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.

Extended Analysis

Mark Weinstein: Latin Jazz Underground

by Dan Bilawsky
April 14, 2014

Has flautist Mark Weinstein run out of ideas on how to merge various dialects of Latin jazz with other musical tongues? The answer is a resounding “no." Latin Jazz Underground finds Weinstein saluting the loft jazz scene of the '70s by tackling the work of jazz iconoclasts-turned-icons--pianist Andrew Hill and saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Sam Rivers--and like- minded originals. That concept, in and of itself, doesn't distinguish this project, as plenty of people have traveled down those thorny paths, so ...

Album Review

Roddy Ellias Trio: Monday's Dream

Read "Monday's Dream" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
April 14, 2014

Since returning home to Ottawa after spending much of his adult life as an associate music professor at Concordia University in Montréal, Roddy Ellias may have retired but he's far from slowing down. Retirement's just a word, but for this extraordinary guitarist it's clearly been a liberating one; based on Monday's Dream, his first recording since returning to Ottawa, it's suiting him very, very well, indeed. While he still plays a hollow body electric guitar on occasion, Ellias' ...

Extended Analysis

Sons of Kemet: Burn

by Phil Barnes
April 14, 2014

The first thing you notice about Shabaka Hutchings' latest project, Sons of Kemet, is the unexpectedly large feel to the recording's soundscape. Not only does it have the hallmarks of a warmer analogue past but the reverb is at times extraordinary, being akin to hearing the band play in an immense auditorium with twice as many musicians as the relatively paltry core quartet listed in the credits. Drummer and producer Seb Rochford explained in interview that this was achieved by ...

Album Review

Danny Fox Trio: Wide Eyed

Read "Wide Eyed" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 14, 2014

"This record is the result of countless hours of writing, rehearsing in a basement, touring around the country in a clown car, drinking too much coffee, beating jokes into the ground, listening to all kinds of music together, and pushing each other to try new things (be it musically or using cruise control on the highway)." So says pianist Danny Fox on the inside panel of Wide Eyed. The above statement gives a bit of insight into ...

Album Review

Hans Tammen / Denman Maroney: Arson

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 14, 2014

Hyper-pianist Denman Maroney, known for his ongoing collaborations featuring double bass master Mark Dresser with the experimental sound artist and conceptual explorer of the so- called “endangered guitar" Hans Tammen, have been working together since 1998 as a duo and in other formations. Unfortunately, until now the innovative work of this unique duo was documented only on their only album, Billabong (Potlatch, 1999}. Arson , recorded in Brooklyn during June 2012, features the highly sophisticated musical ...

Album Review

The Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra: Strength in Numbers

Read "Strength in Numbers" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 14, 2014

For the second album as leader of his jazz orchestra, New York-based Pete McGuinness says he has “returned to [his] roots," fashioning a series of dapper themes that embody his forward-looking point of view while swinging in the grand tradition of such legendary ensembles as Basie, Herman, Thad Jones and others. When someone like Bill Holman says (as he does) “wonderful writing," the tendency is to sit up and take notice. One keynote that's immediately clear is that Holman is, ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Mário Franco

by AAJ Staff
April 13, 2014

Meet Mario Franco: Mário Franco was born in 1965 and started music lessons when he was four years old in Centro Estudos Gregorianos. Franco studied music theory with Maria José Godinho then with Cristina Brito da Cruz in the Academia de Amadores De Música. During his time at Academia Amadores De Música, he initated double bass and chamber music with Fernando Flores and composition with Pedro Rocha. Franco attended double bass courses with Ludwig Strecher in Estoril ...

Album Review

Hajime Yoshida: Unlimitation

Read "Unlimitation" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 13, 2014

As interest in jazz continues to wane in the land of its birth it remains strong elsewhere, especially in Japan, where jazz of all stripes is welcomed with open arms. Although guitarist Hajime Yoshida hails from Ichikawa, Japan, and nurtured his love for the music while there, he presently resides in Brooklyn, NY, of all places, and that is where his debut album, Unlimitation, was recorded in 2012. After moving to the U.S. at age eighteen, Yoshida studied at the ...

Extended Analysis

Ola Kvernberg Trio: Northern Tapes

by John Kelman
April 13, 2014

It's been three years since Ola Kvernberg released the ambitious Liarbird (Jazzland, 2011), a studio document of his 2010 Molde International Jazz Festival commission where guest Joshua Redman was recruited for the live performance, but where, far more than a ringer for Kvernberg, Redman was clearly awestruck by this virtuosic young violinist/composer. It's not that Kvernberg hasn't been busy, either: in addition to being a featured soloist, the same year, with Motorpsycho's progressive rock-heavy collaboration with Supersilent/Elephant9 keyboardist Ståle Storløkken, ...

Album Review

Phronesis: Life To Everything

Read "Life To Everything" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
April 13, 2014

In the contemporary world of jazz, when bands form, record and split with reckless disregard for longevity, Phronesis seems to have been around forever. Danish bassist Jasper Høiby formed the trio, which also includes British pianist Ivo Neame and Swedish drummer Anton Eger, in 2005. It approaches the end of its first decade by releasing Life To Everything-- an emphatic recording from a band still filled with the enthusiasm of a group at its debut gig. Phronesis recorded ...