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

APUH!: Ett

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 20, 2014

APUH! is a young Swedish trio based in Gothenburg. Its musicians-- saxophonist Adrian Åsling Sellius and drummer Hampus Öhman- Frölund began working together in 2011 and a year later double bass player Matt Dimming joined, to seal the trio's aesthetic and sound. They freely draw elements from pop and rock, free jazz, experimental noise and even klezmer during open-ended, improvised pieces. All five songs in this debut stress its playfulness and strong rhythmic basis, as well ...

Album Review

Andrew Hadro: For Us, The Living

Read "For Us, The Living" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 19, 2014

Abraham Lincoln had one eye on the past and the other on the present and future when he gave his famous Gettysburg Address. In that speech, celebrating its sesquicentennial when this album was recorded in 2013, Lincoln spoke of honoring the fallen, furthering what they started, and looking forward to “a new birth of freedom." As most everybody knows, Lincoln's speech had nothing to with creative music, yet the general theme(s), as viewed in modern times, have everything to do ...

Extended Analysis

Ludwig van Beethoven - Recordings during War Time conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler

by C. Michael Bailey
April 19, 2014

German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwangler (1886--1954) remains a difficult enigma in music. Though never a member of Germany's NAZI party he was nevertheless associated with the regime both tacitly and unwittingly through the long-term efforts of Dr. Josef Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Socially and politically naïve, Furtwangler believed that German Art and Politics existed in separate spheres, the former a self-determined forever force-of-nature gift and the latter, in Furtwangler's mind, a temporary convulsion of fascist nationalism ...

Album Review

Danny Fox Trio: Wide Eyed

Read "Wide Eyed" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 19, 2014

The Danny Fox Trio is a working band, which is something of a rarity these days. But for building a rapport and depth of communication, there isn't a substitute for touring together and working out the musical problems and over an extended period of time. This New York City-based piano trio that debuted with The One Constant (Songlines, 2011) now offers a follow-up, Wide Eyed. The band was formed in 2008, and seems serious about reshaping the piano ...

Live Review

LiV Warfield At B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill

by Mike Perciaccante
April 19, 2014

LiV Warfield B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill New York, NY April 6, 2014 LiV Warfield's musical career began in her late teens when she moving away from her Peoria, IL home to Portland, Oregon. Working there with local musicians, she got her first taste of the music business. Since that time Warfield has performed with and alongside musical heavyweights including B.B. King, Dave Matthews Band, Al Green and many others. ...

Album Review

Steven Kroon: On The # 1

Read "On The # 1" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 19, 2014

New York percussionist Steven Kroon offers a percussive-laden session of Afro-Cuban rhythms, a slice of Brazil and draws on his Nuyorican heritage for a taste of the Puerto Rican flair, in presenting On The # 1, the fifth self- produced album of this veteran musician's 45-year plus musical journey. Long a part of the jazz, blues, R&B and Latin music world playing as both a sideman and leader of his own light ensembles, Kroon brings back the group he has ...

Live Review

Psychedelic Furs At The Paramount

by Mike Perciaccante
April 19, 2014

Psychedelic Furs The Paramount Huntington, NY April 12, 2014 The Psychedelic Furs burst on the scene and achieved its greatest successes during the 1980s. Its biggest success was when “Pretty in Pink" became a worldwide hit after being featured prominently in the John Hughes film of the same name. “Heartbreak Beat," “Heaven," “The Ghost In You," “Love My Way" and “President Gas" also received a great amount of radio airplay. On one of ...

Album Review

Diane Moser Quintet: Music For The Last Flower

Read "Music For The Last Flower" reviewed by Robert Bush

by Robert Bush
April 19, 2014

New Jersey pianist/composer Diane Moser created the music for Music for the Last Flower in 2003, with support from Chamber Music America, but only recorded it in 2012, in one day, no less, this time aided by a grant from New Music USA. This six-part suite flows effortlessly through a wide arc that begins with sonic caterwaul, lights down on moments of intense lyric beauty, and ends in a hypnotic meditation for peace, with potent features ...

Album Review

Pietro Valente Quantum 4: Entering The New Era - 432 Hz

Read "Entering The New Era - 432 Hz" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 19, 2014

Ace Italian drummer Pietro Valente enters the new era by having the musicians tune their instruments to 432 Hz. In the album notes he states that, “This recording has a feature that makes it one of a kind: Recent studies show that tuning at 432 Hz is more in harmony with human body vibrations." Thus, the overall vibe, and response would be factored in on a per-listener basis, yet I detected the warmth and amenable tone from the onset. More ...

Album Review

Le Tricycle: Le Tricycle

Read "Le Tricycle" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 18, 2014

French pianist Jean-Rene Mourot and associates kindle an invigorating forum on this 32-minute length production. Kicking off the young record label, the trio makes a hearty musical statement with rambunctious risk-taking, counterbalanced by plush melodies, classical movements and orthodox modern jazz fare. “Kyrielle" commences with bassist Adam Lanfrey's lower register ostinato and saxophonist Michael Alizon's soulful musings as the band varies the pitch via Mourot's use of electric piano and alternating tonalities. Yet the trio's kaleidoscopic characteristics include ...