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

Keith Jarrett: Arbour Zena

by John Kelman
February 28, 2014

Given his overall focus on just two projects over the past three decades--with the exception of relatively rare diversions into the classical world or recordings like Jasmine (2010), an intimate duo date with bassist Charlie Haden--it's easy to forget that there was a time when pianist Keith Jarrett was not just one of the most innovative performers on the planet, but a writer constrained by no stylistic boundaries. These days, focusing as he does on performing solo and with his ...

Album Review

Keith Jarrett / Dennis Russell Davies: Ritual

by John Kelman
February 28, 2014

In pianist Keith Jarrett's vast ECM catalogue, albums on which he does not play aren't exactly common, but nor are they completely uncommon; his 1974 double-disc set In the Light features a handful of tracks on which he performs, but its primary focus is on Jarrett the composer. Ditto Luminessence (1975), a trilogy of compositions for string orchestra and improviser Jan Garbarek--a precursor to Arbour Zena (1976), also featuring the Norwegian saxophonist and string orchestra, but also including Jarrett and ...

Album Review

Cindy Scott: Historia

Read "Historia" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 28, 2014

Stating the obvious right off, vocalist Cindy Scott is from New Orleans. This fact thoroughly and three-dimensionally informs the twelve selections on Historia, Scott's follow-up to Let The Devil Take Tomorrow (Catahoula Records, 2009), without making a burden of it. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, the aural aroma of the Crescent City appears like an essence, that hyperdistillation that leaves neither finger nor footprint but exists as an indelible mark on the music readily recognised. This mark is made audible ...

Album Review

Ton Trio II: On And On

Read "On And On" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 28, 2014

Oakland, CA, based jazz and improvisation protagonist, alto saxophonist Aram Shelton could hold his own with most anyone in a cutting-contest. But there's more than a whole lot of technical acumen taking place with Ton Trio II. One of the principle selling points so to speak, is how the musicians impeccably integrate the modern jazz vernacular with invocative avant-garde campaigns, heaving with impact and intensifying discourses. The trio's spry and spunky demeanor is led by Shelton's burly tone ...

From Far and Wide

Unseen Recordings: Copenhagen Jazzhouse Launches New Web Channel for Experimental Music

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 28, 2014

There was a time when MTV was the place to discover new music, especially in the world of pop, but since the heyday of MTV a lot of things have happened. Nowadays, web channels like YouTube and Vimeo are the places to discover new music and both listeners and artists upload their own videos. In many ways this is the ideal situation, but there is a problem. The quality of the videos is often poor and they are ...

Interview

Mark Sherman: Truth Of Who I Am

by DanMichael Reyes
February 27, 2014

Vibraphonist Mark Sherman likes using the term consummate to describe musicians and colleagues that he's played with. While it would be difficult to speak to every notable musician that Sherman's played for and ask about their opinion about Juilliard graduate and professor, it is safe to assume that they would also describe Sherman as a consummate musician. Mark Sherman has enjoyed a career as a leader with over a dozen albums under his name. While Sherman's albums as ...

Extended Analysis

The Necks: Open

by Phil Barnes
February 27, 2014

Not many artists would respond favourably to a question on how they felt about audience members falling asleep in one of their performances. The Necks, however, are not like other bands--bass player Lloyd Swanton quipping in a recent interview that “I have no objection to audience members sleeping, as long as they don't snore and wake up the person next to them!." The question was put to the band during a discussion of the best state to listen ...

Album Review

Jason Kao Hwang / Ayman Fanous: Zilzal

by Dan Bilawsky
February 27, 2014

The music forged by Egyptian guitarist/bouzouki player Ayman Fanous and violinist/violist Jason Kao Hwang is alternately thoughtful, prickly, exasperating, mournful, and enchanting. It speaks to mysteries and histories, capturing and refracting the shared language, cross-cultural references, and mystic vibes that these two men have been cultivating and exploring together for fifteen years. “Zilzal" is the Arabic word for “earthquake," but the music on Zilzal doesn't always rumble and rupture the ground. Peaceful prayers ("Nilometer At Roda") can ...

Album Review

Janice Borla Group: Promises to Burn

Read "Promises to Burn" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 27, 2014

The artist title is a hint: “The Janice Borla Group." Borla is a vocalist with a reputation for taking chances as evidenced on her three previous recordings, all released on Tall Grass records, From Every Angle (2006), Agents of Change (2003) and Lunar Octave (1996). What she effectively does on the current Promises to Burn is elevate jazz vocals from the realm of vocalist with rhythm section and tone color support to a fully integrated instrumental ensemble not unlike vocalist ...

Extended Analysis

Seven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra

by John Kelman
February 27, 2014

While there is still a handful of ECM titles from vibraphonist Gary Burton that remain unreleased on CD, perhaps the most unique of the bunch is Seven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra, originally issued by the German label in 1974 and the first of two collaborations with Zimbabwe-born, British-resident composer/pianist/trombonist Michael Gibbs. The similarly intriguing In the Public Interest (Polydor, 1974) is a more conventionally configured large ensemble with horns, reeds, piano, bass and drums; Seven Songs, on the ...