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.

Live Review

The Johanna Graham Quartet at Pizza Express, Soho, London

by Fiona Ord-Shrimpton
May 30, 2014

The Johanna Graham Quartet Pizza Express Soho, London 25 May 2014 Seated under a photo of Kurt Elling's pearly whites, listening to the Johanna Graham quartet's first gig at Pizza Express in Soho was a pleasing and enjoyable experience. Jazz fans aren't that fond of hearing new vocalists sing live --on the whole, it's a mixed bag of painful and cringe worthy possibilities-- the weather, temperature, a miserable audience, variable health, dodgy band relations; all ...

Album Review

King William Jazz Collective: King William Jazz Collective

Read "King William Jazz Collective" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 30, 2014

About four years before this splendid album was recorded, the King William Jazz Collective performed its first gig in San Antonio's historic King William district. While that alone could be impetus enough on which to hang a name, there's more, as the band's baritone saxophonist / music director happens to be King, William (at least in the telephone directory). He's better known as Bill King, and the eleven-piece ensemble he leads has since grown to be quite a snug and ...

Album Review

Leon Gurvitch: Remember Me

Read "Remember Me" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 30, 2014

Classical versus Jazz. The former relies more on technique and adherence to the written note. It's an artistic expression that is more about the composer. Jazz is more about the performing artist, more about improvisation and seat-of-the pants creation. Russian-born and now Hamburg-based pianist Leon Gurvitch leans hard in the classical direction. But the jazz element is there, along with world music influences and Eastern European folkloric themes on his first solo piano outing, Remember Me.

Book Review

Wail: The Life of Bud Powell by Peter Pullman

by C. Michael Bailey
May 30, 2014

Wail: The Life of Bud Powell Peter Pullman 483 Pages ISBN-13: # 978-0985141813 (print) ASIN: B0079NR9IC (ebook) Peter Pullman, LLC 2012 The best biographies are well researched and annotated without being pedantic, informative without browbeating the reader and objective without indifference, or worse, malice. There exists excellent examples to illustrate the difference between “good" and “bad" biographies, written on the same subject: Elvis Presley. Peter Guralnick produced a two-volume set on ...

Album Review

Tatsuya Nakatani & Shane Perlowin: Anatomy of a Moment

Read "Anatomy of a Moment" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 30, 2014

On Anatomy of a Moment, Aleuchatistas guitarist Shane Perlowin joins the legendary percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani for a series of duets that are as perplexing as they are beautiful. Sticking largely to fingerstyle acoustic guitar, Perlowin's controlled and tightly parameterized improvising stands in stark contrast to Nakatani's varied and unpredictable sound experiments. While his playing in the Aleuchatistas is highly electric and aggressive, here, Perlowin seems almost meditative. Taking cues from artists such as John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Jack Rose, ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Book of Sound

Read "Book of Sound" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 30, 2014

The mighty tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman leads a team of frequent collaborators and superior craftsmen, pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker. Drawing on past endeavors in various settings, the trio's remarkably intuitive powers are inherent throughout. With movements that are the cogs in the wheel of instantaneous forays in composition, they navigate through broad vistas amid customary mimicking and contrapuntal maneuvers. Moreover, Perelman keenly incorporates bluesy interludes, heightened by his plaintive cries, and when he mirrors human ...

Live Review

Rebellion and Respect: Kennedy Center Celebrates Blue Note's 75th Anniversary

by Franz A. Matzner
May 29, 2014

Blue Note Record's significance to modern music is as inarguable as its story is remarkable. Over its 75 year lifespan the label has recorded many of jazz's defining artists, its evolution tracing the trajectory of America's most significant musical form from its beginnings to its present day diverse manifestations. It is therefore especially auspicious that the celebration of its 75th anniversary took place at the Kennedy Center just as the center welcomes experimentalist Jason Moran as its now ...

Album Review

Erik Friedlander: Nighthawks

Read "Nighthawks" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
May 29, 2014

Named after the famous Edward Hopper painting, which depicts four people in a diner late in the evening, Nighthawks was conceived by cellist Erik Friedlander under similarly evocative circumstances--during the nearly week-long blackout that enveloped much of New York City in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in September of 2012. Inspired by the uncanny quiet and solitude, Friedlander set to work crafting a series of new compositions for his roots music-based Bonebridge quartet with slide guitarist Doug Wamble, bassist Trevor ...

Live Review

Live From Birmingham: Jeff Beck, The Magic Band & Kid Congo Powers

by Martin Longley
May 29, 2014

Jeff Beck Symphony Hall May 20, 2014 When guitarist Jeff Beck's quartet took to the stage, they were sounding as brain-pulping as Nine Inch Nails, pushing out an edifice of industrial funk groove. With his freshly-dyed dark locks and black glam matador outfit, Beck didn't exactly look like he was on the brink of becoming a septuagenarian. The youthfulness was in his body language too, and in his sense of sonic adventure. There ...

Album Review

Peter Lerner: Continuation

Read "Continuation" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 29, 2014

Nothing unflattering can be said about Chicago-born and -based guitarist Peter Lerner's latest album, Continuation. The energy level is high, the charts admirable, the supporting cast exemplary. On the other hand, it would be hard to separate the enterprise from a veritable sea of rivals that dwell in a comparable groove. As there is nothing explicit with which to censure this earnest studio session, neither is there anything special to set it apart from many others. It is simply a ...