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

Mumpbeak: Mumpbeak

Read "Mumpbeak" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 29, 2014

When considering most instances of progressive rock, Mumpbeak is a horse of a different color. With four world- class bassists, chiefly performing on alternating tracks, and keyboardist Roy Powell's unearthly sound-shaping mechanisms garnered from an electronically souped-up Hohner clavinet, the band brashly merges a doomsday panorama with insurrectionary tactics. King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto's punchy and springy grooves underscore the various mind-bending processes, featuring his fellow Crimson band-mate Tony Levin appearing on one track. With a ...

Interview

Wadada Leo Smith: I'm A Dreamer

by John Sharpe
January 29, 2014

As dreamers go trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith lies at the more serious end of the spectrum. Not for him dreams that fade with the daylight, as evidenced by the realization of his epic Civil Rights inspired Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012). Smith actually composed the first piece of what developed into a 21 piece magnum opus back in 1977, which demonstrates prodigious staying power to see it through to completion in 2012. Once released, the work generated remarkable acclaim for ...

Extended Analysis

Tord Gustavsen Quartet: Extended Circle

by John Kelman
January 29, 2014

The evolution of Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen and his relationship with ECM Records has always been more about expansion rather than linear forward motion. The closing sentence of an All About Jazz review of The Well (2012), in fact, says it all: “ If Changing Places [2003] announced an important new pianist on the international stage, nearly a decade later Gustavsen's The Well reaffirms a trajectory which may move forward in circumspect increments, but move forward it does, with the ...

Album Review

Bob Ross: Arriving

Read "Arriving" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 29, 2014

Arriving, while low-key in many ways, is something of a signal flare, sending out notice of an on-the-rise leader located in Ohio. Newcomer guitarist Bob Ross graduated from Morehead State University with a Bachelor of Music in 2008 and completed his Master's degree in Jazz Studies at The University Of The Arts in 2010. A year later, he was living in Cincinatti and starting to make a name for himself there. On Arriving, Ross works with(in) a ...

Album Review

Amy Cervini: Jazz Country

Read "Jazz Country" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 28, 2014

This album title is something of a double entendre. It references the jazz community that surrounds the lady of the hour, but it's really about the nexus that exists between the two American-born forms of music that make up its name. Therefore, it could be said that Jazz Country is missing a hyphen, but that's about the only thing it's missing; in all other respects, this is a complete and beautiful work of art. Whether you call ...

Album Review

William Hooker: Heart of the Sun

Read "Heart of the Sun" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 28, 2014

Suddenly Heart Of The Sun from veteran drummer William Hooker's The Gift looks a whole lot more poignant. With the passing of trumpeter Roy Campbell in January 2014, Hooker has been deprived of one of his longest collaborators. Campbell first appeared alongside the drummer on Colour Circle (CJR, 1989) as part of the self styled three member William Hooker Orchestra, and then later as one third of The Gift on Live at Sangha (Bmadish Records, 2005). As ever here Campbell ...

Album Review

Antonio Sanchez: New Life

by Phil Barnes
January 28, 2014

Ever felt as if modern jazz lost its way somewhere along the line? Too many artists constructing beautifully played, superbly recorded music that fails to connect at any emotional level whatsoever--it gets played a couple of times before being filed away in the collection never to emerge again. Well, the signs are more positive for this new CD by Antonio Sanchez which marks a huge leap forward from the the enjoyable Live in New York at the Jazz Standard from ...

Extended Analysis

Project THEM: Project THEM

by Dave Wayne
January 28, 2014

Vibraphonist Mark Sherman has been knocking around for a while, and though he's a seasoned professional who's won several Downbeat polls it seems that he's one of those artists that's perpetually seen as a newcomer. It's telling that his Downbeat wins were in the “Rising Star" category, though he's been active on the New York jazz scene since the late 1970s. Initially a jazz drummer, Sherman-who still gigs on drums, and is a very adept jazz pianist-studied classical music at ...

Album Review

Peter Danemo: Peter Danemo

Read "Peter Danemo" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
January 28, 2014

Swedish drummer Peter Danemo leads his own groups and quartets. The first one featured the late pianist Esbjörn Svenssonand was called the Peter Danemo Kapell-- since the late eighties but his output as a leader is relatively rare. He is a diverse musician-composer and played in many Nordic outfits including ones that featured third stream jazz, a tribute group to hard rock bands LED and the modern jazz bands like the quartet Meloscope. His new, untitled ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler: Lorrach, Paris 1966

Read "Lorrach, Paris 1966" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 28, 2014

This is the third edition of the original pressing by hatOLOGY records, containing re-masters of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's live performances in Lorrach, Germany, and live tracks recorded at the Paris jazz festival, culled from his 1966 European tour. In the liners, Peter Niklas Wilson asserts that the George Wein produced the “Newport in Europe" tour and that Ayler was given second-class accommodations, contrasting what was tendered to the likes of Dave Brubeck and Stan Getz. But it's also noted ...