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

Prince at Mohegan Sun Arena

by Scott H. Thompson
January 4, 2014

Prince Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville, CT December 29, 2013 I don't know where he finds 'em... but Prince has put together an incredible 20-piece band fronted by the female power trio of 3rd Eye Girl. He tore the roof off of Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Arena during a 3-night run December 27-29, 2013. At the end of the jam, there were about 12 horn players onstage with a rhythm section, backup singers and ...

Multiple Reviews

Steven Wilson: Remixing Yes, Jethro Tull & XTC

by John Kelman
January 4, 2014

While 2013 has largely been occupied by a world tour in support of his recent The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) (Kscope, 2013), Steven Wilson has, as he said he would in his 2012 All About Jazz interview, certainly kept up with the run of stereo and surround sound remix projects that have turned into a significant sideline to his own musical career. Since becoming involved with King Crimson's 40th Anniversary Series, beginning with the release of ...

Album Review

Ethan Iverson, Lee Konitz, Larry Grenadier & Jorge Rossy: Costumes Are Mandatory

Read "Costumes Are Mandatory" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
January 3, 2014

Costumes Are Mandatory is very collegially advertised as a collaborative album featuring Ethan Iverson, Lee Konitz, Larry Grenadier, and Jorge Rossy. And while the music may indeed be collaborative, even multi-improvisational at times, it's Iverson's date and he's very clearly the leader. The record is envisioned as an homage to--"a dialogue with," according to the liner notes--the late blind pianist Lennie Tristano, who in addition to generally being credited as a founder of the 'cool school' (an oversimplification, ...

Book Review

Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans

by Florence Wetzel
January 3, 2014

Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans Matt Sakakeeny 248 pages ISBN: 978-0-8223-5567-0 Duke University Press 2013 In his fascinating book Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans, ethnomusicologist and journalist Matt Sakakeeny delves deep into one of the great institutions of American music. In this searingly honest portrait of 21st-century brass bands, Sakakeeny shares the stories of musicians in three contemporary brass bands: Rebirth, ...

Album Review

Brian McCarthy: This Just In

Read "This Just In" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 3, 2014

Jazz is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Vermont but the state, despite its size, has had a long involvement with improvised music. Trumpeters Alan Shorter and Bill Dixon taught at Bennington College and guitarist Attila Zoller founded the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro. In addition to having a small yet vibrant local scene, its largest city Burlington hosts an annual, impeccably organized, ten day festival that over the years has featured such giants as ...

Album Review

Double Trio De Clarinettes: Itineraire Bis

Read "Itineraire Bis" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 3, 2014

Prominent European purveyors of jazz clarinet fare--The Clarinet Trio and Le Trio De Clarinettes--align for a joint mission on this set that covers a wide spectrum of applications, ideas and surprises. They induce the sounds of nature and render highly melodic song forms while including doses of humor amid punchy motifs and hordes of delicate contrasts. At times the sextet operates within quiet and hauntingly introspective settings and launches circular ostinatos, used for sounding boards and assorted improvisational activities.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Matt Davis

by AAJ Staff
January 3, 2014

Meet Matt Davis: Matt Davis is a guitarist, composer, arranger, and teacher based in New York. Davis has released three albums with his group, Aerial Photograph, and performs regularly around the tri-state area. JazzTimes and Downbeat have described his playing as “eloquent" and “inspired." Matt Davis has performed with many of the biggest names in jazz and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the ASCAP and the American Composers Forum. He is a faculty member at ...

Year in Review

2013: The Year In Jazz

by Ken Franckling
January 3, 2014

The West Coast now has a jazz edifice of its own with strong roots, International Jazz Day grew in scope during year two, jazz made its mark on (and off) Broadway, and the number of musicians lost during the year was large and painful. Here's a look at significant happenings across the jazz world over the past 12 months: SFJazz Center opens Thirty years after it began as a festival and concert-producing organization, SFJazz opened its ...

Album Review

Rob Derke & the NYJAZZ Quartet: Blue Divide

by J Hunter
January 2, 2014

The name “NYJAZZ Quartet" does beg the question, “What is New York Jazz?" Even narrowing the definition to “home grown" music doesn't help, since that range runs from the mainstream sounds of Birdland and the Blue Note to the next-level avant-garde associated with Smalls and the late lamented Knitting Factory. With Blue Divide, saxman Rob Derke and his three extraordinary partners --pianist Aruan Ortiz, bassist Carlo De Rosa, and drummer Eric McPherson--have managed to mash those two contrary sub-genres into ...

Interview

Brian Carpenter: In Between The Cracks

by DanMichael Reyes
January 2, 2014

To write that Brian Carpenter has had an interesting career would be an incomplete statement since he holds so many. By day Carpenter is an engineer, but there's also his radio shows, his acting career, a film he's working on about Albert Ayler, his band Brian Carpenter and the Confessions where he sings and composes, and more befitting for our purposes, there are his two groups, Beat Circus and The Ghost Train Orchestra. A quick glance into Beat ...