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

Trio WUH: Live at Jazzinec

Read "Live at Jazzinec" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 2, 2014

Founded in January, 2012 in Prague after an almost impromptu first gig together as a group, Trio WUH--which, although had been a part of a previous recording from the Prague Castle along with several other groups--present their solo debut album Live at Jazzinec taken from a 2013 live recording in Trutnov, Czech Republic. Spending his time between Pennsylvania and the Czech Republic, American pianist Skip Wilkins and Czech band mates, string bassist Frantisek Uhlir and drummer Jaromir Helesic, were in ...

Album Review

The Jist: The Jist

Read "The Jist" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 2, 2014

The Norwegian duo The Jist--vocal artists and electronics player Natalie Sandtorv, and guitarist Torgeir Hovden Standal--take the experimental concept of improvised meetings between innovative vocal artists and guitarists to its noisy extremes. This concept was pioneered by the master vocal artist Sidsel Endresen and highly inventive guitarist Stian Westrhus (Didyomi Dreams, Rune Grammofon, 2012) and later was presented in a much gentler, still highly poetic version, by vocalist Hanna Gjermundrød and genre-blind guitarist Petter Vågan (Renedition Of A Whisper, Gigafon, ...

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

May 2014

by Mr. P.C.
May 1, 2014

Dear Mr. P.C.: Why do pianists do so much more with their right hands than their left hands? --Leftist Dear Leftist: It's a gesture of cultural understanding. In some eastern cultures the left hand is considered “dirty" because it's used to cleanse the butt after evacuating. For that reason, it isn't used to eat food, shake hands, or play piano. It's hardly fair for western jazz pianists--just because they ...

Album Review

The Ryan Oliver Quartet: Strive!

by Dan Bilawsky
May 1, 2014

When Toronto-based tenor saxophonist Ryan Oliver was living in New York and studying at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of The Arts in New Jersey, he struck up a musical relationship with one of the teachers at that institution--drummer Victor Lewis. At that time, Lewis, a somewhat underappreciated giant of the drumming world who's worked with everybody from saxophone legend Stan Getz to trumpeter Woody Shaw to pianist Kenny Barron, got together with Oliver on a weekly basis, exploring the ...

Album Review

Orrin Evans' Captain Black Big Band: Mother's Touch

Read "Mother's Touch" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2014

New York-based pianist / composer (and two-time Grammy Award nominee) Orrin Evans served notice with his first big-band album for Posi-Tone Records that there was an impressive new ensemble on the scene, a message that is firmly underscored by the second, the cryptically named Mother's Touch, whose tone and temperament mirror Evans' contemporary point of view. Evans wrote six of the album's nine numbers, the first of which, the gospel-flavored “In My Soul," kick-starts the session with ...

Album Review

Nils Berg Cinemascope: Vocals

by James Pearse
May 1, 2014

Swedish reed player Nils Berg scours the online world for unusual and unconventional musical performances to use as a backdrop to his music. He then edits the original down to capture the “essence" of the song and then writes new music on top. Here's where it gets really interesting: the Nils Berg Cinemascope trio then performs the new music live with a YouTube video of the original artist projected as a living backdrop. In this sense, the “guest ...

Album Review

Sjøen: Live I

Read "Live I" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 1, 2014

Sjøen (sea in Norwegian) is a new, Norwegian-Swedish quintet with a debut that was recorded during their first-ever concert, at the Energimølla club in Kongsberg, Norway, in April 2013. Obviously, it would not have been possible without the promising, young musicians that band leader and violinist Håkon Aase gathered. Each of them also play in other young bands that released debut albums within the last year. Saxophonist Harald Lassen plays in modern jazz bands Mopti and Pixel, pianist John Lindvall ...

The Doorman's Diary

Kissing Cousins: Jazz + poetry = jazz poetry

by Jeff Winke
May 1, 2014

Believe it or not there have been times when jazz and poetry intertwine. The music inspires the poetry and creates a non-mainstream style of writing... jazz poetry. Innovations in music and poetics in the early part of the 20th century surfaced in the 1920's. The simultaneous evolution of poetry and jazz music was not lost upon musicians and writers of the time. The two art forms merge and form the genre of jazz poetry. However, note that there's ...

Album Review

Alex LoRe Trio: Dream House

Read "Dream House" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 30, 2014

Greg Osby's Inner Circle Music label has played host to quite a few emerging saxophonists: baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian's debut, alto saxophonist Logan Richardson's second date, and the first two records from Melissa Aldana, the winner of the 2013 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, all came out on this imprint. Now, the label is introducing alto saxophonist Alex LoRe to a wider audience. LoRe is a Floridian who traveled north to further his education at two ...

Album Review

Linley Hamilton: In Transition

Read "In Transition" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 30, 2014

The title of trumpeter Linley Hamilton's second release for Northern Irish label Lyte Records tells a tale; in the three years since Taylor Made (Lyte Records, 2011) Hamilton has dug deep into the essence of his playing, refining his compositional approach and instilling a greater economy of notes in his playing. His is a discipline that owes more to the modern European tradition exemplified by Till Bronner and Mathias Eick than the beboppers that first inspired Hamilton on his journey. ...