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.

The Doorman's Diary

May 2014

by Jeff Winke
June 15, 2014

May 24 A slight chill in the air as I enter the jazz club. It is near empty, but the bartender is ready for anything. I straighten my vintage tie and count my wedge to make sure I have the starter amount for my doorman night. With the regular bassist back on stage, the quint is into a well-oiled groove. It is impossible for them to sound better. They're playing Freddie Hubbard “Little Sunflower" and the normally dour drummer is ...

Album Review

Ken Husbands Trio: Keepin' It Going

Read "Keepin' It Going" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 14, 2014

San Francisco Bay area guitarist Ken Husbands is a well-travelled man. He grew up in Massachusetts, lived in Paris for a few years then moved to Oakland, California, in 2005. Along the way he's gained a PhD and developed an electric guitar style that encompasses many influences from jazz, fusion and other genres yet avoids sounding derivative. Keepin' It Going is credited to the Ken Husbands Trio. The trio is tight, the writing is fresh and the feel is upbeat. ...

Film Review

Little Feat: Live in Holland 1976

by John Kelman
June 14, 2014

Little Feat Live in Holland 1976 Eagle Vision A band that has suffered more than its share of losses over the years--most significantly, group cofounder/primary singer/songwriter Lowell George, when he died of a heart attack in 1979 at the age of 34, but also the more recent passing of drummer Richie Hayward in 2010 at the age of 64, who joined the band for its second recording, Sailin' Shoes (Warner Bros., 1973) and became its hard-grooving ...

Album Review

Stéphane Escoms Trio+: Meeting Point

Read "Meeting Point" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 14, 2014

Pianst/composer Stéphane Escoms fronts a versatile trio on his self-produced sophomore album Meeting Point. The French native has studied with the legendary Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and Bulgarian pianist Mario Stantchev. A prize-winning musician, Escoms has crossed borders and genres frequently in this early phase of his musical career. Where he has intersected and absorbed influences becomes apparent in the shading of these compositions. Billed as ..."Trio +," Meeting Point features five guest artists on various tracks and the collection ...

Live Review

Zebra at the NYCB Theatre At Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
June 14, 2014

Zebra with special guests Youth Be Told NYCB Theatre At Westbury Westbury, NY May 31, 2014 Zebra is a legendary power trio in two noted musical “hotbeds"--New York and New Orleans. Unfortunately, they are underappreciated in the rest of the U.S. Those who have “discovered" the band are well aware of the dynamic energy and musicianship of the players as well as the strength and intensity of Zebra's performances. For those not in ...

Album Review

Lori Carsillo: Sugar and Smoke

Read "Sugar and Smoke" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 14, 2014

San Francisco Bay Area songbird Lori Carsillo provides us with her third solo vocal album Sugar and Smoke, presenting modern versions of familiar jazz standards from the '60s, featuring a host of first-rate musicians from the Bay Area's vibrant jazz scene. Carsillo offers a light soft-toned session of vocal jazz enhanced by her sultry hushed-styled vocal approach that draws the listener in and keeps one engaged. No real swinging pieces or loud outbursts here, this material is delivered with a ...

Live Review

The First Annual Bell Bottom Ball at the NYCB Theatre At Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
June 14, 2014

Lime, Bonnie Pointer, Harold Melvin's Blue Notes, the Trammps, Tavares and France Joli The NYCB Theatre At Westbury The First Annual Bell Bottom Ball Westbury, NY May 30, 2014 Disco was alive, well and flourishing in the small Westbury concert venue on this late May evening. The Bell Bottom Ball... the name of the event itself should conjure memories of Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta, platform shoes, 2001 Odyssey in Brooklyn, big hair, ...

Album Review

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Volume 18

Read "The Treasury Shows, Volume 18" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
June 14, 2014

As Duke Ellington leads his band into the opening bars of “Take The A Train," a mighty roar goes up from the radio audience. The moment comes four tracks into the first CD of this double Storyville release, after a somewhat shaky start. With it there's a marvellous feeling of being back in 1946 at the height of Ellington's popularity. The experience is worth having to put up with the patronising ABC Radio master ...

Album Review

Tohpati: Tribal Dance

Read "Tribal Dance" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 13, 2014

A revered musician in Indonesia through his twenty-year association with progressive jazz outfit simakDialog and the guitar trio Trimus--alongside Indonesian guitar greats Dewa Budjana and Balawan--Tohpati has produced a handful of solo recordings since the late 1990s. Through Moonjune Records, however, Tohpati is gradually reaching a wider international audience. Save The Planet (Moonjune Records, 2010) with his band Ethnomission showcased the broad dynamics of the guitarist's Indonesian jazz-fusion, while Riot (Moonjune Records, 2012) was a scintillating power trio outing with ...

Book Review

Paul Combs: Dameronia: The Life and Times of Tadd Dameron

by Victor L. Schermer
June 13, 2014

Dameronia: The Life and Times of Tadd Dameron Paul Combs 264 Pages ISBN: # 978-0-472-03563-2 The University of Michigan Press2013 “There is enough ugliness in this world; I'm interested in beauty."--Tadd Dameron “Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf, So Eden sank to grief, So dawn ...