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

Bévort 3: Trio Temptations

Read "Trio Temptations" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
February 6, 2014

Of late, multi-reed player, singer, composer and arranger Pernille Bévort has alternated between the elegant, quirky jazz of the Bévort/Schmidt quartet, and Radio Bévort, a jazz/tango project with bandoneon player Marcelo Nisinman or accordionist Francesco Cali. Playground + 1 (Calibrated, 2007) with Schmidt and Perfect Organisation (Gateway, 2011) with Nisinman represent only part of Bévort's talents, as she also plays, writes and arranges for some of Denmark's most important big bands. This latter facet of Bévort--the union of multiple voices--colors ...

Album Review

Camille Thurman: Origins

Read "Origins" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
February 6, 2014

Vocalist, multi-instrumentalist Camille Thurman is not just another girl singer accessorizing with a horn. She is a first class saxophonist that blows the proverbial roof off the place and an accomplished stylist who uses her vocal cords like she does her various woodwinds, with agility and sophistication. Her sophomore effort Origins is a testament of her skill and talent not only as a performer but also as a composer as she penned most of the music on the ...

Album Review

Joe DeRose and Amici: Peace Streets

Read "Peace Streets" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 5, 2014

Drummer Joe DeRose and guitarist Hristo Vitchev seem to be attached at the hip. DeRose was an important presence on Vitchev's Songs For Messambria (First Orbit Sounds, 2009) and The Perperikon Suite (First Orbit Sounds, 2011), and the guitarist is a fixture in this band. Bassist Dan Robbins also appears with both leaders, raising the odds that their respective outfits may sound wholly similar; surprisingly, they don't. A pristine and poetic aesthetic often surrounds Vitchev's work when ...

Multiple Reviews

Live At Montmartre Series

by Chris Mosey
February 5, 2014

Recordings are now being made in Montmartre, the legendary Copenhagen jazz club, which--thanks largely to the efforts of pianist Niels Lan Doky--reopened in 2010. The original Montmartre started in 1959 as a venue for trad, which Scandinavians call “happy jazz." Stan Getz, who lived in the Danish capital from 1958-1961, introduced more modern sounds, followed by other expatriate Americans, including Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon. The club moved to larger premises and from 1976-1989 ...

Live Review

TJI Ellington Big Band at Musical Instrument Museum

by Patricia Myers
February 5, 2014

TJI Ellington Big Band Musical Instrument Museum Phoenix, ArizonaJanuary 14, 2014 The Ellington Big Band of the Tucson Jazz Institute delivered an ambitious repertoire that ranged from Wynton Marsalis's complex “The Tree of Freedom" to a Pat Metheny chart, with plenty of Ellingtonia in between. This high school band was a three-peat winner of the “Essentially Ellington" competitions in 2010, 2012 and 2013 for “Best Community High School Jazz Band," and will try for number ...

Album Review

Archie Shepp: I Hear A Sound

Read "I Hear A Sound" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 5, 2014

Lest we forget. And certainly, how could we forget the struggles of the late-sixties and early- 1970s against racism, oppression, the Vietnam War? With the assassinations of JFK, MLK, Malcolm X, and Bobby Kennedy and the counter-culture movement scrambling the American identity, some believed the country was ripe for its own revolution. Music was (and I cannot now honestly say 'is') on the front lines of the rebellion. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's reaction to Kent State, “Ohio," ...

Album Review

Andre Carvahlo: Memoria De Amiba

Read "Memoria De Amiba" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
February 5, 2014

Early inspiration comes to jazz musicians in a number of ways. Many can remember the first time they heard Miles Davis or Charlie Parker, others recall their first encounter with Ella Fitzgerald. Bassist André Carvalho has vivid memories of the amoeba--vivid and important enough to name his second album in honor of the unicellular creature, Memória De Amiba. The Lisbon-born bassist is classically-trained as well as having studied jazz (and computer engineering). On Memória De Amiba Carvahlo leads ...

Multiple Reviews

INSUB Records Arrives

by John Eyles
February 5, 2014

Since 2006, the Geneva-based Insubordinations label has issued over sixty albums dedicated to experimental, improvised, electroacoustic and composed music, all of which remain freely downloadable under creative commons license. Now the label has launched an innovative new imprint, INSUB records, with two impressive releases. Strangely, the concept of the new venture is at odds with the inclusion of the word “records." For many of us, that word still conjures up images of vinyl discs (usually twelve inches in diameter) housed ...

Album Review

Jeff Ballard Trio: Time's Tales

Read "Time's Tales" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 5, 2014

Drummer Jeff Ballard sure knows how to pick his playmates. In drafting one-of-a-kind guitarist Lionel Loueke and the focused-yet-irrepressible Miguel Zenon on saxophone, Ballard managed to create the most exciting trio to emerge in recent memory. While this album is Ballard's long-awaited leader debut, it's more tempting to dub it a leaderless or leader-heavy date. Yes, Ballard is technically at the helm, but a collective sense of music making is in the air and each man is ...

Album Review

Mimi Jones: Balance

Read "Balance" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
February 5, 2014

Virtuoso bassist and superlative bandleader Mimi Jones' (AKA Miriam Sullivan) Balance is a delightful album filled with 79 minutes of engaging music. Despite the title, however, it is an unevenly structured work. The edgy, dramatic “The Incy Wincy Spider" for instance completely deconstructs the children's rhyme into an intriguing, darkly hued and haunting piece. Jones' evocative vocals evolve over percussionist Shirazette Tinnin's angular beats, Jones' own plucked and bowed strings and keyboardist Miki Hayama's rolling sonic cascade. The ...