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

Emil Viklicky & George Mraz: Mraz & Viklicky: Together Again

Read "Mraz & Viklicky: Together Again" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 21, 2014

In European jazz the assimilation of folkloric influences has become commonplace as the American vernacular--or more specifically the Great American Songbook--exerts less of a hold. Czech musicians pianist Emil Viklický and bassist George Mraz's collaborations on Morava (Fantasy/Milestone 2001)--with drummer Billy Hart and singer Zuzana Lapcikova--and Moravian Gems (Cube-Métier 2007) with singer/violinist Iva Bittova and drummer Laco Tropp--explored the beauty of Moravian folk music in a jazz context. ACT Music's Siggi Loch was so captivated that he has made it ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Martin Uherek

by AAJ Staff
March 21, 2014

Meet Martin Uherek: I am a young professional saxophonist from Slovakia. I have a deep admiration for the legendary jazz musicians of the '40s through the '60s. I am a leader of several bands-- notably the Martin Uherek Quartet and Jazz Pianoless Trio. My newest project is Stories of Jazz (Self Produced, 2014), which combines music performed by my trio and tells stories about jazz musicians, tunes, history and much more. Instrument(s): Tenor saxophone. ...

Album Review

Mike DiRubbo: Threshold

Read "Threshold" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 21, 2014

New York-based alto saxophonist Mike DiRubbo is one of the most recognizable and formidable forces in the jazz world today. A former student of the late great jazz icon Jackie McLean and a fixture in the Big Apple's vibrant jazz scene, DiRubbo is no novice. He has a substantial discography, and experience performing with some of the best players in the world. The adventurous Threshold is the artist's eighth album as leader where--with the exception of Charlie Parker's Bebop classic ...

Album Review

Kartet: Grand Laps

Read "Grand Laps" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 21, 2014

Kartet celebrates its 25th anniversary and with the latest rendition, Belgian drummer Stephane Galland replaces Chander Sardjoe and alto saxophonist Guillaume Orti adds the C-Melody and F mezzo-soprano saxophones to his arsenal. Indeed, it's a unique entity. With the ambiance of chamber music fare and uncluttered designs, the musicians generate a rhythmic nirvana via geometrically modeled ostinatos and odd-metered time signatures, while also using space as a vantage point. From a holistic perception, the soloists engineer themes that feature reverse ...

Extended Analysis

Miles at the Fillmore - Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3

by John Kelman
March 21, 2014

By the time Bitches Brew (Columbia) was released in April, 1970—and despite receiving a 5-star review in Downbeat Magazine—trumpeter Miles Davis was already under fire from mainstream jazz critics as having “sold out," despite the densely constructed, improvisationally unfettered music being as unapproachable to an audience looking for accessible music as anything he'd done with his increasingly liberated second great quintet of the 1960s. Sure, there were rock rhythms and, perhaps more disturbingly to the delicate ears of its detractors, ...

Bailey's Bundles

Trio Logic: Phishbacher, Dominic J Marshall, Bob Henschen Trios

by C. Michael Bailey
March 20, 2014

The traditional jazz piano trio (piano, double bass and drums) remains a robust and productive format for jazz performance and interpretation. Here are three examples supporting this. Phishbacher Trio Dreamcatcher Jazz Sick Records 2014 Pianist and composer Walter Fischbacher with his wife, singer/composer Elisabeth Lohninger manage their Lofish Recording Studio in New York City when not pursuing each other's well- received recording careers. Fischbacher and his trio have enjoyed ...

Album Review

Jaclyn Guillou: The Lover's Walk

Read "The Lover's Walk" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 20, 2014

Canada has long been the breeding ground for jazz musicians and vocalists, pianist Oscar Peterson and Diana Krall being notable examples. Vancouver-native Jaclyn Guillou is a multi-talented performer (song, dance and stage) who has carved out both an Old and New World presence. She released her first recording in 2011, To The City, a collection of standards are original compositions. She follows this recording with the present The Lover's Walk where she commands creation of seven probing compositions recorded in ...

Bailey's Bundles

Aural Mayhem – Rare Noise / Jamie Saft - Joe Morris / Chat Noir

by C. Michael Bailey
March 20, 2014

On a bright spring Thursday afternoon, June 28, 1928, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five entered the Okeh Studios in Chicago Illinois to record “Three Perfect Minutes" of music in the guise of Joe “King" Oliver's immortal “West End Blues." Describing Armstrong's “West End" cornet solo, Gunther Schuller opined that it was, ..."an impassioned almost stammering repetitive phrase that seems to float, completely unencumbered, above the accompaniment." Thus, the most important recording in jazz history. What does ...

Album Review

Martin Wind Quartet: Turn Out the Stars

Read "Turn Out the Stars" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 20, 2014

Has an artist ever been characterized as a hopeful romantic? If not, then let us nominate Martin Wind, not as hopeless, but a bullish and inspiring romantic. His quartet and the 36- piece Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana tribute to pianist Bill Evans Turn Out The Stars marries his talents, both as a jazz bassist/bandleader and orchestral arranger. Besides leading his own quartet, and working in trio with Bill Mays and Matt Wilson, and in the guitar/bass duos with Philip ...

Live Review

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at Mesa Arts Center

by Patricia Myers
March 20, 2014

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra Mesa Arts Center Mesa, Arizona March 7, 2014 The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, one of the best big bands in the nation for three decades, swung mightily all night long with strong section work and stylish solos arranged for specific members, per Duke Ellington and Count Basie. A brief post-intermission QA period from triumverate co-leaders bassist John Clayton, saxophonist Jeff Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton added personal insights for a full house of ...