institute of Integral Studies Nourse Theater June 21, 2014 “I believe that any feeling of xenophobia and fear comes from ignorance. Often people think that when you are not like them, you are different and therefore you are a threat. It is not true. I think that the problem of xenophobia today is coming from the world economic crisis. Some people, for example, think that as foreigners we are going to take ...

Album Review

Tomás Doncker Band: Moanin' at Midnight

Read "Moanin' at Midnight" reviewed by Paul Naser

by Paul Naser
June 30, 2014

Internationally renowned guitarist and vocalist Tomás Doncker has worked with such greats as Bootsy Collins and Ivan Neville. His newest release, Moanin' at Midnight: The Howlin Wolf Project (True Groove, 2014), a tribute to blues legend Chester Burnett, otherwise known as Howlin' Wolf, has all the raw energy that a blues record like this needs. The intensity and swagger with which he and his band approach the music really do justice to the spirit of the man they're celebrating, which ...

Album Review

Alban Darche: L’OrphiCube: Perception Instantanée

Read "L’OrphiCube: Perception Instantanée" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 30, 2014

French, Nantes-based composer and saxophonist Alban Darche continues to explore the possibilities of transforming variable geometrical ideas inspired by cubist painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) as compositional tools for an improvising ensemble. Darche began this work with his nine-musician ensemble, L'OrphiCube (a term that refers the cubist art movement and a poem about Orpheus by poet Guillaume Apollinaire), on its self-titled debut last year (Pépin Et Plume, 2013). The L'OrphiCube ensemble operates with shifting variable geometry--six permanent ...

Album Review

Jim Manley: Chilled Brass

Read "Chilled Brass" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
June 29, 2014

Some years back as part of an iconic advertising campaign, Absolut Vodka (via its ad agency, TBWA) developed a series of magazine and poster ads that also included one dear to musicians, especially trumpeters. A gorgeous black-background shot of a gleaming silver trumpet with Absolut “bottles" as its valves. It was titled “Absolut Jazz." Chilled Brass from trumpeter Jim Manley is as smooth as silk and, while it might not provide you a liquid “lift," it provides plenty of enjoyable ...

Live Review

Ambrose Akinmusire at Dazzle, Denver, June 21, 2014

by Geoff Anderson
June 29, 2014

Ambrose Akinmusire Dazzle Denver June 21, 2014 Einstein taught us that time is a relative thing. Time can pass, or seem to pass, at different rates depending on how fast you are moving; especially in relation to an observer who is moving at a different speed. For Ambrose Akinmusire and his quintet, time is a relative thing too. And it may well be different for the observers than it is for the band. Akinmusire brought ...

Album Review

Rallidae: Paper Birds

Read "Paper Birds" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 29, 2014

The British Trust For Ornithology helpfully explains that the Rallidae is a family of birds that includes such less-than-romantic species as the moorhen and the coot. Paper Birds is the debut release from a somewhat different Rallidae--a Brooklyn-based trio that combines improvisation with strong melodies and narratives. The Brooklyn Rallidae is led by Canadian tenor saxophonist, vocalist and composer Angela Morris: vocalist Alex Samaras and bassist/vocalist Scott Colberg complete the rather unusual trio lineup. Paper Birds is a ...

Catching Up With

Kendrick Scott and His Convictions

by K. Shackelford
June 29, 2014

Everybody sings the praises of Kendrick Scott. The New York Times quickly named him as one of “Five Drummers Whose Time Is Now." On the drums, he transforms into a masterful and exquisite sonic architect whose work is filled with imaginative capacity. Yet Scott is what they call a triple threat--filling roles not only as a drummer, but also as a striking composer and band leader. His latest album, Conviction, featuring his band Oracle, illuminates work that is ...