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.

Interview

Janek Gwizdala: Cooking Up A Little Bass Magic

by Ian Patterson
December 12, 2013

Virtuosity is not something innate but is rather the result of years of dedication to one's instrument. English-born, Los Angeles-based electric bassist/composer Janek Gwizdala certainly qualifies as a virtuoso but he's the first to acknowledge that the learning--and the practice--never ends. Gwizdala knows that great technical ability, however, doesn't automatically equate with great music, and his seven recordings as a leader to date are testament to his drive to put the tune before ego-driven displays of dazzling chops.

Album Review

Volcan: Volcan

by Dan Bilawsky
December 12, 2013

Whenever a musician strikes out on their own by forming their own label they're addressing the issue of control and consolidation. Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba went one better when he created 5passion. He consolidated, took control, and diversified his offerings. First came Fe (5passion, 2011)--a sanctified solo piano date that All About Jazz's Dan McClenaghan rightly called “an eighty-minute jazz prayer." XXI Century (5passion, 2012)--a trio-plus-guests date--followed, providing an expansive look at the places where rock, funk, Cuban traditions, and African ...

Year in Review

Dan Bilawsky's Best Releases Of 2013

by Dan Bilawsky
December 12, 2013

The annual rite of writing a “best of" list at All About Jazz is a most pleasurable and difficult task; pleasurable for the reflections on great art that come along with the task and difficult because of the need to make hard choices. I've been inspired by dozens of new jazz recordings this year, but I've whittled down the list to these eighteen albums. This year's list includes perennial favorites, critically acclaimed giants, oft-unheralded veterans, up-and-comers, virtual unknowns and more. ...

Album Review

City Nights: City Nights

Read "City Nights" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
December 12, 2013

Formed in the spring of 2012, the Swedish quartet City Nights may be relatively young but its four members are all well established in jazz and pop circles in Stockholm. The jazz element in the band is provided by electric guitarist Andreas Hourdakis--of drummer Magnus Ostrom's band--and trumpeter/keyboard player Nils Janson, whose measured melodic lines contrast with Hourdakis freer, jazz-rock approach. Electric bassist Martin's Höper churning bass owes more to the rhythms of Indie rock while drummer Chris Montgomery largely ...

Year in Review

Dan McClenaghan's Best Releases of 2013

by Dan McClenaghan
December 12, 2013

Lots of extraordinary music. These are my picks for outstanding CDs of the year. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette Somewhere ECM Records Pianist Keith Jarrett's “Standards Trio," with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette, recorded Somewhere live in 2009. After thirty years together, the group is still growing. This will have to be considered one of their best recordings. Denny Zeitlin Both/And Sunnyside Records Pianist Denny Zeitlin has ...

Album Review

John Hébert: Floodgates

Read "Floodgates" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 12, 2013

Finding three musicians that speak the same language--jazz--is not uncommon. However, finding three that are as compatible as bassist John Hébert, pianist Benoît Delbecq, and drummer Gerald Cleaver is, as the French say, recherché. French culture is the theme of Hébert's trio recording. The New Orleans born, Cajun bassist invited the Paris-based pianist and Detroit's Cleaver (a city founded by French officer Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac) to record the follow-up to their inaugural release Spiritual Lover ...

Album Review

Dewa Budjana: Joged Kahyangan

Read "Joged Kahyangan" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 12, 2013

Every so often a major pop artist steps out of the loop and shows the world another side of his or her technical acumen and penchant for executing within a more demanding, if not less commercially viable art-form. Drummer Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones is a noteworthy example with his jazz big-band recordings, for example. A similar paradigm applies to Indonesian guitarist Dewa Budjana via his affiliation with the multi-platinum selling Indonesian pop/rock group Gigi. And to summon jazz ...

Album Review

Edward Ricart Quartet + Paul Dunmall: Chamaeleon

Read "Chamaeleon" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 12, 2013

Guitarist Edward Ricart has studied in Europe and aligned with a multinational roster of experimental jazz artists amid his adventurous work in the free-rock duo, Matta Gawa and avant-garde, and Sonic Suicide band. Based in Washington D.C., the artist reaps the benefits of UK tenor sax titan Paul Dunmall and world-traveler, trumpeter Herb Robertson for this ensemble date, comprised of instantaneous compositions. The band projects an open-world scenario, where experimental jazz improvisation and psycho-rock are embedded within introspective ...

Jazz Poetry

The Answer is Jim

by William DeLancey Adamson
December 11, 2013

The freshening breeze slides off the shadowed slope past the warming land the sand the sapphire bay then smacks the spinnaker with its surging power and suddenly we're flying! through the spray and fiery sun down to Aruba with you Jim on your music Oh I can't get started any more it's no use when I heard your name on the radio today my ...

Album Review

Redmond-Langosch-Cooley: Compared to What

Read "Compared to What" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
December 11, 2013

In 2003, after I heard Mary Ann Redmond's astonishing voice for the first time, we did an interview here called “On the Verge." Well, she's still on that verge--at least everywhere outside of the Washington, D.C. area, where she lives. With just a handful of albums to her name, Redmond has won an astounding total of 22 Wammies (Washington Area Music Awards) in the jazz, pop, rock, blues, traditional R&B, and urban contemporary categories. The common denominator is ...