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

John Escreet: Sound, Space and Structures

Read "Sound, Space and Structures" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 24, 2014

Nascent pianist, composer John Escreet has created a buzz in progressive jazz spheres, while paving a golden path since his well-received debut album, Consequences (Posi-Tone, 2008). The young British Renaissance man teams with fellow countryman and iconic saxophone improviser Evan Parker and frequent collaborators, bassist John Hebert and drummer Tyshawn Sorey on an album that is conspicuously modeled after its title. Escreet and associates united with Parker for a few sets at John Zorn's New York City venue ...

Album Review

Hild Sofie Tafjord: Breathing

Read "Breathing" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 24, 2014

Norwegian French horn player Hild Sofie Taford has re-written the instrument's sonic possibilities, in many previous free improvised formats that were fearless. She plays in the electro-acoustic free improv quartet SPUNK, the duo Fe-Mail (with Maja Ratkje of SPUNK) and the meeting of Fe-Mail with the prog- metallists of Enslaved in Trinacaria and collaborated with forward- thinking improvisers as Fred Frith, Otomo Yoshihide and Ikue Mori. Her debut solo album Kama (Pica Disk, 2007) was an arresting, multi-layered reconstruction of ...

Interview

Ulf Wakenius: Confessions of A Vagabond

by Ian Patterson
June 24, 2014

Happenstance may play a role in turning dreams into reality, but anyone who's ever realized a burning ambition will appreciate just how much hard work has paved the way. Two phone calls out of the blue almost twenty years apart opened doors to Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius, that in the first case he could only have dreamt about, and in the second, he could never have imagined. In 1997, in fairly dizzying circumstances, Wakenius suddenly found himself in ...

Live Review

Moers Festival 2014

by Henning Bolte
June 23, 2014

Moers Festival Moers , GermanyJune, 6-9, 2014 Moers is a small city of about 100,000 inhabitants at the periphery of the former mining and industrial Ruhrpott area in Germany, about 40 km from the Dutch border and near the cities of Duisburg and Düsseldorf. Moers Festival, a four-day annual event always taking place on White Sunday, is a special festival with a rich history and firm traditions. Originally named Moers International New Jazz Festival, it ...

Album Review

The North: Slow Down (This Isn't the Mainland)

Read "Slow Down (This Isn't the Mainland)" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 23, 2014

When French pianist Romain Collin and Hawaii natives double bassist Shawn Conley and drummer Abe Lagrimas, Jr got together in Honolulu there was no special agenda; just three friends playing a few gigs in a relaxed environment, far from the hurly burly of their adopted cities of Los Angeles and New York. However, a trio chemistry was born and shortly afterwards a three-week writing/recording session in an idyllic location ensued. As the title suggests, the music is pretty laid back. ...

Album Review

Juanito Pascual: New Flamenco Trio

Read "New Flamenco Trio" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 23, 2014

While the trio may be the most overused grouping in jazz, it's not nearly as common in flamenco music. But that's not a problem for guitarist Juanito Pascual, a man skilled at tweaking established formulas. This Minnesota-born flamenco phenom is well-versed in the traditions, techniques and history of flamenco music, but he isn't weighted down by all of them. This was clear from the beginning, when Pascual released a debut--Cosas En Comun (Self Produced, 2003)--which focused on ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Quanta June

by C. Michael Bailey
June 23, 2014

Francy Boland Playing With the Trio Schema 2013 Duke Ellington's rare trio recordings are always a treat. Money Jungle (United Artist, 1963) a trio session Ellington made with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach is readily memorable. The big band leader Ellington was clearly able to hold his own in the smaller, more intimate, trio format. More than that, Ellington easily displayed his orchestral thinking even in the company of such ...

Extended Analysis

Subtext

by John Kelman
June 23, 2014

Change is a fact of life, and it's something that's better to be embraced than challenged; as inevitable as death and taxes, it's one of those things that you may as well accept, because there are few, if any, options to do otherwise. That said, while the then-aptly titled Parting Shot (Tone Center, 2011) suggested that guitarist Steve Khan's days recording as a leader were over, it is, indeed, great news to find, in 2014, that he's changed his mind ...

Album Review

Bobby Selvaggio: Short Stories

Read "Short Stories" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 23, 2014

Like the Japanese calligraphy art know as ensō, the condensed and succinct introduction alto saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio delivers on the track “Price Of Being (Intro)" is a disciplined stroke, delivered with an ease and elegance that belies the character and control required for such a statement. He works his instrument through this exercise with such command and strength, the sound gives the impression it is effortless. But then, such is the dominion Selvaggio exhibits on his eighth recording ...

Album Review

Jean-Louis Matinier / Marco Ambrosini: Inventio

by John Kelman
June 23, 2014

By this point heading for longstanding status with ECM Records, it's always intriguing to follow an artist through the label's discography, as one relationship seems to lead, inevitably, to another. While French accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier made his first appearance with the label on fellow Frenchman Louis Sclavis' Dans La Nuit (2000), it was his tenure with Tunisian oudist Anouar Brahem's Le Pas de Chat Noire (2002) trio, also heard on the 2006 follow-up Le Voyage de Sahar, that seems to ...