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

John Davey - Dean Sharp - Ken McGloin: Open Range

Read "Open Range" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 8, 2014

Recorded in upstate New York and mastered by iconic experimental guitarist David Torn, the band led by bassist, educator John Davey embraces jazz power trio fare amid Americana, and jazz-folk and navigates through a potpourri of improvisation-based scenarios. However, the musicians sustain an open landscape via a loose but potent mode of operations. Consisting of works spanning two to five minutes in length, the trio sustains an upbeat demeanor with a diverse mix. “Freakshow" is a piece where ...

Album Review

Eddie Allen: Push

Read "Push" reviewed by Everett R. Davis

by Everett R. Davis
April 8, 2014

Seasoned trumpeter, composer and educator Eddie Allen's highly awaited Push is a mix of mainstream jazz with generous sprinklings of urban flavors and reggae thrown into the mix. Allen and the excellent group of musicians he assembled for this release is simply riveting, with pure jazz and catchy flowing rhythms from start to finish. Allen states that the goal of this project was simply to create some good, “fun to listen to music." The album opens with ...

Album Review

Ulf Wakenius: Momento Magico

Read "Momento Magico" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
April 7, 2014

Momento Magico is a solo outing from Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius, an exploration of three acoustic instruments--steel and nylon strung guitars and acoustic bass guitar. Wakenius undertakes this exploration across a mix of self-penned tunes and works by writers as varied as Erik Satie, Charles Trenet and Sixto Rodrigues. Wakenius is an impressively adaptable player, who's resumé includes work with Ray Brown, Youn Sun Nah and, most famously, Oscar Peterson (The OP in “Notes For OP And Wes"). ...

Interview

Billy Hart: Welcoming New, Loving Old, Sounds

by R.J. DeLuke
April 7, 2014

The ubiquitous drummer Billy Hart brings a special energy to the many projects of which he is a part. A band leader, composer and educator, he's been on hundreds of albums. He has taken the stage with countless bands, adding his rhythmic pulse to formations led by a litany of the biggest names in the business. And at each concert, when Hart is being introduced by whomever the leader--Christian McBride, Eliane Elias, Joe Lovano, the Cookers--they always do ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Vocals April

by C. Michael Bailey
April 7, 2014

Writer's note: Music writing is an avocation. It is not what I do for a living. It exists as that undertaking I do for the satisfaction of possibly educating others about this single essential art. But the reality is I have less and less time to write. As a result, I am limiting my writing to two “Bailey's Bundles" submitted monthly: my current “Jazz Quanta" addressing instrumental music and now my “Jazz Vocals" capturing my thoughts on vocal jazz. These ...

Album Review

Steven Kroon: On The #1

Read "On The #1" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 7, 2014

Steven Kroon has long been a first-call percussionist for the musical elite, adding seasonings and spices to the variety of R&B, jazz, and soul dishes that these bigwigs make. He's worked behind Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Ron Carter, Jimmy Heath, Diana Krall, Stanley Turrentine, and numerous others over the past three-plus decades. Many will forever think of Kroon as a support player of note, but more and more listeners are starting to know him as a leader. ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Bassist Tim Paul Weiner

by AAJ Staff
April 7, 2014

Meet Tim Paul Weiner: Tim Paul Weiner is a freelance bassist, songwriter, and composer living in Boston, MA. His early musical career was spent between Los Angeles and the Midwest before moving to the east coast in 2000. He is a Fodera artist and a Berklee College of Music Film Scoring graduate. He received his Master's degree in Modern American Music from the Longy School of Music of Bard College, where he most recently studied jazz bass with John ...

Album Review

Steve Lacy: Avignon and After Volume 2

Read "Avignon and After Volume 2" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
April 7, 2014

In 2012, Emanem released Avignon and After Volume 1 which consisted of re-released and previously unreleased tracks from the late great soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's first solo concerts, at Avignon in 1972, plus previously unreleased tracks recorded live in Berlin in 1974. It was an excellent and valuable addition to the Lacy discography. Teasingly, its sleeve notes hinted that there was still enough unreleased Lacy material for another volume. Now, to confirm that, here is that second volume as promised. ...

Album Review

Barry Guy New Orchestra: Amphi - Radio Rondo

Read "Amphi - Radio Rondo" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 7, 2014

Venerable British bassist and improviser, Barry Guy is the director of the New Orchestra but also serves as an enabler for the musicians' creative sparks to flourish. Other than frequent collaborator American trumpeter Herb Robertson, this aggregation consists of largely, European avant-jazz luminaries, prefacing the agenda on a hybrid chamber-orchestral slant, suitably noted by Guy in the press release. One of two extended works, “Amphi" commences with a gathering of the troops slant, where the respective artists enter ...

Album Review

Readymade: Triple Point

Read "Triple Point" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 7, 2014

The Swedish, Malmö-based Readymade experimental trio focuses on free improvised music with references to jazz, noise and ambient. The trio is comprised of modern jazz drummer Peter Nilsson and electro-acoustic explorers Marcus Lundgren, originally a guitarist but playing synthesizers and electronics here, and Robert Fuchs, who collaborates with Lundgren in another alternative band, Purge. Originally a double bassist in jazz and metal bands, Fuch also plays synthesizers and electronics in this trio, as well as the acoustic cello and trumpet. ...