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

Riverside: Riverside

Read "Riverside" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
April 27, 2014

The collaborative quartet Riverside was initially founded by Montreal-based tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas to explore the legacy of groundbreaking American composer and multi-reedist Jimmy Giuffre. Long admired by fellow jazz musicians for his innovative use of counterpoint, microtonality and rhythmic freedom, Giuffre has rarely received the sort of popular acclaim his body of work deserves. Joined by renowned trumpeter Dave Douglas and his brother Jim Doxas on drums, the group is completed by legendary electric bassist Steve Swallow, ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Jon Mapp

by AAJ Staff
April 27, 2014

Meet Jon Mapp: Jon Mapp sounds like no other bassist. He uses a bass guitar, a wooden box and a laptop to record layered pieces, creating music that is expressive, compelling and indelible. Jon is quickly emerging as a truly individual voice on the bass who is known for his unorthodox technique and creative approach to improvising. Instrument(s): Bass. Teachers and/or influences? Paul Westwood; he was my teacher for over five years, and--in ...

Album Review

Douglas Detrick’s Anywhen Ensemble: The Bright and Rushing World

Read "The Bright and Rushing World" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 27, 2014

Go ahead, ask the question, “But is it jazz?" Douglas Detrick's Anywhen Ensemble presents the ten movement suite, The Bright and Rushing World, a continuous piece of music, commissioned by Chamber Music America. So maybe it isn't jazz. Detrick's ensemble contains a jazz drummer Ryan Biesack, who can be heard on Pieces (OA2 Records, 2013), a jazz recording by saxophonist Hashem Assadullahi, also a member of Detrick's ensemble. Ok, so it is jazz. But there is also a ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Jon O'Bergh

by AAJ Staff
April 27, 2014

Meet Jon O'Bergh: Jon Carl O'Bergh, known as the “Jedi Of Cool," has released nine albums, including his new smooth jazz/funk/fusion album Skin Deep (Pearl Jazz, 2014). Skin Deep marks O'Bergh's first solo jazz album on the Pearl Jazz recording label. O'Bergh's first release, Millenial Landscapes (Self Produced, 2000) reached no. 2 on the NAV Chart, where his follow-up release Carta (Timescape, 2000) reached no. 1, and his fourth album, Meditations From a Lost World (Timescape, 2002) peaked at ...

Album Review

Hot Four: Eye of the Moose

Read "Eye of the Moose" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 27, 2014

The Norwegian-Swedish quartet Hot Four was founded by Norwegian vocal artist Andreas Backer as a vehicle for free-minded, free- improvised, free-chamber textures that float, obviously freely, between elements inspired by European influences, modern jazz and contemporary classical music. Backer wisely chose fearless, experienced and highly versatile improvisers--Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg, who studied with him in the music academy of Stavanger; Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs and Canadian-ex-pat double bassist Joe Williamson. Stockholm-based in recent years, both previously played with Backer ...

Album Review

Dave Rempis / Lasse Marhaug: Naancore

Read "Naancore" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 27, 2014

Naancore adds another chapter to the Chicago-Oslo musical axis. This limited edition LP (offered also as a digital download) brings together one of the most original Norwegian musicians, noise master Lasse Marhaug with one of Chicago's most active saxophonists Dave Rempis. The two like-minded, fearless musicians collaborated before in Ken Vandermark's Territory Band, when Marhaug guested in a performance of Remis' Ballister trio in Philadelphia and in a live set of an ad- hoc quintet that featured Dutch vocal artist ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Mike McKoy

by AAJ Staff
April 27, 2014

Meet Mike McKoy: Mike McKoy is a former member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain with professional experience in musical theatre. He has performed in six European countries and aboard the Majesty of the Seas for Royal Caribbean Celebrity Cruises. He made his debut at London's Ronnie Scott's club opening for Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. His first CD, Mike McKoy Swings to the Bossa Nova (Zephyr, 2003), was recorded live at the Pizza on the Park with ...

Album Review

Rich Halley 4: The Wisdom of Rocks

Read "The Wisdom of Rocks" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 26, 2014

Portland, Oregon, based saxophonist Rich Halley calls his 2014 quartet outing The Wisdom of Rocks, and on the disc' opener, “The Atoll," he blusters out of a two horn intro--with trombonist Michael Vlatkovich--into a tenor sax solo that sounds as if its roaring from some dark cavern, up out of the bedrock from its origins in the roiling magma closer to the Earth's core. Talk about torrid. Halley's saxophone roars and growls and pontificates in your face in front of ...

Extended Analysis

Little Feat Rad Gumbo: The Complete Warner Bros. Years 1971 to 1990

by Carlo Wolff
April 26, 2014

The first time you hear the Los Angeles band Little Feat, you might think it springs from the same southern loam as the Allman Brothers Band or Lynyrd Skynyrd. Listen a little deeper and you'll hear something more off-kilter and easily as distinctive, whether it's the complicated rhythm supplied by Richie Hayward, Kenny Gradney, Sam Clayton and Bill Payne or the weird, frequently surreal lyrics of Lowell George, the band's founder and guiding spirit during what many consider its best ...

Album Review

Jeremy Manasia: Pixel Queen

Read "Pixel Queen" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 26, 2014

Pixel Queen is the third record to document the musical relationship that pianist Jeremy Manasia has with bassist Barak Mori and drummer Charles Ruggiero. Manasia's debut leader date--Witchery (Cellar Live, 2007)--featured a different rhythm crew, but this bass-and-drums team came aboard for After Dark (Posi-Tone, 2009), a pleasing trio-with-guests outing, and stayed for Green Dream (Cellar Live, 2012), an all-originals trio date. On this release, Manasia's fourth overall and first on the Blujazz imprint, this trio tackles six of the ...