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.

Live Review

Rick Lawn's Power of Ten at Chris' Jazz Cafe

by Victor L. Schermer
February 9, 2014

Power of Ten Rick Lawn, Musical Director Chris' Jazz Café Philadelphia, PA February 4, 2014 The Power of Ten is a cracker-jack ensemble of some of the best Philadelphia-based musicians. Powered by its founder and leader, Rick Lawn, their first and only CD, Earth Tones (Self-produced, 2011) impressed this reviewer sufficiently that he seized the opportunity to hear them live at the club everybody knows simply as “Chris" on a ...

Album Review

Postmarks: National Parks

Read "National Parks" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
February 9, 2014

The duo Postmarks consists of London-born Austrian saxophonist Boris Hauf and the Chicago-based American pianist D Bayne. Their first CD Western Ave (Luminescence, 2005) was a limited-edition of only one hundred copies packaged in unique covers, each a handcrafted collage from twenties Chicago postcards. For National Parks, the duo went to Vienna to record with experimental guitarist Martin Siewert, maybe best known for his work with Trapist or in Hauf's Efzeg. The outlines for the ten pieces the three recorded ...

Extended Analysis

Sangeeta Michael Berardi: The Mr. P Sessions

by Dan McClenaghan
February 9, 2014

In October of 1996, guitarist Sangeeta Michael Berardi went into Nevessa Studio in Woodstock, New York, and laid down the tracks for what would become two monumental recordings, Earthship (Sunjump Records, 2008) and Calling Coltrane (Sunjump Records, 2011). This is stunning music from a man who played with Alice Coltrane, Roswell Rudd, Rashied Ali, Archie Shepp--a resume that correctly suggests a free approach to music. Call the seventeen tunes from that session the new Testament of John Coltrane, circa 1965 ...

Album Review

Fred Van Hove/ Shih-Yang Lee: Galactic Alignment

Read "Galactic Alignment" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 9, 2014

Imagine what is was like when man first discovered fire. Fire! How his life changed, his dinner could be cooked, and soon after that (in the history of the universe terms) he was playing video games. Same could be said for the first musician to improvise. Next came New Orleans jazz, which could be documented by the wax cylinders, then shellac, vinyl, and today digital. That sound of American jazz traveled to Europe, and in the 1960s fire ...

Extended Analysis

Dave Askren and Jeff Benedict: It's All About The Groove

by Geannine Reid
February 9, 2014

Guitarist Dave Askren and Saxophonist Jeff Benedict have teamed up as co-leaders to form an ensemble that explores six standards and four originals with a CD entitled, It's All About The Groove. With Askren and Benedict forming the nucleus of the project, they are joined by drummer Ramon Banda and bassist John Belzaguy. The title of the CD is more than just a likable slogan; for Askren it is the “groove" that holds the backbone of all good jazz and ...

Album Review

Agusti Fernandez - Barry Guy - Ramon Lopez: A Moment's Liberty

Read "A Moment's Liberty" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 9, 2014

The powerhouse international trio's third effort radiates an uncanny, or perhaps uncommon framework combining beauty--due to Agusti Fernandez's lyrically rich and gorgeous statements--coupled with power and free-form elaborations. For instance, on the 18-minute opener “A Moment's Liberty," Fernandez opens with solitary phrasings via lush balladry while transmitting a sense of loneliness until the band embarks on a topsy-turvy voyage, drenched with slippery deviations and drummer Ramon Lopez's rolling wave type patterns. Aided by the translucent audio engineering, you ...

Album Review

David Krakauer: The Big Picture Featuring David Krakauer

Read "The Big Picture Featuring David Krakauer" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 9, 2014

It should come as no surprise that jazz musicians often spin some newfangled slants on compositions culled from Broadway theatrics and film. Other than renowned clarinetist David Krakauer's solo excursions for various record labels, his longtime affiliation with composer, saxophonist John Zorn, for a host of jazz- klezmer, and outside-the-box undertakings, bring quite a bit to the proverbial table. With dashes of New York City downtown-like risk- taking episodes, Jewish folk, jazz, rock and Americana, amid Krakauer's animated, vibrato-laden notes ...

Album Review

Ikarus: Through birds, through fire, but not through glass

Read "Through birds, through fire, but not through glass" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 9, 2014

The evocative title of the debut EP of the Swiss quintet Ikarus is inspired by a painting of French surrealist painter Yves Tanguy. This trio, as the painter, attempts to create a surreal, cinematic tapestry of dreamy images and reality with its music, its presentation on stage--with the light design and the musicians tailor- made clothes--and its packaging. The four songs, penned by drummer Ramón Oliveras, emphasize the highly personal cabaret- operatic phrasing of vocalists Stefanie ...

Profile

Herb Geller: A Musician's Musician

by Joan Gannij
February 8, 2014

I first met Herb Geller in 2002 at a concert in Amsterdam at the original Bimhuis jazz club. The band was gathering their equipment from the stage and we started chatting about being raised in Los Angeles. When I was a teenager, the tall and lanky genial gent was playing at the local clubs that my mother used to sneak me into. At 14, I was a much too young but sophisticated lady in my eye makeup and high heels, ...

Album Review

Dave Stryker: Eight Track

Read "Eight Track" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 8, 2014

Ah, the eight-track. Is there any music format that's more dated? Vinyl is on its way back, albeit with a select crowd, and the CD is still holding on for dear life, but it's not likely that eight-track tapes will be making a big comeback any time soon. Those audio-delivering relics have been left behind, yet the memories surrounding their existence and the music they helped to usher in remains fixed in the mind for those who came of age ...