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

The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience 2013

by Mike Perciaccante
November 30, 2013

The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience 2013 City Park New Orleans, LA November 1-3, 2013 The 15th Voodoo Music + Arts Experience was the first to be held on New Orleans' City Park's new festival grounds. The new space brought some new challenges. There were no benches on the festival grounds and minimal shade--a departure from previous years. The new layout featured fewer stages and as a result, fewer acts. Longtime festival attendees had trouble ...

Album Review

Van Morrison: Moondance Expanded

Read "Moondance Expanded" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 30, 2013

Described as classic by the artist himself, Van Morrison's Moondance is one of those albums that is nothing but a sublime pleasure to rediscover it via the expanded edition. In its remastered version, the polished perfection of the original ten collection of tracks heightens a delicate density that's further illuminated by hearing the outtakes, alternate versions and rehearsal sessions from which the beloved album was condensed. The relative simplicity of the material and its arrangement may be the ...

Live Review

Styx at the NYCB Theatre At Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
November 30, 2013

Styx NYCB Theatre At Westbury Westbury, New York November 15, 2013 Styx was formed in Chicago in the early '70s. Originally comprised of the Panozzo brothers (Chuck on bass and John on drums), Dennis DeYoung (keyboards), James “JY" Young (guitar) and John Curulewski (guitar), the band brought on guitarist Tommy Shaw (as Curulewski's replacement) in 1976. Shaw departed the band for a solo career at the conclusion of the Kilroy Was Here (A&M Records, ...

Album Review

Los Lobos: Disconnected in New York City

Read "Disconnected in New York City" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 30, 2013

Recorded within the intimate confines of the Big Apple's City Winery in December 2012, Disconnected in New York City finds Los Lobos' simultaneously recognizing, anticipating and celebrating its fortieth anniversary as a band. Little wonder the performances are so sparkling on the three discs within the 'Deluxe Edition,' potent beyond their somewhat abbreviated duration. The main recording is also available as a single cd, and carries comparably more force by dint of its length alone: a baker's dozen ...

Live Review

B-52s at the NYCB Theatre At Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
November 30, 2013

B-52s NYCB Theatre At Westbury Westbury, New York November 13, 2013 The B-52s are acknowledged as one of the greatest party bands of all time. In fact, they are billed as “The World's Greatest Party Band." Touring now minus a member (Keith Strickland recently retired from touring--but will continue to record), the group currently is comprised of The Kate Pierson (clad in her customary fringe ruffled short dress over hot pants), Cindy Wilson (dressed all ...

Album Review

The Clash: Hits Back

Read "Hits Back" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 30, 2013

Companion piece in miniature to the exhaustive Sound System (Epic, 2013), The Clash's Hits Back would be merely another collection were it not for the novel twist applied to its anthologizing. The thirty-two remastered tracks on two cd's (or three vinyl lp's) are sequenced in the running order of a 1982 Clash concert, a replication of which, in the late Joe Strummer's handwriting, is reproduced inside the booklet within the triple- fold digi-pak. As much as that concept ...

Album Review

Phish: Niagara Falls

Read "Niagara Falls" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 30, 2013

When Phish played the Niagara Falls Convention Center on December 7th 1995, it'd be fair to say the band was hitting its stride with its art and its audience. Having played together for a dozen years at this point and cultivated a loyal and increasingly large coterie of followers, arguably as idiosyncratic as the Vermont-based group itself, the quirks that endeared Phish to their original followers--like the barbershop acapella chestnut “Hello My Baby"-- were morphing into more broad eccentricities (the ...

Extended Analysis

The Cosmosamatics: Jazz-Maalika

by Florence Wetzel
November 29, 2013

Since their founding in 2002, the Cosmosamatics have been one of the most exciting groups in jazz. Spearheaded by twin souls Sonny Simmons and Michael Marcus, the band has thus far released nine recordings and one live DVD. Part of the Cosmosamatics' strength lies in their openness to new sounds and players, and over the years they have incorporated a movable feast of musicians, including bassist William Parker, drummer Andrew Cyrille, and saxophonist James Carter. On their new release, Jazz-Maalika, ...

Multiple Reviews

Sean Mac Erlaine: Long After The Music Is Gone and This Is How We Fly

by Ian Patterson
November 29, 2013

The common denominator between these two CDs is Dublin-based multi-reedman/composer Seán Mac Erlaine, one of the most progressive musicians in Ireland today. Equally at home in contemporary jazz, free improvisation or traditional/modern Irish folk settings, Mac Erlaine has been a leading figure in Irish experimental music for a decade. As one of the curators of the collective Bottlenote, Mac Erlaine is dedicated to the promotion of Dublin's most exciting improvising musicians. Whether in the acoustic/electronic duo Morla with Simon Jermyn, ...

Album Review

Renaud Garcia-Fons: Solo: The Marcevol Concert

Read "Solo: The Marcevol Concert" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 29, 2013

In the hands of even the most accomplished professionals, the bass is but a single instrument which happens to serve a few purposes; in the hands of Renaud Garcia-Fons, the bass is a world unto itself. On Solo: The Marcevol Concert, Garcia-Fons demonstrates his singular approach to the instrument on a program of music that's both worldly and wondrous. Andalusian allusions, African accents, Eastern spices, Middle Eastern ideals and more merge in the hands of this beyond category virtuoso.