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

Benjamin Taubkin: Al Qantara/The Bridge

Read "Al Qantara/The Bridge" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 19, 2014

Music, by its nature, is about building bridges. When it's broken down to its very essence, it's all about forming connections between sounds and souls. That idea, in expanded and magnified form, is the core principle behind Al Qantara/The Bridge. Here, music takes on additional responsibilities, serving as a bridge between styles, syntax, and cultures; it serves as a binding agent between Brazil and Morocco. In 2009, Brazilian pianist Benjamin Taubkin was invited to perform at the ...

Interview

Linley Hamilton: Right On The Wavelength

by Ian Patterson
May 19, 2014

Trumpeter Linley Hamilton has been a mainstay of the Northern Irish jazz scene for well over two decades. An in-demand session musician, Hamilton has played on over a hundred recordings of various stripes, lending his burnished tone to rock and pop artists and singer-songwriters alike. But it's as a jazz musician, jazz educator, jazz radio broadcaster, and not least, as an utterly tireless advocate of the music that he's best known. With a quintet comprised of some of ...

Album Review

Black Top: No. 1

by Karl Ackermann
May 19, 2014

No. 1--the energetically contrapuntal debut album by the duo Black Top--is, in reality, a trio endeavor. UK based multi-instrumentalists Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas have been a frequent presence in the London club scene, sharing their live performances with a host of up and coming UK artists. Among them, saxophonist Steve Williamson is the most well established having recorded with vocalists Abbey Lincoln and Cassandra Wilson as well working live with Courtney Pine, Iain Ballamy, and Archie Shepp. Williamson joins ...

Live Review

Live From Old York: Mark Lockheart, King Courgette, La Mer Trio & YO1 Festival

by Martin Longley
May 19, 2014

Mark Lockheart's Ellington In Anticipation The National Centre For Early Music April 25, 2014 The music of Duke Ellington might represent an oft-traversed path across the jazz firmament, but the English saxophonist and composer Mark Lockheart can justify such persistent attentions. During the last decade, this tenor man has principally been associated with Polar Bear, those champions of skittish alternative jazzelectro sounds. In the 1980s, though, he established his reputation as a member ...

Album Review

Doc Stewart and Big Band Resuscitation: Code Blue!

Read "Code Blue!" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 19, 2014

Those who subscribe to the notion that big band music is a dying musical art form, are obviously unaware of Chris “Doc “ Stewart and his star-studded Resuscitation big band that have just given the genre a shot in the arm, a jolt of electricity and some life-saving musical medicine with the amazing Code Blue! An alto saxophonist by passion and pleasure, Stewart is actually an emergency room doctor with the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ, practicing the trade for ...

Extended Analysis

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

by Doug Collette
May 19, 2014

Intensely intoxicating as much as it is wholly hypnotic, Miles Davis Live at the Fillmore becomes increasingly so through the course of its four compact discs. More than doubling the playing time of the original four-sided vinyl release, The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 posits an argument the band(s) of this era were among the finest ever led by the man with the horn. If that sounds hyperbolic, it's difficult not to rhapsodize about this archive series in general ...

Book Review

Dublin Jazz Book Vol. 1

by Ian Patterson
May 18, 2014

Dublin Jazz Book Vol. 1 Sam Kavanagh Pages: 80 ISBN: 979-0-9002321-0-6 Self Published 2014 Original, adventurous and visually striking, the Dublin Jazz Book may be the first jazz Real Book in the world to celebrate the original compositions of a single city. Conceived of by saxophonist Sam Kavanagh and designed by Steven McNamara, the DJB seeks an alternative path to gigs dominated by American jazz standards and a move towards the type ...

Album Review

Florencia Gonzalez: Between Loves

Read "Between Loves" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 18, 2014

Uruguay-born, New York-based tenor saxophonist Florencia Gonzalez wrote the material that appears on this album during her first years in the United States. That time period found her focusing on narrowing geographical and artistic divides, creating music that exists between worlds. Gonzalez's debut album--Woman Dreaming Of Escape (Self Produced, 2012)--found her working out her compositional personality with a big band. Here, she goes with a three-horns-plus-rhythm sextet, but the band often sounds bigger. A good case in point ...

Album Review

Gregory Porter, Donald Smith, Mansur Scott: Great Voices Of Harlem

Read "Great Voices Of Harlem" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 18, 2014

Great Voices Of Harlem showcases the vocal talents of three most fascinating jazz singers--Gregory Porter, Donald Smith and Mansur Scott. Ably supported by Paul Zauner's Blue Brass, the vocalists put their very individual stamps on some classic songs. The result is a stylish, classy, recording. Scott gets the lion's share of credits, with appearances on seven tracks to Smith and Porter's four apiece (all three share vocals on Horace Silver's “Peace"). Porter, a Grammy-winning international star, is the ...

Multiple Reviews

Brian Charette: The Question That Drives Us and Square One

by Hrayr Attarian
May 18, 2014

Classically trained pianist turned organist Brian Charette is an accomplished master of the Hammond B3 with an elegant yet passionate touch. His signature style imbues the many recordings of his various ensembles with a light, crisp sound and an effervescent melodicism that is, unapologetically, mainstream without being pedestrian. In 2014 Charette cut two charmingly seductive albums that delight and gratify without experimenting with innovation or breaking any radically new ground. Brian Charette The Question That Drives Us ...