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.

Extended Analysis

Tubby Hayes: Seven Steps to Heaven - Live at the Hopbine 1972

by Roger Farbey
November 15, 2013

This set from the late saxophonist and flautist Tubby Hayes was extraordinary for several reasons. It featured along with his regular pianist of the time, Mike Pyne, two other virtuoso musicians, drummer Tony Oxley who repeatedly topped the Melody Maker British section jazz polls and the relatively less well known Daryl Runswick--primarily a classically trained musician bassist, composer, educator, author and producer who also played jazz bass superlatively. Runswick has featured on several albums by guitarist Ray Russell. Oxley's playing ...

Album Review

Ken Peplowski: Maybe September

Read "Maybe September" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
November 15, 2013

In a world where celebrities are anointed and dismissed by the shifting whims of the Twitterverse, it's easy to overlook the steady fires that keep the old traditions burning. The retro cover of Maybe September instantly signals that, once again, the ever-superb reedist Ken Peplowski, aided by the invaluable Capri Record label, will be honoring and extending these traditions. But it's not just a matter of blowing the dust off forgotten antiques: he makes splendid and tasteful music out of ...

Album Review

Tim Berne's Snakeoil: Shadow Man

Read "Shadow Man" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 15, 2013

Alto saxophonist Tim Berne's Snakeoil is a group that bonds asymmetrical contours into the big picture, where many progressive jazz aficionados often expect the unexpected from this artist who radiates an antithesis to conventional norms. More of the gradual ascensions, tricky time signatures, fractured flows and odd-metered unison choruses come into play on Shadow Man. Berne's neural vibrato lines in tandem with his foil, clarinetist Oscar Noriega ride above complex rhythmic patterns, designed with changeable metrics and alternating discourses. Hence, ...

Album Review

Nate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain III And IV

Read "Seven Storey Mountain III And IV" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 14, 2013

Parts III and IV of a seven part cycle, trumpeter Nate Wooley's long form electro-acoustic work Seven Storey Mountain gains additional players and momentum with these two live performances. The music was originally commissioned for the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which has seen a shuffle in its performers, but the concept of muscle rapture endures in these sounds. Wooley, a central figure in the world of modern improvisation, has been heard in bands led by Anthony Braxton, ...

Interview

Brian Landrus: The Low End Theory

by Daniel Lehner
November 14, 2013

Specialists don't usually have the luxury of controlling much of their destiny. For a low woodwind expert like Brian Landrus, it would be of little surprise to anyone to find that, though he'd have the freedom to experiment with sounds and timbres for his own records, he would be little more than a hired gun for his sideperson work. Fortunately, Landrus's conviction as an artist, as well as technical skill as a multi-reedist, has given him the leeway to put ...

Live Review

Anna Maria Jopek at Jazzy Tiel

by Phillip Woolever
November 14, 2013

Anna Maria Jopek Band Agnietenhof Jazzy Tiel Tiel, The Netherlands November 2, 2013 Any time Anna Maria Jopek makes an appearance in Western European locations, she can count on Polish ex-pats from the neighboring areas to turn out, en masse, for engaging versions of traditional anthems. That's what happened again tonight as hundreds of high- energy devotees headed into this charming, near-central Netherlands town. The concert was a special feature ...

Album Review

John Stowell/Dave Liebman: Blue Rose

Read "Blue Rose" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 14, 2013

Saxophonist Dave Liebman joined guitarist John Stowell and bassist Don Thompson on three tunes on Stowell's The Banff Sessions (Origin Records, 2002). More than a decade later, Stowell and Liebman have teamed up on a duo outing, Blue Rose. The two artists' take on a bunch of jazz standards and Great American Songbook tunes has a beautiful fluidity in this pared down setting. Stowell's lines are crisp and clean, while Liebman's keening soprano sax slices sweetly through the guitarist chords, ...

Extended Analysis

Diego Rivera: The Contender

by Jud Branam
November 14, 2013

Like the famous muralist from whom he got his name, Michigan tenor saxophonist Diego Rivera covers a lot of stylistic ground while adhering to a workmanlike theme on his new CD, The Contender. Rivera leads a powerful sextet through an 11-song set of brawny, orthodox post-bop that carries on the blowing session tradition in the best sense of the phrase. The title-track opener sets an aggressive and upbeat mood with an angular, John Coltrane-styled sax intro ...

Album Review

Eddie Daniels & Roger Kellaway: Duke at the Roadhouse: Live in Santa Fe

Read "Duke at the Roadhouse: Live in Santa Fe" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
November 14, 2013

For their third collaboration on IPO records, veteran musicians pianist Roger Kellaway and multireed player Eddie Daniels recorded a benefit concert for “Santa Fe Center for Therapeutic Riding." The resulting Duke at the Roadhouse: Live in Santa Fe is a tribute to pianist and composer Duke Ellington comprising eight of his standards and an original a piece by Kellaway and Daniels. This unique and elegant interpretation of Ellington's work is laid back but vibrant, exuberant yet mature. On ...

Album Review

Lana Trio: Lana Trio

Read "Lana Trio" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
November 14, 2013

The Norwegian groupLana Trio attempts to find a delicate balance between intense, free jazz to exploration of more open-ended and non-idiomatic free improvisations. The three musicians began to play together after meeting at Sund Folk college in 2007. Trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø is the most experienced player of the three. He collaborates regularly with Swedish master improvisers as double bassist Nina de Heney and drummer Raymond Strid, member of the Skadedyr group and the trio As Deafness Increases. He has ...