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

Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers Vol I & II

by Nenad Georgievski
March 22, 2014

Without a doubt, when it comes to blues music and its legacy,guitarist Robert Johnson is its preeminent performer and a key figure. For many, he is the greatest blues man of all time, certainly the most well regarded by modern popular culture. As such, his place in the vanguard of that pantheon has been secured. But his influence involves more than that and was never limited exclusively to blues, but touched all popular music, more so than any other blues ...

Album Review

Zara McFarlane: If You Knew Her

Read "If You Knew Her" reviewed by Phil Barnes

by Phil Barnes
March 22, 2014

In the current short term, fast buck, major label A&R climate Brownswood stand out like a beacon for the way that they back and develop their artists. Perhaps the different ethos comes from the top, Gilles Peterson is the label boss after all, but in any event less sensitive hands might not have allowed a talent as great as Zara McFarlane to develop after her promising, solid, yet not especially high selling debut Until Tomorrow from 2011. Peterson's ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With George Stavroulakis

by AAJ Staff
March 22, 2014

Meet George Stavroulakis: George Stravoulakis was born in Athens in 1978 and has been active in the Greek jazz scene since 2006. Stravoulakis has played with renowned Greek artists like Kostas Konstantinou, George Georgiadis, Seraphim Bellos, Dimitris Pantelias, Pantelis Benetatos and many others. Outside of his jazz-oriented activities, Stravoulakis also performs in rock groups and has toured Greece, Cyrpus and Belgium. He is currently performing with O3 and The Burning Sticks while working as a sideman for various ensembles. ...

Album Review

Sonar: Static Motion

Read "Static Motion" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 22, 2014

At a time when more recordings are released than ever before, it's rare to find a group that not just changes the way music is made, but the way it's defined. That description could easily fit Swiss pianist Nik Bartsch and his longstanding group Ronin, its Ritual Groove Music jettisoning overt virtuosity and conventional form for ultra-disciplined structural constructs and a deeper kind of interaction amongst its members. The same can be said, however, for Sonar, whose A Flaw of ...

Multiple Reviews

Latest Releases of Aural Terrains Label

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 22, 2014

The British label Aural Terrains continues to explore the extreme sonic terrains of electro-acoustic spontaneous improvisations, each different in its vivid atmosphere and suggestive sounds. The label's recent pair of releases feature two distinct outfits that present the arresting results of a careful, balanced mix of acoustics and electronics. Thanos Chrysakis / Ken Slaven / James O'Sullivan / Jerry Wigens Zafiros en el Barro Aural Terrains 2013 Zafiros en ...

Album Review

Gary Windo: Deep Water

Read "Deep Water" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 22, 2014

Celebrated British saxophonist Gary Windo had an imposing musical presence as his untimely passing in 1992 left a huge void on the international jazz and rock scenes. He could seemingly gash titanium into shards via his colossal sound, linked with shimmering vibrato phrasings and serrated lines. During the 70s he was very much in- demand and a key collaborator with storied 1970s Brit jazz icons such as jazz artist Graham Bond, progressive rock luminary Robert Wyatt and was a member ...

Album Review

Torbjörn Zetterberg: Och Den Stora Frågan

Read "Och Den Stora Frågan" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 22, 2014

Swedish double bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg did not record as a bandleader for more than seven years. Zetterberg, a member of the Jonas Kullhammar Quartet and a prominent figure in Nordic jazz since the late nineties, experienced an existential crisis at the peak of his busy, successful career. He felt bored and unsatisfied, so in 2010 he decided to leave city life and moved to a Buddhist temple without his instrument. He stayed at the temple for a year and still ...

Album Review

Christian Jacob: Beautiful Jazz: A Private Concert

Read "Beautiful Jazz: A Private Concert" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 21, 2014

There was a time when pianist Christian Jacob thought he'd be making his mark as a classical pianist. That's perfectly understandable considering the fact that he was playing piano at age four and studying at the Metz conservatory at age six. By the time he was in college, studying at the Paris Conservatory, he was winning awards and prepping for piano competitions. Jacob was following the prescribed course that classical piano hopefuls typically follow, but his destiny ...

Live Review

Mikko Innanen & Innkvisitio at Sellohalli

by Anthony Shaw
March 21, 2014

Mikko Innanen's Innkvisitio Sellohalli 10th Anniversary Concert Helsinki March 13, 2014Much music is best consumed with a pinch of salt, if not a glass of beer or something stronger, and the best works of Mikko Innanen are quite hard on the aural digestive system. But as any good meal appeals to far more senses than the gastronomic, so Innanen is involved in more than a musical odyssey. Moreover the meal he serves has to ...

Album Review

Sergio Merce: Microtonal Saxophone

Read "Microtonal Saxophone" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 21, 2014

Microtonal Saxophone is the latest in an impressive lineage of innovative and experimental saxophone recordings released by Potlatch. It follows in the footsteps of such groundbreaking albums as Bertrand Denzler's Tenor (2010), the free sax quartet Propagations (2007) and Stéphane Rives's Fibres (2003), among others. Unlike such players, who redefined what could be played on a saxophone or the ways the instrument could be played, Argentine saxophonist Sergio Merce has gone a stage further by radically altering the instrument itself. ...