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

Mike Pope: Cold Truth, Warm Heart

Read "Cold Truth, Warm Heart" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 22, 2014

More than a decade separates Cold Truth, Warm Heart and bassist Mike Pope's previous album, but he hasn't exactly been sitting by idly and twiddling his thumbs in the intervening years. His professional life has been filled with high profile work, as he's held down the fort for everybody from vibraphonist Joe Locke to guitarist Chuck Loeb to drummer Bill Bruford during that span of time, and his personal life has seen highs and lows; the birth of his two ...

Album Review

Pierette Ensemble: Akrostik

Read "Akrostik" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 22, 2014

Strings, reeds, piano and percussion are the flesh and bones of this Danish-English sextet, co-led by saxophonist/flautist Julie Kjer and pianist Signe Bisgaard. The instrumentation, however, is secondary to the intent, for had the sextet assembled with objet trouvé instead, the results would likely have been equally arresting. The Pierette Ensemble's debut recording may stem from the nooks and crannies of avant-garde classical and experimental jazz but the music's emotional impact overrides stylistic considerations. Brooding and melodic, pulsating and arrhythmic ...

Album Review

Joel Harrison & Anupam Shobhakar Multiplicity: Leave the Door Open

Read "Leave the Door Open" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 22, 2014

Leave the Door Open is more than evocative and expertly played music: It heralds the emerging age of global world jazz and the attendant possibilities with which it comes. Jazz and blues guitarist Joel Harrison (from Washington, DC) and sarode player Anupam Shobhakar (from Kolkata, India) first met to work on Harrison's 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship for composing a piece for jazz quintet, classical percussion and sarode. “I have had a lifelong interest in sarode but working with Anupam ...

Album Review

Vilde&Inga: Makrofauna

Read "Makrofauna" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 22, 2014

It is almost unimaginable that an established label, as the acclaimed German label ECM, will embrace the debut recording of young musicians just out of the music academy and release it as it is. But that is what happened with the Norwegian classically trained duo Vilde&Inga-- violinist Vilde Sandve Alnæs, and double bass player Inga Margrete Aas. Their teacher of improvisation, vocal artist Sidsel Endresen, liked the duo's recording, sent it to ECM visionary manager and producer Manfred Eicher, who ...

Inside AAJ

Join Us! Volunteer Opportunities at All About Jazz

by Michael Ricci
May 22, 2014

Dear friends, If you have a strong interest in jazz with some free time, consider joining the All About Jazz team. It's an opportunity to establish your voice as part of our shared mission while taking advantage of some great networking opportunities to meet knowledgeable writers, editors, techies, musicians, industry pros, visual artists and active supporters of the music from around the globe. Many of our staff members have been with us since 1995. ...

Album Review

Kris Bowers: Heroes + Misfits

Read "Heroes + Misfits" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
May 21, 2014

Expectations can lead to unexpected directions. Kris Bowers, the compelling young pianist who took first place in 2011's Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, wowed judges that included the likes of Ellis Marsalis, Herbie Hancock and Jason Moran. A prodigy whose encyclopedic knowledge of jazz matches an adroit freedom that can't just be taught in the classroom, Bowers could have easily debuted with a jazz-centered release. Yet Heroes + Misfits isn't your stereotypical introduction as the aspiring musician's ...

Album Review

Matt Garrison: Patchwork

Read "Patchwork" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 21, 2014

Instead of simply homing in on one specific musical coordinate, saxophonist Matt Garrison decided to widen his focus and hit a few different targets with his third album. The aptly-titled Patchwork finds him looking toward “initial musical influence, educational influences, and current outcomes." It's a collection of Garrison's personalized yesterday-meets-today musical scenarios. It's hard to know whether Patchwork should be defined as a vocal record with strong instrumental appeal or an instrumental album with a vocalist out ...

Extended Analysis

Miles at the Fillmore - Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3

by Ian Patterson
May 21, 2014

It would have been inconceivable for Miles Davis in his post-sabbatical, 1980s reincarnation to have been billed as “an extra added attraction" on any festival or concert hall billing, but that's how it was when the trumpeter--already a legend--played his first ever gigs at the Filmore East, supporting Neil Young & Crazy Horse and the Steve Miller Band in March 1970. The initiative to stage Davis at the hallowed rock venue came from CBS President Clive Davis, no doubt with ...

Album Review

Euforquestra: Fire

Read "Fire" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 21, 2014

Although Fire is their fourth studio album, it also marks two milestone “firsts" in the history of jam masters Eufórquestra: The band's first studio album since the live album Let Us In straddled their 2009 relocation from Iowa City, Iowa, to Fort Collins, Colorado; and their first studio album managed by an external producer, keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth from The String Cheese Incident. “Kyle helped with pretty much every aspect of shaping songs for this record," explains group guitarist and vocalist ...

Album Review

BossaCucaNova: Our Kind of Bossa

Read "Our Kind of Bossa" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 21, 2014

Our Kind of Bossa celebrates fifteen fun years of BossaCucaNova, one of Brazil's most adventurous contemporary ensembles (and was also timed to coincide with Brazil hosting the 2014 soccer World Cup). These eleven tracks fuse the electro-bossa nova for which the group is best known with samba and other dance rhythms from their homeland, and celebrate the BossaCucaNova core quartet--Marcio Menescal (son of bossa nova pioneer Roberto Menescal) on bass, DJ Marcelinho DaLua, engineer/producer Alex Moreira doubling on keyboards, vocalist ...