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

Jerónimo Carmona: Lament

Read "Lament" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
April 22, 2014

Jazz listeners familiar with the characteristic sound and aesthetic of Argentinian label Rivorecords will know the deep, swinging sound of bassist Jerónimo Carmona, who has been a strong presence on many releases on the label, including albums by pianists Ernesto Jodos and Paula Shocron. With Lament, Carmona gets the chance to step into the spotlight himself. Lament is conceived as a duo album, but it isn't a duo album in the traditional sense. Instead, the album consists ...

Extended Analysis

The Bad Plus: The Rite Of Spring

by Dan Bilawsky
April 22, 2014

Calculation and risk, bombast and glory, a complete shunning of expectations, and a penchant for the provocative, percussive and dramatic. It's hard to know if that description is meant to be applied to Igor Stravinsky's most heralded work or the collectively-operated trio known as The Bad Plus; it's hard to make that distinction because it rings true for both. One hundred years separate the premiere of The Rite Of Spring, which caused a riot, and the recording ...

Album Review

I Think You’re Awesome: Løft mig op, så jeg kan nå

Read "Løft mig op, så jeg kan nå" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
April 22, 2014

For a long time, the jazz scene in Denmark has been centred around Copenhagen and the city is still the jazz capital of the country with its many jazz venues and labels like ILK and Stunt, but there is also a fertile jazz environment in the city of Aarhus where exciting things are happening and new talents emerge. One of them is bassist Jens Mikkel, who has actually moved to Sweden recently, but he still has ties ...

Album Review

Building Instrument: Building Instrument

Read "Building Instrument" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 22, 2014

The Norwegian trio Building Instrument has taken its time to record its debut album. The Bergen-based trio--featuring vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mari Kvien Brunvoll, known for her duo with guitarist Stein Urheim, who previously produced two acclaimed albums, Daydream Community and Daydream Twin (both on Jazzland, 2011 and 2013) and her self-titled solo album (also on Jazzland, 2012). These recordings inspired a surprising remix of the song “Everywhere You Go" by DJ Ricardo Villalobos; underrated percussionist Øyvind Hegg-Lunde, member of the ...

Album Review

Rempis - Johnston - Ochs: Spectral

Read "Spectral" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 22, 2014

For this nascent record label's sixth offering, Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis unites with West Coast modernists, saxophonist Larry Ochs (The Rova Saxophone Quartet) and trumpeter Darren Johnston who has been all over the jazz map these days. Here, the trio hunkers down and prepares for battle via cyclonic three-way flurries, dappled with polytonal hues and expansive horizons, occasionally throttled with subversive dialogues and a few tetchy conversations. Moreover, the press notes intimate the group's initial comfort zone, but their ensuing ...

Album Review

Acme Jazz Company: Acme Jazz Company

Read "Acme Jazz Company" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 21, 2014

There are moments on its debut recording when the Twin Cities-based Acme Jazz Company rises well above its generic name to present an exciting brand of big-band jazz, others when its run-of-the-mill label seems to suit the ensemble like a proverbial glove. Lance Strickland's genial “One Eyed Jacks," for example, hustles merrily along behind cogent statements from tenor Tom Schmitt, trombonist Ben Link, guitarist Geoff LeCrone and drummer / percussionist Andy Artz, whereas alto Doug Rasmussen's syrupy “Balm for the ...

Interview

Jiyoung Lee: Snobs, Addicts & Royalty

by Ian Patterson
April 21, 2014

Jiyoung Lee, pianist/keyboardist and leader of Korean jazz-funk sextet Jazz Snobs Funk Addicts probably has to pinch herself from time to time. Encouraged from a young age by her parents to pursue a life as a classical pianist, Lee instead opted for the greater expressive freedom--and the economic uncertainty-- offered by jazz. Her journey so far has been an inspiring one. Within a few short years of taking the plunge, Lee found herself studying jazz in Texas, where ...

Album Review

Ensemble 5: The Summary Of 4

Read "The Summary Of 4" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 21, 2014

It is refreshing to hear a free jazz improvising group that doesn't abandon meter and melody for the goal of spontaneous music making. For percussionist Heinz Geisser, performing improvised music doesn't require he throw the figurative baby out with the bath water. The dude abides.Like the Collective 4tet he established in the 1990s with bassist William Parker, Ensemble 5 is both a free jazz vehicle and a quartet, yes, a quartet. Geisser, a conservatory trained classical guitarist turned ...

Live Review

Chick Corea At Town Hall

by Mike Perciaccante
April 21, 2014

Chick Corea Town Hall New York, NY April 10, 2014 With the coronation of rock's royalty taking place a mere six miles across town in Brooklyn at “The House That Jay Z Built" (The Barclays Center), one of jazz' princes took the stage at Manhattan's Town Hall. Chick Corea's solo piano performance was an intimate and spectacular evening comprised of stories, solo piano improvisations and his extraordinary versions of some of the best loved entries ...

Extended Analysis

Takuya Kuroda: Rising Son

by Phil Barnes
April 21, 2014

Remember D'Angelo? Takuya Kuroda and his producer Jose James certainly do--this excellent collection has that loose, swampy, stoned feel from 'Voodoo' closer than anyone since, putting across that feel of thick, still air on a scorching hot, languid, afternoon perfectly. D'Angelo worked because he signposted a way to fuse the classic jazz influenced soul of say Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Al Green and even Prince to modern hip hop grooves without diminishing either genre. By putting that sound into a ...