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

Christian Pincock: Plentiful Excitement

Read "Plentiful Excitement" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 18, 2013

Here's an unusual combination: valve trombone, piano, drums and tuba (no bass). The leader, Christian Pincock, was until recently a teacher at the University of New Mexico and member of the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra, and Plentiful Excitement was recorded in Santa Fe shortly before he left New Mexico to explore greener pastures in the Great Northwest (Washington state, to be precise). Pincock is a splendid player, and there is excitement here, although “plentiful" is clearly a matter of opinion and ...

Live Review

Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers at London Jazz Festival 2013

by John Sharpe
December 18, 2013

Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers: London, England, November 21-23, 2013 Wadada Leo Smith Café Oto London November 21-23, 2013 As part of the London Jazz Festival, over three consecutive evenings, Dalston's Cafe Oto presented the European premiere of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers magnum opus. Although such a groundbreaking production might be more expected in one of the large auditoriums on the capital's South Bank, the goodwill built up ...

Multiple Reviews

Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura: Gen Himmel / Dragon Nat / Tornado

by Hrayr Attarian
December 18, 2013

Pianist Satoko Fujii and her husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamura are one of the most boldly creative and fearlessly innovative couples in contemporary music. For the past three years they have also been quite prolific, releasing eight albums on their own Libra Records alone. This increase in productivity, however, has not come at the expense of quality or originality. Whether together in one of their regular groups or alone they continue to push the boundaries of improvisation and composition.

Album Review

Abbey Rader: Reach For The Skies

Read "Reach For The Skies" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 18, 2013

Look beyond the giants of free jazz saxophone, better yet listen to the sounds behind John Coltrane, Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee, and any other legend of free jazz. Listen and you'll hear Han, Elvin, Paal, Ronald Shannon, Hamid, Milford, Sunny, and Rashied. Drummers. Add to that list Abbey. Abbey Rader is an unheralded legend of free jazz. He came up through the 1960s bop era only to be drawn into the New Thing of Coltrane, Albert ...

Extended Analysis

Marty Ehrlich: A Trumpet In The Morning

by Dan Bilawsky
December 18, 2013

A Trumpet In The Morning is a first for multi-reedist Marty Ehrlich; it's the first album completely dedicated to his large group works and the first album under his name that's basically directed by his hand rather than his horn(s). The intrepid Ehrlich, who fell under the sway of St. Louis' Black Artists Group (BAG) in his formative years and fell in with the AACM crowd when he arrived in New York in the late '70s, has been putting out ...

Album Review

Troyk-estra: Live at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2013

Read "Live at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2013" reviewed by Phil Barnes

by Phil Barnes
December 18, 2013

UK trio Troyka have made significant and idiosyncratic progress with each successive release since their eponymous debut [Edition 2009] and its classic follow up Moxxy [Edition 2012] which added angular post punk guitar shapes to the signature mix of impressionistic keyboard, heavy guitar and prog influenced time changes. Great though both those sets were, nothing therein quite prepares the listener for the inspired madness of translating them to the trio's alter ego, the orchestral behemoth Troyk-estra at the May 2013 ...

Year in Review

Matt Marshall’s Best Releases of 2013

by Matt Marshall
December 18, 2013

Rudresh Mahanthappa Gamak (ACT) Ivo Perelman/Joe Morris/Balazs Pandi One (RareNoise) Chris Potter The Sirens (ECM) Joe Lovano Us Five Cross Culture (Blue Note) KAZE Tornado (Circum-Libra) Ketil Bjørnstad La notte (ECM) Howie Smith/Mike Nock Opal Dream (Open Blue) Matthew Shipp Piano Sutras (Thirsty Ear) Cécile McLorin Salvant WomanChild (Mack Avenue) Gordon Grdina/Mark ...

Album Review

Frank Macchia: Grease Mechanix

Read "Grease Mechanix" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 18, 2013

One thing that must be said about Frank Macchia (well, two things, actually)--he's a wild and crazy composer / bandleader whose satchel is always overflowing with splendid musical surprises. On his new album, Grease Mechanix, Macchia goes funky in a New Orleans brass band manner, employing a seventeen-piece ensemble comprised of some of the best sidemen the Los Angeles area has to offer to design such instant jazz classics as “Zombies Ate My Grandma," “Chicken Neck," “I'm So Damn Mad!," ...

Album Review

Evan Parker/ Matthew Shipp: Rex, Wrecks & XXX

Read "Rex, Wrecks & XXX" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 18, 2013

Few barriers remain in jazz. Certainly not geographical or generational. Even genre does not present insurmountable obstacles. Were it needed, further confirmation arrives in the shape of a meeting between two distinctive stylists: American pianist Matthew Shipp and English saxophone iconoclast Evan Parker. Far from being their first encounter, the pair know each other well, having waxed Abbey Road Duos (Treader, 2007), collaborated during the saxophonist's October 2010 residency at the Stone in New York City, and appeared in duet ...

Album Review

Shamus Dark: Trouble In Paradise

Read "Trouble In Paradise" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 17, 2013

Trenchcoats, shades, snap-brim hats, open-necked shirts and loose black ties. Not forgetting the cigarettes and alcohol. Vocalist Shamus Dark has a strong line in film noir visuals to complement the selection of songbook classics that appears on Trouble In Paradise. It's not just the cover photos: the videos that he's created to accompany many of the songs are also rich with that '40s B-movie glamor. This is a fine collection--a left-field take on the classics that reminds us how an ...