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.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Carole Troll

by AAJ Staff
April 13, 2014

Meet Carole Troll: I am a jazz vocalist, professional actor, writer, activist and small business owner. I've appeared at numerous jazz venues and clubs, have been seen on several episodes of the Law and Order franchise as well as many other commercials, television and film projects. I am always looking to collaborate and perform with great musicians! Instrument(s): Vocals. Teachers and/or influences? Of the numerous influences, Sarah Vaughan is at the top of ...

Album Review

Jessica Williams: With Love

Read "With Love" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 13, 2014

Successful musicians play “the truth." If you want to hear some truth there are certain artists you can seek out. Thelonious Monk couldn't play anything but the truth, right from the beginning. Pianist Jessica Williams came upon the truth--a purer form of it, at least--after experiencing “the fix of Illness" that she has discussed on her website and in interviews. Her first “fix" came about via her struggle with hypothyroidism, and resulted in a string of gorgeous recordings on Origin ...

Album Review

Jeremy Fox: With Love

Read "With Love" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 13, 2014

Dr. Jeremy Fox has certainly made his mark in the jazz world but, not as a singer or musician but rather, as an educator/clinician, vocal coach and arranger, and on his inaugural album With Love, Fox offers an inspirational vocal album of jazz standards deserving serious attention. Assembling a group of ten world-class vocalist with varied combos, studio orchestra, a big band and a string section, Fox presents eleven newly-arranged standards from the likes of Sammy Cahn, Cole Porter, Neil ...

Album Review

Hans Nyman / Johannes Nästesjö / Peter Nilsson: Cycles

Read "Cycles" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 13, 2014

The debut recording of the Swedish, Malmö-based trio comprised of guitarist Hans Nyman, double bassist Johannes Nästesjö and more prolific drummer Peter Nilsson focuses on free improvised music that is based on graphical sketches and musical processes. The ten concise pieces offer open-ended, evocative soundscapes. The three musicians maintain a delicate, patient balance that emphasizes an uncompromising search for a common sonic thread and distinct ambiance to define each piece with varied characteristics. The trio's highly ...

Extended Analysis

John Carter & Bobby Bradford: Tandem

by John Eyles
April 12, 2014

The music on the double CD Tandem (remastered) was all previously available on two single Emanem CDs, Tandem 1 and Tandem 2, released in 1996. They have now been withdrawn and replaced by this release. In the process the music has been programmed in a more sensible order and, as the album title highlights, the sound of the recordings has been improved. Cook and Morton's The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings said of Tandem 1 that “the sound on these ...

Album Review

Plymouth: Plymouth

Read "Plymouth" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 12, 2014

Jamie Saft, Joe Morris, Chris Lightcap, Gerald Cleaver, and Mary Halvorson. The simple mention of these five names is probably enough to frighten some people away from this album and make others rush toward it with open ears. Each one of the aforementioned musicians has a reputation for being a musical provocateur, pushing buttons, pushing the limits and challenging minds and ears with intelligent abandon. The music they make together under the banner of Plymouth could be dubbed free jazz, ...

Album Review

Les Sabler: Jobim Tribute

Read "Jobim Tribute" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 12, 2014

Canadian guitarist and vocalist Les Sabler is accustomed to playing the lighter side of jazz as an established and prominent Smooth jazz artist with a particular fancy for the bossa nova. On a very special homage album, Jobim Tribute, the guitarist provides a delicious taste of Brazil by exploring select music from Antonio Carlos Jobim, arguably, one of the greatest composers and innovators of the Brazilian genre. It is also important to note that 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of ...

Extended Analysis

Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration Deluxe Edition

by John Kelman
April 12, 2014

A star-studded show celebrating the music of Bob Dylan, televised around the world thirty years after the release of his first Columbia recording, 1962's Bob Dylan, could have been seen as swan song; after all, Dylan was in a period of songwriting inactivity that would last from 1990 through to his potent reemergence with 1997's Time Out of Mind (Columbia) and a less prolific but still impressive period ever since. But at the time, nobody knew if Dylan the songwriter ...

Extended Analysis

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem

by C. Michael Bailey
April 12, 2014

Bruce Haynes, in his book The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century (Oxford University Press, 2007) states: “More than anything else, Authenticity seems to be a statement of intent. Totally accurate historic performance is probably impossible to achieve. To know it has been achieved is certainly impossible. But that isn't the goal. What produces interesting results is the attempt to be historically accurate, that is, authentic." ...

Album Review

The Who: Tommy Deluxe Edition 2013

Read "Tommy Deluxe Edition 2013" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
April 12, 2014

The white-hot intensity with which The Who play their rock opera on the second deluxe edition almost, but not quite, renders moot any reservations about the concept of the package. Far from merely coasting in the afterglow of the appearance at Woodstock that galvanized the band as much as the audience, the quartet sounds flush with confidence, authority and abandon as they play Tommy. The uniformity of the sound, even rough as it is, belies rumors of the recording not ...