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

Peter Evans + Raleigh Dailey: Measure From Zero

Read "Measure From Zero" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 9, 2014

Llama Records is a new jazz improvisation label out of Lexington Kentucky. Here, pianist Raleigh Dailey teams with mega-talented trumpeter Peter Evans, cited for his work with the young and insanely hip Mostly Other People Do the Killing band amid high profile stints with saxophonist, composer John Zorn and guitarist Mary Halvorson as the list goes on. Hence, this improvised program is a study in brazen contrasts. Simply put, they intensely explore fertile landscapes as virtually nothing seems out of ...

Album Review

Farthest South: Spheres & Constellations

Read "Spheres & Constellations" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 9, 2014

The Israeli psychedelic trio Farthest South focused on new sonic territories on its sophomore album, Spheres & Constellations, abandoning attempts to flirt with free jazz as they did on their debut Omens & Talismans,(2013), working with Israeli sax hero Albert Beger. On its new incarnation the band sounds completely different, still relying on exploratory, in-the- moment improvisations but with new, radical aesthetics more organic to members' vocabularies. The effort represents a highly personal, almost spiritual experience ...

Book Review

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band

by John Coltelli
March 9, 2014

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band Alan Paul 436 Pages ISBN: #978-1-250-04049-7 St. Martin's Press 2014 Apparently the calling to go out and capture the American spirit on canvas came to Norman Rockwell at an early age. Picking up the mantel, and paintbrush, he documented boys at play, secretaries at work, housewives baking pies and other scenes brilliantly depicting various aspects of Americana. What he neglected to ...

Album Review

Lili Añel: I Can See Bliss From Here

Read "I Can See Bliss From Here" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
March 9, 2014

With I Can See Bliss From Here, singer-songwriter Lili Añel presents a set of personal songs that deeply touch the listener's ear, mind and soul, and bring to mind the confessional yet universal genius of such songwriters as Tracy Chapman, Phoebe Snow and Roberta Flack--they really are that well-written. “These are the songs I want to put out to the world at this time," she says simply. “It's what I wrote. They reflect where I am right now."

Album Review

Greg Cohen: Golden State

Read "Golden State" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 8, 2014

Though best known for his twenty-plus years in saxophonist John Zorn's Masada, bassist Greg Cohen's career has been marked by the diversity of his collaborations, from the carnivalesque Tom Waits and folkster Donovan, to rocker Lou Reed and saxophonist Ornette Coleman. So, in guitarist Bill Frisell--himself no stranger to experimentation--Cohen has found a most simpatico partner. Inspired by the nature and landscapes of California, Golden State draws certain parallels to Frisell's Big Sur (Okeh, 2013), on an emotive level at ...

Extended Analysis

Mike Bloomfield: From His Head to His Heart to His Hands

by John Ephland
March 8, 2014

Michael Bloomfield was like a shooting star, a rolling stone who catapulted. Sorta like Hendrix, he lasted a little longer than the Purple Haze, until 1981, dying of a drug overdose at age 36. He suffered from insomnia as well as addiction. But for a time, if you were alive then (especially during the 1960s), and you listened to music, if you missed Michael ... sorry, but you were asleep. Okay, his music with Paul Butterfield, Bob Dylan, ...

Album Review

Swiss Jazz Orchestra: Live at Jazzfestival Bern

Read "Live at Jazzfestival Bern" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 8, 2014

Live at Jazzfestival Bern (Mons) Some big-band albums are heated and brassy, others cool and understated, while a precious few simply cast a mesmerizing spell. “Live at Jazzfestival Bern," recorded in May 2013 by the unerring Swiss Jazz Orchestra, drops anchor squarely in the last of those realms, thanks in part to the ensemble's perceptive choice of material and even more so to the conclusive brilliance of guest artists Paquito D'Rivera, Claudio Roditi and Michael Zisman.

Live Review

The James Carter Organ Trio at FlynnSpace

by Doug Collette
March 8, 2014

The James Carter Organ Trio Flynn Center for the Performing Arts/FlynnSpace Burlington, VT February 22, 2014 There were no Motown tunes among the eclectic mix of material that the James Carter Organ Trio played during their early show at FlynnSpace, but shortly into their set, when the threesome hit their stride on a brisk and insistent improvisation during “Melodie Au Crepuscule," lines from Martha & The Vandellas' “Dancing in the Street' came to mind: ..."There'll ...

Film Review

The Doors: R-Evolution

by Doug Collette
March 8, 2014

The Doors R-Evolution Eagle Vision 2014 The pristine clarity of the audio and video content on The Doors' Re-evolution, much of it unreleased, lends a ghostly quality to the film, perhaps to an even greater extent than its creators imagine. Not intended to be definitive, this two hour-plus compilation of music videos and conceptual pieces instead illustrates the ever-growing legacy of this iconic band. From the staged likes of the 'music film' for ...

Album Review

Momo Kodama: La Vallee Des Cloches

Read "La Vallee Des Cloches" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 8, 2014

Japan-born and France-educated pianist Momo Kodama is perfectly at home on La vallée des cloches, as she brings her signature, sublime approach to the interpretation of three introspective 20th century gems. The compositions go from impressionistic to more abstract, both within themselves and throughout the record. Maurice Ravel's five-movement suite “Miroirs," dedicated to various members of his artistic group Les Apaches, opens the album. Kodama punctuates the nocturnal, undulating “Noctuelles" with splashes of bright note clusters, like the ...