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

Gustavo Musso / Francisco Lo Vuolo: Back in Town

Read "Back in Town" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
April 21, 2014

Playing in a duo exposes the communication between two musicians. Like a good conversation, there's a chance to get a special level of depth and intimacy. A good conversation with a stranger can make us feel like we have known the person for years, but if the conversation grows stale then the reaction might become estrangement. Keeping a good conversation alive is all about flow and the ability to listen. To know when to pause and when ...

Album Review

Håkon Storm: Fosfor

Read "Fosfor" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 21, 2014

Norwegian guitarist Håkon Storm's sixth album Fosfor features his artistic mastery of the solo guitar. Storm is a gifted storyteller. His evocative, melodious lines intensify the expressive, poetic playing style that is often exploratory, suggesting exotic soundscapes. Storm uses a variety of guitars that allow him to stress distinctive originality as a composer and improviser. The album's warm, crystalline sound was captured beautifully by sound guru Jan Erik Kongshaug at the legendary Rainbow studio in Oslo, home-base of many ECM ...

Album Review

Ben Flocks: Battle Mountain

Read "Battle Mountain" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 21, 2014

California native, saxophonist Ben Flocks' compositions parallel an imaginary cross-country trek via the diverse climates he conjures with these alluring compositions. Spanning intermittent similarities to guitarist Bill Frisell's sojourns into Americana along with frothy New Orleans second line fare, spacey jazz rock, and a few quirky little ditties intermingled along the way, his debut is an impressive one, meriting considerable attention. Few artists launch their solo careers with a big bang. The album is gushing with memorable melodic content and ...

Live Review

Helen Sung at Jazz @ Jack's, Denver, CO

by Geoff Anderson
April 20, 2014

Helen Sung Jazz @ Jack's 2014 Craft Brewers Conference Denver, CO April 9, 2014 Astaire and Rogers; Bogart and Bacall; Sponge Bob and Patrick... The entertainment world is full of classic pairings. Wednesday night's classic pairing was jazz and craft beer. Dropped in the middle of the 2014 Craft Brewers Conference in Denver, pianist Helen Sung, affiliated with North Coast Brewing Company, put together a virtuoso quintet to match the virtuoso beer on tap. ...

Album Review

Brad Mehldau / Mark Guiliana: Mehliana - Taming the Dragon

Read "Mehliana - Taming the Dragon" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 20, 2014

Whilst synthesizer-driven ambient groove music seems like a left-field move, nothing pianist/composer Brad Mehldau does should surprise anymore. The piano trio releases of Mehldau's first recording decade established his reputation as the most influential jazz pianist since Keith Jarrett. The brilliant, emotionally intense Elegiac Cycle (Warner Bros. Records, 1999) marked a significant departure from his previous works, opening the way to increasingly frequent experimental forays--from duo collaborations with soprano Renée Fleming, Love Sublime (Nonesuch, 2006), and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von ...

Extended Analysis

Colin Edwin - Lorenzo Feliciati: Twinscapes

by John Ephland
April 20, 2014

From the bottom up, Twinscapes is a long time coming, and not just for bass players. Sonically, this 11-track suite plays on your ears and mind in ways that can defy gravity, combining soft audial touches to go along with earthy funk, the residue left a kind of smoke that lingers but filters, inevitably it seems, upwards. Twinscapes really is a kind of novel treatment of the electric bass, not that this sort of thing hasn't been done ...

Album Review

Christine Wodrascka/ Jean Luc Cappozzo/ Gerry Hemingway: Grey Matter

Read "Grey Matter" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 20, 2014

Impromptu meetings between improvisers hailing from diverse backgrounds are by now a commonplace event. But it's less usual is for the resultant grouping to take on a collective name, the surnames or initials normally sufficing for commoditization. For a group to perform under a moniker implies both a sense of purpose and a strong shared identity, and perhaps signals an intent to continue as an entity. 2o étage, as they call themselves, certainly matches up to the first two parameters, ...

Album Review

Francisco Lo Vuolo: In Walked Francis

Read "In Walked Francis" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
April 20, 2014

Sometimes the title of a record reveals that the music is something special. This is indeed the case with Argentinian pianist Francisco Lo Vuolo's solo piano album In Walked Francis. Anyone who is slightly familiar with Justo Lo Prete's label Rivorecords knows what to expect: Pure quality releases in sophisticated packaging that focus on the sound made famous by Blue Note in the 1950s and 1960s. Lo Prete is interested in providing a contemporary take on jazz ...

Extended Analysis

Wilko Johnson / Roger Daltrey: Going Back Home

by Sammy Stein
April 20, 2014

Wilko Johnson has been around for a long time. He will forever be associated with Dr Feelgood, the influential rhythm and blues band, but he has done many things since leaving the band in 1977. His distinctive guitar style, as well as his affable demeanor, have made him a bit of a national treasure. After leaving Dr Feelgood Johnson joined Solid Senders and, later in 1980, The Blockheads. He has played regularly with Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Dylan ...

Album Review

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

Read "Mother’s Touch" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 20, 2014

The studio-versus-stage argument will forever rage on in music, but it really shouldn't. Each setting has its advantages and disadvantages. The jazz community has forever favored the stage, as many feel that jazz is meant to be experienced and created in the moment, with artist(s) feeding off the room and creating here-and-gone sounds. That preference is completely understandable, but the studio has its advantages; clarity, balance, and the right working conditions can often only be found there. ...