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

Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio: Thwirl

by Dave Wayne
May 28, 2014

Some groups just have chemistry, no matter what their instrumentation or musical background. Something about them just works. Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio is one such group. Comprised of two guitarists-one electric and one acoustic-plus Crump's own resonant acoustic bass, the Rosetta Trio straddles the worlds of jazz, avant garde, and modern folk music with consummate ease and some seriously deep virtuosity. Crump is an admirably diverse musician who maintains working relationships with folk singer Jen Chapin (whom he's married to), ...

Album Review

Matador: Matador

Read "Matador" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 27, 2014

Matador is the stage name of Uruguayan guitarist, composer and songwriter Santiago Bogacz who is an eclectic, up and coming artist with immense talent and dynamic creativity. His versatile eponymous EP is self-released and contains four of his own songs that reflect his various sources of inspiration and his superb musicianship.The classically trained Bogacz goes beyond his academic influences and brings in diverse musical heritages. The haunting chant like “Tina Negra" for instance showcases his yearning vocals over ...

Album Review

Emilie Weibel: oMoo

by Hrayr Attarian
May 27, 2014

Swiss vocalist and composer Emilie Weibel is a poet at heart and not only because she penned most of the words on her intriguing debut oMoo. A deep sense of lyricism permeates the entire performance of this cycle of songs that transforms the entire album into an intimate and introspective verse narrative. Her unaccompanied exquisite voice hovers in expectant silence on the prayer like “Lemania." Electronic sound effects support her undulating emotive singing enhancing the serenity and the ...

Album Review

OKO: I Love You Computer Mountain

Read "I Love You Computer Mountain" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 27, 2014

While pretty much all music is derivative, and to a greater or lesser degree inspired by what has gone before, every so often a band appears that shakes up the status quo. OKO--formed in 2010 out of the Dublin collective Bottleneck--certainly doesn't hide its influences on its debut recording, but its musical paint box of electronica, free-jazz, noise, dub, drone, funk and ambient sounds dishes up a colorful collage that dares to be different. Darragh O'Kelly's dreamy electric ...

Interview

Brad Mehldau: Dragons & Dreams

by Ian Patterson
May 27, 2014

For many, pianist Brad Mehldau's recording Day is Done (Nonesuch Records, 2005) with drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier came as close to trio perfection as is reasonable to expect in your wildest dreams. Perhaps perfection is a chimera, yet even if attainable it's at best fleeting by nature. But for Mehldau that doesn't stop the hunt for the stuff of his own wildest dreams. That elusive 'in-the-zone' quality when the music seems to play the musician ...

Extended Analysis

Matthew Halsall & the Gondwana Orchestra: When the World Was One

by Phil Barnes
May 27, 2014

Change, or at least an evolution of the Halsall sound, is very much in the air on this wonderful new record. Credited to Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra there is a feeling of expansion of the musical palette, further steps on a satisfying journey towards the destination identified on 2012's transitional Fletcher Moss Park. That earlier record showed the way that Halsall was looking to evolve and shift his musical path--it began with pieces recorded in 2010 around ...

Live Review

Boz Scaggs at the Paramount

by Mike Perciaccante
May 27, 2014

Boz Scaggs The Paramount Huntington, NY May 13, 2014 Boz Scaggs has been producing his own brand of R&B-flavored rock 'n' roll for almost fifty years. Though he recorded an album in 1965 called Boz (Polydor Records), his career didn't take off until he became a member of the original bluesier version of the Steve Miller Band. He exited after recording two albums and in 1969 released an eponymously titled album on Atlantic Records. For ...

Album Review

Manuel Valera: Self Portrait

Read "Self Portrait" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 26, 2014

On Self Portrait, Grammy-nominated pianist Manuel Valera's first solo piano outing, the artist displays a supple and exquisite touch on his instrument, reflecting the erudition and precision of his classical background. This is worth saying right off because Valera is best known for his vivacious Latin jazz ensemble outings, New Cuban Express (Mavo Records, 2012) and Expectivas (Mavo Records, 2013). On this introspective set, Valera explores his classical influences with nods to Eric Satie, George Gershwin and Nicoloas ...

Live Review

Ricardo Herz Trio/Phisqa at BelloBar

by Ian Patterson
May 26, 2014

Ricardo Herz Trio/Phisqa BelloBar Dublin, Ireland May 21 2014 It was a happy case of serendipity. The square in front of BelloBar was buzzing with vocal chants, clapping, percussion and the twangy rhythmic drive of three berimbau, urging on the dancers in their strange ballet that was part mime, part cutting contest. The Caporeira Mundo School, a stone's throw away in Synge Street, had gathered a crowd on this reasonably sunny afternoon--sunny enough for the ...

Album Review

Lawnmower: Lawnmower II

Read "Lawnmower II" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
May 26, 2014

Drummer Luther Gray described in the liner notes to West, Lawnmower's 2010 Clean Feed debut, that the record was an attempt to reconcile the various genres he'd worked in throughout his career--an all-inclusive approach that could be traced back to the stylistically diverse music he listened to on a Walkman while mowing lawns in his youth. Lawnmower II, the quartet's sophomore effort, reinforces Gray's initial inspiration, conjuring aural impressions of the lazy, hazy days of summer.The new album ...