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

Tord Gustavsen Quartet: Extended Circle

Read "Extended Circle" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
June 7, 2014

Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen continues to evolve the amalgamation of classical, pop and jazz languages into a cohesive modern jazz sound. Gustavsen has released six albums on ECM Records with his ensemble and trio; Changing Places (2003), The Ground (2005), Being There (2007), Restored, Returned (2009), The Well (2012) and Extended Circle (2014). Gustavsen has won the Norwegian Grammy Awards (Spellemannsprisen) and numerous other awards and prizes. Gustavsen spent many years focusing on the piano trio format, but since 2011, ...

Album Review

Maciej Garbowski - Ivann Cruz Quartet: Rashomon Effect

Read "Rashomon Effect" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 7, 2014

This pan-European quartet was formed after French guitarist Ivann Cruz and Polish double bassist Maciej Garbowski, a frequent collaborator of saxophonist Maciej Obara and Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal, met in 2010 in the JazzPlaysEurope project. The two decided to continue working together. They surrounded themselves with Cruz partners in the Lille- based musicians Muzzix collective, drummer Peter Orins (known for the Kaze quartet with Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura) and Finnish reed player Kari Heinilä (member of ...

Highly Opinionated

Sing a Mean Tune, Kid: Chicago for people who hate Chicago

by Mark Lempke
June 7, 2014

When people rebuff my attempts to share my love of jazz-pop-rock group Chicago with them, I understand their qualms. Really, I do. Few bands went from being quite so inventive to quite so predictable in the long, tough slog between 1968 and 1984. (The political parallels alone are terrifyingly relevant: many of the exact same people who were in SDS went on to become Yuppies by the midpoint of the Reagan years, but I digress.) So, I understand ...

Live Review

JazzNorway in a Nutshell 2014

by Henning Bolte
June 6, 2014

JazzNorway in a Nutshell 2014 Bergen, Norway May 21-25, 2014 Bergen, the second largest city of Norway along the northwestern coast of the North Sea, is situated along an impressive mountainous bay. Protected against and open to the sea, to the world it is an illustrious place of a centuries-old merchant tradition, originating from the times of the Hanseatic League which connected important places along the Baltic and North Seas. Trade, fish, important natural resources, industry, ...

Album Review

Jonathan Rowden: Jonathan Rowden Group: Becoming

Read "Jonathan Rowden Group: Becoming" reviewed by Paul Naser

by Paul Naser
June 6, 2014

Saxophonist Jonathan Rowden began playing as a young boy, but alongside his enthusiasm for music he nurtured a love for visual arts; in fact, he planned on being an animation and illustration major before he realized that music was his real passion. This artistic sensibility permeates Rowden's debut album and showcases his compositional strengths while also providing a beautiful backdrop for the remarkable playing of all the talented young musicians that are featured in his band. Supporting Rowden ...

Extended Analysis

Simon Thacker's Svara Kanti: Rakshasa

by Ian Patterson
June 6, 2014

Following the acclaimed guitar concerti of Nava Rasa Ensemble (Slap The Moon, 2011), which saw nine musicians blend Carnatic, Hindustani and Western classical traditions, classical guitarist/composer Simon Thacker scales back the ensemble size, but not his ambition, for Rakshasa, a formidable quartet exploration of Asian and Western sounds that bends the traditions as much as it does one's preconceptions. Specially commissioned works by composers Terry Riley, Nigel Osborne and Shirish Korde sit alongside Thacker's own compositions and arrangements of Punjabi ...

Album Review

Eric Revis: Eric Revis: In Memory Of Things Yet Seen

Read "Eric Revis: In Memory Of Things Yet Seen" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 6, 2014

Although the title to bassist Eric Revis' quartet offering appears to pay homage to some of the early AACM documents (think pianist Muhal Richard Abrams' unaccompanied manifesto Things To Come From Those Now Gone (Delmark, 1975)), the actuality is a different animal entirely. Having rung the changes since the acclaimed City of Asylum, Revis' outfit acts primarily as a vehicle for exploring imaginative charts drawn from across the band, along with two free jazz classics and two group inventions, this ...

Extended Analysis

Saxophone Summit: Visitation

by John Kelman
June 6, 2014

After two recordings for Telarc--2004's Gathering of Spirits, with the late Michael Brecker, and 2008's Seraphic Light, with Ravi Coltrane assuming the position vacated by Brecker following his untimely passing the previous year--Saxophone Summit is back with Visitation. Funded by the (for jazz) early crowd-funding ArtistShare imprint, it demonstrates the difference between recording for a relatively major label and one where the group can, it seems, call all the shots. Not that the previous recordings were in any ...

Album Review

Billy Jenkins: The Semi-Detached Suburban Home (Music For Low Strung Guitar)

Read "The Semi-Detached Suburban Home (Music For Low Strung Guitar)" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
June 6, 2014

For the uninitiated, Billy Jenkins stands alone, a unique guitarist in a world full of axe murderers. His back catalogue contains some of the most compelling and often challenging music to be found within the context of jazz. He might be compared to Frank Zappa for both his humour and his eclectic style but Jenkins is unquestionably a one-off, his style inimitable and his imagination seemingly boundless. For those still in any doubt about his prodigious talent, then listening to ...

Album Review

Glenn Zottola: The Bossa Nova Story, Glenn Zottola, Salutes Stan Getz

Read "The Bossa Nova Story, Glenn Zottola, Salutes Stan Getz" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 6, 2014

Trumpeter and saxophonist Glenn Zottola has been a serious part of the music business for more than four decades, recording thirty albums as a sideman and leader as well as adding Broadway and TV show musician to his resume. In 2014, Zottola decided to embark on the tribute circle recording a series of homage albums for the Classic Jazz Records label such as (Clifford Brown Remembered (Classic Jazz Records, 2014), Reflections of Charlie Parker (Classic Jazz Records, 2014) and now, ...