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.

Jazz Near Me

The Jost Project: Finding Its Way Home

by Gloria Krolak
May 31, 2014

The Somers Point Jazz Society threw a first album release party for the newly-formed Jost Project at Sandi Pointe Coastal Bistro this fall. Can't Find My Way Home, the CD is titled. The venue offers a seaside bar on one side and its opposite on the other, a rentable banquet room with brocade upholstered chairs. The quartet was finishing dinner in the big, dimly lit room in a kind of pre-game huddle. When they broke, bassist Kevin MacConnell ...

Album Review

Quentin Angus: Perception

Read "Perception" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 31, 2014

Australia boasts an embarrassment of great jazz musicians, an increasing number of whom have made their way to New York in recent years to broaden their horizons. Guitarist Quentin Angus is one such notable Aussie talent. Here Angus follows up his promising debut, Retrieval Structure (Self Produced, 2011) with another assured work that highlights his tasteful virtuosity and growing strengths as a composer. Angus effectively fronts two quartets, with drummer Kenneth Salters the anchor throughout. Stylistically, the music shares a ...

Album Review

Paul Tynan & Aaron Lington: Bicoastal Colletive: Chapter 4

Read "Bicoastal Colletive: Chapter 4" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 31, 2014

Trumpeter Paul Tynan and baritone saxophonist Aaron Lington first met more than fifteen years ago when they were grad students at the University of North Texas in Denton. After gigging separately for a few years, they formed the Bicoastal Collective about a decade ago and have been playing and recording together ever since. This could reasonably be called the Binational Collective, as four of the five musicians on Chaper Four are Canadian, with Lington the lone American. He lives in ...

Album Review

Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra: Hits!*, Vol. 1

Read "Hits!*, Vol. 1" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 31, 2014

There's actually an asterisk after the title of the Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra's latest album, Hits! Vol. 1 In small print, at the bottom left-hand side of the jacket, are the words “except track 8." As Partyka explains in the liner notes, much of the album is comprised of “a cross section of the music that has generated the most enthusiastic response" from audiences, and thus the orchestra's “hits." The exception is track 8, “Hair of the Dog," a staple ...

Live Review

Cory Pesaturo, Jacki DePiro and the Rick DePiro Trio at Vibrato

by Ariella Barton
May 31, 2014

Cory Pesaturo, Jacki DePiro and the Rick DePiro Trio Vibrato Grill Jazz Bel Air, CA April 22, 2014 There's an old joke which states “the definition of perfect pitch is throwing an accordion out the window." That said, most Jazz records or concerts don't traditionally feature accordion or the combination of B-3 and accordion, but this amazing night featured both at the Vibrato Grill Jazz and everyone in the packed house was glad it did. ...

Album Review

André Santos: Ponto De Partida

Read "Ponto De Partida" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 31, 2014

Listening to Ponto de Partida (Starting Point), it's rather hard to believe that André Santos has been playing jazz for less than 10 years. The young Portuguese guitarist's charming, understated debut album seems like the work of an older musician: one, perhaps, with nothing to prove except for the sheer enjoyment of making music. From the outset, Santos' playing seems allied with the mellow, moodily lyrical guitar style that many associate with well-known players such as Pat Metheny and Kurt ...

Album Review

Itaru Oki: Chorui Zukan

Read "Chorui Zukan" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 31, 2014

Japanese trumpeter Itaru Oki is one of the forefathers of the free jazz scene in Japan; he was a member of the seminal, experimental Japanese trio ESSG, with pianist Satoh Masahiko, and drummer Togashi Masahiko, an improviser who was a role model for many Japanese musicians. Among them was pianist Satoko Fujii, and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, who collaborated and recorded with Oki. Oki moved to France in 1974 and since then collaborated with innovative free jazz musicians and free improvisers ...

Jazz Near Me

Sharp As Shark’s Teeth: The Hammerheaded Quintet

by Gloria Krolak
May 31, 2014

Dan Weeks, Ph.D, wears many hats: published poet (six books), professor of philosophy, assistant research professor at Rutgers University, and drummer of no slight talent. Yet, he insists he's not the leader of the Hammerheaded Quintet. Nor is the leader guitarist Chuck Welch, saxophonist Anthony Ware, trumpeter Ted Chubb or bassman Mike Noordzy. But Weeks is the most vocal, doing all the introducing and stage announcing during their recent gig at The Saint in Asbury Park. The Saint is well ...

Album Review

Ernie Watts: A Simple Truth

Read "A Simple Truth" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 30, 2014

The title of Ernie Watt's seventh release on his Flying Dolphin label reflects the tenor great's guiding philosophy, as he explained in a recent interview for dublinjazz.ie: “We are creating our reality all day every day by the thoughts that we think and by the things that we say and by our belief systems. It's a very clear and simple path." For Watts, this path has translated, on average, into two hours practice virtually every day for the past fifty ...

Interview

The Passion of Lorenzo Tucci

by Robin Arends
May 30, 2014

Drummer Lorenzo Tucci is an important part of the thriving Italian jazz scene and a musician drawn to experimental settings. He recorded Drumonk (Veneto Jazz, 2007) his tribute to Thelonious Monk without piano, and a piano-trio album, Tranety (Albore Jazz, 2010), dedicated to John Coltrane without a saxophonist. In the 1990s Tucci started his professional carreer in his hometown Rome, playing with Italian and international musicians. He has collaborated with numerous artists such as Phil Woods, George Cables and Enrico ...