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

Equally Stupid: Exploding Head

Read "Exploding Head" reviewed by Anthony Shaw

by Anthony Shaw
April 12, 2014

This first album released on Eclipse Music by 3 Nordic young male improvisers sees the fruit of time spent together in small practice rooms. It is tight, driving music, often with more than an occasional comic twist in the tail. With an eye, or probably more a highly tuned ear, to the dance-ability of their music they have produced an album that has more than an element of Klezmer as well as free-form jazz alongside contemporary rock in its insistent ...

Album Review

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

Read "Løft mig op, så jeg kan nå" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 12, 2014

I Think You're Awesome is a new Danish group led by double bassist Jens Mikkel Madsen, currently residing in Malmö, Sweden, and known from his collaborations with drummers Kresten Osgood and Kasper Tom Christiansen. His group is comprised of close friends with whom he plays in many outfits--guitarist Alex Jønsson, his collaborator in the Elliot Trio and Foyn Trio, keyboard player Kasper Staub, with whom Madsen plays in the Staub Trio, guitar and banjo player Morten Kærup, and drummer Andreas ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Quanta April

by C. Michael Bailey
April 11, 2014

April is no more the cruelest month than the moon is made of cheese. For consideration this month we have nine recordings from far and wide: Antonio Adolfo to Little Feat far and wide. Antonio Adolfo Rio, Choro, Jazz AAM Music 2014 Before there was Bossa Nova, there was Choro, which itself was a eutection of European, American and African musical elements. One of the greatest Choro composers was ...

Album Review

Oran Etkin: Gathering Light

Read "Gathering Light" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 11, 2014

Multi-reedist Oran Etkin's first album--Kelenia (Motema Music, 2009)--fused Malian sounds and Jewish music with jazz. Its follow-up--Wake Up, Clarinet! (1-2-3-4 Go, 2010)--was geared toward kids. Now, for round three, Etkin has cast his net over a huge portion of the globe, pulling together, arranging, and morphing musical ideals he's encountered while touring through Asia, Israel, and portions of Europe. Gathering Light is a gloriously global musical mélange that finds Etkin in good company, creating alternately gripping and ...

Extended Analysis

Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra: Habitat

by John Kelman
April 11, 2014

It may have been the title of her last album--Treelines, Christine Jensen's first large ensemble recording--but there was no song of that name on the 2010 Justin Time release. Instead, it's the lead-off to Habitat, Jensen's second album with her Jazz Orchestra, a commissioned work for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jazz Orchestra, its director, Dr. Paul Haar, looking for the Canadian saxophonist/composer to continue the strong work begun on Treelines. And why not? Treelines may have been the Montreal, Canada-based ...

Album Review

Nheap: Flying And The Silence

Read "Flying And The Silence" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
April 11, 2014

Nheap is the nom de musique of Assisi-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Massimo Discepoli. More specifically, it's the title under which he records and releases his own experimental, jazz-influenced compositions (he records his more electronic, club-oriented, music as Nheap XP). Flying And The Silence is the fifth album under the Nheap name since Discepoli started the project in 2007. The jazz influence is not too obvious--Alice Coltrane might well inform the overall vibe, but experimental rock bands like Tangerine Dream seem ...

Album Review

Howard Riley: Live With Repertoire

Read "Live With Repertoire" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 11, 2014

British pianist Howard Riley's previous album on No Business, the monumental The Complete Short Stories: 1998-2010 (2011), was a revelation to many, collecting together 6 CDs of stunning aphoristic improvisations. However on Live With Repertoire, as the title suggests, the pianist concentrates primarily on the songbook, particularly Monk, one of his touchstones along with Ellington. In the liners Riley explains that his working method sees him treat a gig as either with or without repertoire, depending on audience, ambience and ...

Album Review

Humber Studio Jazz Ensemble: Another Parallel Reality

Read "Another Parallel Reality" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 11, 2014

The pundits who regularly question the vital signs of jazz would be well served to turn their ears toward the Humber Studio Jazz Ensemble. Almost two-dozen albums into a constantly evolving presence, Denny Christianson, the Director of Toronto's Humber Music Program, has been mentoring young musicians through their persistent reinventing of sound and process. The combined passion for the music and an expert knowledge of the form have created an experience that is keeping modern big band music alive, healthy ...

Album Review

Jon Rune Strøm: Jøa

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 11, 2014

Norwegian double bassist Jon Rune Strøm's energetic and highly rhythmic playing approach on the bull fiddle, sets him apart from other young fellow Norwegian double bass players who explore the solo medium or the sonic capabilities of this massive instrument in intimate settings as Christian Meaas Svendsen, Adrian Myhr, or Inga Margrete Aas. The 29 year old Strøm draws inspiration from free jazz pioneers such as the young Gary Peacock and free improvisation great Peter Kowald}. He demonstrates his playing ...

Album Review

Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band: Landmarks

Read "Landmarks" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
April 10, 2014

Drummer Brian Blade is a rhythmic force of nature that moves with both fire and finesse. He's contributed to numerous recordings and performances around the globe most notably as a member of the esteemed Wayne Shorter Quartet for over 10 years. Yet at the heart of Blade's own music lies a storyteller delivering tales of poignant rural settings and down-to-earth familiarity expressed through his ongoing Fellowship Band comprised of a close-knit ensemble of friends and stellar jazz musicians. Landmarks is ...