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.

Year in Review

Top Ten "Most Read" Album Reviews: 2013

by AAJ Staff
January 2, 2014

All About Jazz tracks how often an album review is read, and the reviews listed below represent our top ten published in 2013. Sex Mob Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (Sex Mob Plays Fellini) Wayne Shorter Quartet Wayne Shorter Quartet: Without a Net John Scofield John Scofield: Uberjam Deux Keith Jarrett / Gary Peacock / Jack DeJohnette Somewhere Pat Metheny Pat Metheny: Tap--John Zorn's Book of Angels | ...

Album Review

Gard Nilssen: Drumming Music

Read "Drumming Music" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
January 2, 2014

Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen is one of the most-in- demand and versatile musicians in the vibrant Nordic scene. The musical range of his own bands--Bushman's Revenge, sPacemonKEy, Astro Sonic, Cortex, Lord Kelvin, PUMA, saxophonist Eirik Hegdal's Team Hegdal and bassist Per Zanussi's quintet--encompasses free improvisation, modern and free jazz, techno, electronica, metal, noise and experimental ambient sounds. But his musical universe is even wider, as his debut solo album reveals. Drumming Music's title corresponds with the ...

Year in Review

Top Ten "Most Read" Articles: 2013

by AAJ Staff
January 2, 2014

All About Jazz tracks how often an article is read, and the articles listed below represent our top ten published in 2013. 1. Diana Krall: Rediscovering Vaudeville in Glad Rag Doll 2. The Harlem Renaissance and American Music 3. John McLaughlin: Risk, Magic And Mystery 4. George Benson: Finding His Groove In Inspiration 5. Steven Wilson: Montreal, Canada, April 25, 2013 6. ...

Album Review

Nils Wogram Root 70 with Strings: Riomar

Read "Riomar" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 2, 2014

Venerable German trombonist Nils Wogram and his long-running Root 70 ensemble are known for cagey and divergent progressive jazz excursions. On Riomar he summons a three-piece strings section to integrate within the standard modern jazz format line of attack, as opposed to simply providing embellishments. One of many highlights is framed on alto saxophonist Hayden Chisholm's fluid notes and wistful tone. He projects a Paul Desmond-like West Coast “cool jazz" attribute, morphed with silky Charlie Parker-ish flurries. Moreover, Wogram leads ...

Extended Analysis

A Celebration of Cuba in America

by Harry S. Pariser
January 2, 2014

Picking up a copy of Michele Rosewoman's New Yor-Uba , the high quality sleeve design and liner notes prepare one for the wonderful music to be found within. This extraordinary two-CD set has both a history and legacy behind it. Born in 1953 in Oakland, California, Rosewoman migrated to New York City more than three decades ago. Once there, she first connected with the musicians with whom she would eventually collaborate on this CD. The collaboration's first incarnation ...

Album Review

Peter Kerlin Octet: Salamander

Read "Salamander" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 1, 2014

Brooklyn continues to build on its reputation as a breeding ground for some of the finest modern jazz in the Northeast. Bassist Peter Kerlin adds to that distinction with Salamander, an octet powered collection with a very unique structure that includes three basses, double vibraphones and a string trio. Kerlin is no stranger to the unusual having played with the genre defying group Source of Yellow and cutting edge trumpeter Nate Wooley. In contrast to those outings as a side ...

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

January 2014

by Mr. P.C.
January 1, 2014

Dear Mr. P.C.: Why is it that whenever I go to a jam session, the best players are the meanest? Does that mean that I have to become a jerk if I want to get good? --Still A Nice Guy Dear SANG: Sounds like you're buying into some very common but misguided notions of “best." Just what is it that you admire about these “jerks"? That they play comfortably and melodically ...

Extended Analysis

SFJAZZ Collective: Live SFJAZZ Center 2013 - The Music of Chick Corea & New Compositions

by John Kelman
January 1, 2014

Some things change, some things stay the same. After two successive recordings and tours with an identical lineup--a first in its now 10-year history--the SFJAZZ Collective once again undergoes some minor personnel shifts. More important, however, is that Live SFJAZZ Center 2013: The Music of Chick Corea & New Compositions comes a full two years after Live in New York Season 8--Music of Stevie Wonder (SFJAZZ, 2011), the first time that the collective has not devoted itself to the music ...

Album Review

Matthias Schubert: 9 Compositions for The Multiple Joy[ce] Ensemble

Read "9 Compositions for The Multiple Joy[ce] Ensemble" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 1, 2014

Featuring an international cast, Matthias Schubert conducts a program that snugly resides in the avant-garde space. Each track is outlined in the liners, citing connotations, inspirations and homages, where it's up to the listener to connect the dots via his or her interpretations. It's a hybrid offering engineered with asymmetrical parts of classical, jazz improvisation, John Cage-like indeterminacy and neo-minimalism. “Conlon Zoubeck" features pianist Phillip Zoubeck's off- center manipulations that could be categorized as a song-form designed on ...

Album Review

Frank Wess: Magic 201

Read "Magic 201" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 1, 2014

Saxophonist Frank Wess was born in 1922. He played in Billy Ecstine's orchestra, after World War II interrupted his burgeoning career, and he played in Count Basie's band from 1953 to 1964. With those early experiences on his resume, the fact that he was a traditionalist in the mode of saxophonists Ben Webster, of Duke Ellington Orchestra fame, and Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young should come as no surprise. Following up his Magic 101 (IPO Recording, 2013), Wess, ...