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

Lena Bloch: Feathery

by Jack Bowers
March 6, 2014

On one level, the Russian-born, New York-based tenor saxophonist Lena Bloch's debut album is like stepping into a time machine; on the other hand, one could argue that her approach to music in general and jazz in particular is timeless. Foremost among Bloch's influences are Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh and Lennie Tristano, and the mood on Feathery clearly reflects those associations. In fact, the word “feathery" could serve as an apt description of Bloch's style, which is for the most ...

Album Review

Christoph Stiefel Inner Language Trio: Big Ship

Read "Big Ship" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
March 6, 2014

Big Ship is the latest album to grace the extensive discography of Swiss pianist Christoph Stiefel and the fourth release from his Inner Language Trio. Stiefel is an underrated pianist. He lacks, so far, the public profile of other European players such as Joachim Kuhn or Michael Wollny but that's no reflection on his talent--as Big Ship clearly shows. For some time Steifel has been working with the concept of isorhythms--a musical strategy that dates back to mediaeval ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Tim Wolfe, Jr.

by AAJ Staff
March 6, 2014

Meet Tim Wolfe: Bassist Tim Wolfe, Jr. keeps a busy schedule as a performer, recording artist, and educator. Wolfe has performed across the eastern seaboard, internationally, the greater Philadelphia area and central Pennsylvania. Tim earned his master's degree in jazz studies from The University of the Arts. He is an adjunct professor of music at Lebanon Valley College where he teaches bass, jazz improvisation, and directs small-group comobos. Working with students of all ages, Wolfe also teaches workshops, clinics, ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Billy Carrion Jr.

by AAJ Staff
March 6, 2014

Meet Billy Carrion Jr: I've been around music since I was in my mother's womb. My dad-- singer, Billy Carrion Sr. --would play sounds of Batacumbele through headphones over my mom's belly. My first saxophone experience came at nine. After being taught to read and write, I started my musical journey. At 16, I was performing with the likes of Robbie Ameen, Ned Sublette, and Pete Rodriguez. Through that experience, I got a taste for what my life could ...

Album Review

Achim Kaufmann & Michael Moore: Furthermore

Read "Furthermore" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 6, 2014

Award-winning alto saxophonist, clarinetist, Michael Moore has performed on seminal modern and avant-garde jazz albums, spanning several decades via numerous projects and stints that include Clusone, The ICP Orchestra, bands led by drummer Gerry Hemingway and bassist Mark Helias; the list goes on. He's a California native who has resided in Holland since 1982 and is cited for his involvement with cutting-edge entities throughout Europe. Furthermore is one of three releases with highly regarded German pianist Achim Kaufmann, also including ...

Album Review

Clovis Nicolas: Nine Stories

Read "Nine Stories" reviewed by Gabriel Medina Arenas

by Gabriel Medina Arenas
March 6, 2014

Ron Carter's judgment regarding the talent of a fellow double bassist can't be wrong. The acclaimed musician, who has recorded more than 2,500 albums and was a fundamental member of the Miles Davis Quintet, highly praises the sound and compositions of Clovis Nicolas. Carter wrote the liner notes to Nicolas' Nine Stories, the first solo album from a young but experienced double bassist born in the Ivory Coast, who earned a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Music ...

Album Review

Kvintetten Som Sprängdes: Svänger Så Det Svartnar

Read "Svänger Så Det Svartnar" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 6, 2014

The sophomore release of Swedish quintet Kvintetten Som Sprängdes (The Quintet That Blew Up in English), after Järnet! (Found you Recordings, 2012) features a band with a mature, highly personal sound. The quintet's concise, articulate compositions by its founder, Gothenburg-based saxophonist Niklas Persson, stress dynamic and nuanced narratives, characterized by brief, surprisingly creative free improvisations and spontaneous confrontations. Persson's rich musical language flirts with diverse, seminal influences, beginning with Swedish sax hero Lars Gullin and continuing with the innovative extended ...

Album Review

Billy Hart Quartet: One is the Other

Read "One is the Other" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 5, 2014

There's little doubt about the value of longevity and ongoing musical relationships. It's been nearly a decade since Billy Hart assembled the group that would turn out to be his longest-standing, releasing Quartet (HighNote) in 2006. But it was with 2012's All Our Reasons that the drummer moved to ECM, reaping the benefits of the label's renowned attention to detail. It's also facilitated an accelerated release rate; after a six year gap between the first two records, One is the ...

Record Label Profile

Sonorama: Putting the Past in the Future

by Jakob Baekgaard
March 5, 2014

It takes a collector to know what a collector wants. Ekkehart Fleischhammer who runs the German reissue label Sonorama has been in the record business since 2004, but he has spent far more time enjoying and searching for music. His own expertise and sense of quality is the foundation for Sonorama Records whose specialty is the forgotten gems of the past and the rare items on the collector's market. The catalog consists of true gems in many genres: hard bop, ...

Live Review

Joel Harrison 5 at Gigspace Performance Studio

by John Kelman
March 5, 2014

Joel Harrison 5 Gigspace Performance Studio Ottawa, Canada March 1, 2014 Tucked at the end of a small strip mall in an unlikely location, Gigspace Performance Studio has, since opening in the fall of 2011, garnered a reputation as an intimate performance space where magic often happens. A not-for-profit 46-seat venue, “created by musicians for musicians," it sports surprisingly great sound, despite a stage where even a quintet like the Joel Harrison 5 had to ...