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

Dave Sharp's Secret 7: Worlds

Read "Worlds" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 22, 2013

Poll-winning Detroit-reared bassist Dave Sharp (Killer Joe Trio, The Melvins) takes you around the world in a little under an hour. Here, the bassist gathers a large international cast, appearing on alternating tracks. Following Secret Seven (Blue Pie, 2010), the artist extends his reach but still interconnects Western and Eastern modalities with the jazz vernacular. One of the major positives of this outing is that it doesn't sound mechanical or what may be considered standard world music fare. Each piece ...

Album Review

Charles Evans: Subliminal Leaps

Read "Subliminal Leaps" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 22, 2013

On his six release as a leader young baritone saxophonist Charles Evans chose to feature a chamber jazz quartet that is inspired by the innovations of contemporary music of the twentieth century. Evans wrote pieces specifically for veteran sax master Dave Liebman, playing only the soprano sax here, and his musical vision is realized with two other masters--pianist Ron Stabinsky and drummer Tony Marino, a close associate of Liebman, who charge Evans' vision with imaginative versatility and precision. ...

Album Review

Gary Smulyan & Dominic Chianese: Bella Napoli

Read "Bella Napoli" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
December 22, 2013

Some concepts that seem far out, turn out to be right on. That is the case of the unlikely musical combination which comes together in the entertaining CD Bella Napoli--a salute to popular Italian song classics. Two greats pull this all together: acclaimed poll winner Gary Smulyan on baritone sax and actor-singer Dominic Chianese, well known as Uncle Junior on “The Sopranos," the Emmy-winning HBO TV series. And, as it turns out, Chianese is also a respected ...

Afrobeat Diaries

Felabration 2013

by Chris May
December 22, 2013

Felebration 2013 Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra & Guests 229 London, UK December 14, 2013 The second package show to be staged in London this year in honor of Fela's memory, Felabration 2013--a celebration of what would recently have been his 75th birthday--followed Saluting the Black President, presented at 229 back in May. The format was similar: a fast-moving succession of young, mainly Afrobeats (with an “s") artists offering their own spins ...

Book Review

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band

by C. Michael Bailey
December 21, 2013

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band Alan Paul 464 pages ISBN: 1250040493 St. Martin's Press 2014 Right on the heels of Ben Fong-Torres' Willin': The Story of Little Feat (Da Capo Press, 2013) comes Guitar Player magazine writer and Allman Brothers Band historian Alan Paul's One Way Out: The Inside History Of The Allman Brothers Band. These books are evidence of the late Baby-Boomers' continued interest in ...

Book Review

Ben Fong-Torres: Willin’ - The Story of Little Feat

by C. Michael Bailey
December 21, 2013

Willin': The Story of Little Feat Ben Fong-Torres 298 pages ISBN: 0306821311 Da Capo Press 2013 Musically speaking, Southern California in the late-1960s, early- 1970s was the musical post-hippie equivalent of impressionist Paris in the late nineteenth century. So dense was the musical talent in the Los Angeles area, that reading any history of it would have you believe there was a Frank Zappa or the Eagles on every corner across the ...

Album Review

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows Vol. 17

Read "The Treasury Shows Vol. 17" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
December 21, 2013

Don Lowe's exultant cry, “Here he is, and in person, the Duke himself!" kicks off the 17th of the Duke Ellington Treasury Show radio broadcasts, part of a massive reissue project by the Danish Storyville label. Anxious to show how hip, perhaps even hep, he is, the American Broadcasting Corporation announcer goes on to introduce “C-Jam Blues" as a number that's “really here to stay, but solid." In contrast, Ellington behaves with quiet dignity, ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Bill Cornish

by AAJ Staff
December 21, 2013

Meet Bill Cornish: In addition to producing solo CD, which are an eclectic blend of jazz, funk, orchestral, and world fusion, Bill Cornish is also the keyboardist for the jazz-rock fusion project The Odd Get Even. From the early '80s through the mid '90s, Cornish was the keyboardist for Crystal, a band where he spent 12 years touring throughout the United States and Japan. During that time, Bill Cornish opened for artists like Kansas, Steelheart, Joan Jett, ...

Album Review

Elliott Sharp Aggregat: Quintet

Read "Quintet" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 21, 2013

Elliott Sharp is one of New York downtown scene's more notorious affiliates, primarily heralded for his avant-garde guitar work, spanning jazz improvisation, jazz-rock, and blues-rock. He's also an accomplished reedman, evidenced on Quintet and previous ventures into the free-jazz space. Sharp once again aligns with like- minded New York-based artists, some of whom are leaders, and busy session artists. Residing within a controlled-chaos type scenario, the soloists engage in some intense duels when all hell breaks loose, but also temper ...

Album Review

The Ägg: The Ägg

Read "The Ägg" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 21, 2013

Put three electric guitarists, three electric bassists and four drummers in one room all coming from the vibrant Stockholm scene of free improvisation, free jazz and art rock. Let them jam freely, lock in hypnotic grooves that loosely sound like Fela Kuti's Afro-beat bands or worse, like North Korean marching bands on acid, sketch noisy textures that brings to mind Captain Beefheart & the Magik Band in its wildest psychedelic moments or the voluminous symphonies of Glenn Branca in its ...