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

Espen Berg: Acres of Blue

Read "Acres of Blue" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 3, 2014

Acres of Blue is the second volume of solo piano albums by Norwegian pianist Espen Berg, an organic extension of the most beautiful, Noctilucent (Atterklang, 2012). This time Berg chose to present a mixture of original compositions, improvised pieces, and arrangements of pieces that reference the breadth of his musical vocabulary and his formative influences--romantic compositions of Frédéric Chopin, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Nordic pianists-composers as Esbjörn Svensson, Helge Lien and obviously, Keith Jarrett. All the compositions ...

Album Review

The Cosmosamatics: Jazz-Maalika

Read "Jazz-Maalika" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 2, 2014

The Cosmosamatics--an ever-evolving ensemble co-led by multi-reedists Sonny Simmons and Michael Marcus--was founded in 2000, though the seeds were arguably planted many years earlier. Half a century ago, Simmons was cutting his teeth with multi-reedists Prince Lasha, Eric Dolphy and others of the so-called free jazz movement. Marcus made his name in the avant/free circles of a later generation, so there was a natural symmetry to their eventual meeting in the early 1980s and subsequent collaborations. The Cosmosamatics has always ...

Extended Analysis

Uri Caine: Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

by C. Michael Bailey
March 2, 2014

What is to become of the Great American Songbook, that cultural document that served as scripture to the jazz community for the better part of the Twentieth Century? Today, what we think of as jazz has flown so far and wide that it's definition encompasses everything from Craig Taborn's Chants to Robert Glasper's Black Radio and Black Radio 2. While rightly called jazz, these examples are the keepers of no flame, rather they are the new flame burning the way ...

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

March 2014

by Mr. P.C.
March 2, 2014

Dear Mr. P.C.: What do you think about the whole transcribing thing? Studying the best players, transcribing their solos, and learning to play like them. I thought jazz was supposed to be an individual expression. -- Trying to Be Myself Dear Trying: Look, when you transcribe a solo and try to play Coltrane or Bird's exact lines, you never do it as well as they did, right? Well guess what: those imperfections ...

Album Review

Entrevero Instrumental: Exodo

Read "Exodo" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 2, 2014

The award-winning Brazilian ensemble, Entrevero Instrumental, opens their Exodo CD with a burst of sound, an energetic melding of accordion, bass, drums, saxophone and seven string guitar. The tune is “Folha Negra." It, and the rest of the music of the set, celebrates in vivacious style the rhythms of southern Brazil. Arthur Boscato's seven string guitar swings from lilting, subtle chords to tangy single notes in front of bassist Rodrigo Moreira's deep bass grooves. When saxophonist Jota Barbosa gets his ...

Extended Analysis

Wagner e Venezia

by C. Michael Bailey
March 2, 2014

Released in 1997, the Uri Caine Ensemble's Wagner e Venezia somehow evaded proper consideration within the electrons of All About Jazz. No more. Caine and his unique brand of interpretation has long been well-regarded at the magazine. Wagner e Venezia is one of the pinnacles among pinnacles from the pianist/composer's early output. Wagner e Venezia is Caine's third release on the Winter & Winter label and the first where he used classical music as his creative jumping-off point. The following ...

Album Review

Sam Rivers: Contrasts

Read "Contrasts" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 2, 2014

In a significant discography now approaching forty titles as a leader across five decades, Contrasts stands out as the only recording that left-of-center saxophonist/flautist Sam Rivers led for ECM. Originally released in 1980 on vinyl and previously unavailable on CD, it is finally seeing the light of day again as part of the label's Re:solutions series--and in three formats, no less: CD, four for the first time and one only available previously for a limited time in Japan; high resolution ...

Extended Analysis

The Artistry of the Standard

by Andrew Luhn
March 2, 2014

On the homepage of Misha Tsiganov's website is a quote that reads “Falling in love with jazz is exactly like falling in love with a person... Except with jazz you never get over it..." This quote serves as an appropriate introduction for the Russian-born pianist's Criss Cross debut, The Artistry of the Standard. On this album Tsiganov and his quintet of first-call New York players present a program full of love and respect for the history and tradition of jazz, ...

Album Review

Motherfucker: Mother

Read "Mother" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 2, 2014

Motherfucker is a new Danish trio headed by young reed player Henrik Pultz Melbye that aims to fuse the raw, angry and fiery free jazz of Peter Brötzmann, circa Machine Gun (FMP, 1968) with an aggressive metal attack and punk attitude. Melbye plays in another Danish group that explores the same aesthetics, SVIN, but in a more expansive manner. The trio's debut- released as a 7" 45 vinyl only--was recorded after a successful support gig for the duo of Brötzmann ...

Album Review

Scott Wilson & Stark Raving: Kackle Jackle

Read "Kackle Jackle" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 2, 2014

The album artwork looks more conducive for video game fare, but trumpeter Scott Wilson who heads the jazz program at the University of Florida directs this hip nonet through a rather stout course of action. At times, the ensemble sparks memories of early jazz fusion, back in the day when even jazz musicians had shoulder length hair and would occasionally flash a peace sign. And the audio processing instills a compact and resonating soundstage with some degree of compression, tendering ...