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

Kosi: One More Cup of Coffee

Read "One More Cup of Coffee" reviewed by Sammy Stein

by Sammy Stein
November 11, 2013

KOSI: One More Cup Of Coffee Akosua Gyebi--AKA Kosi is a vocalist with a beautiful, sultry voice and a very distinctive style. Her self-produced debut album One More Cup Of CoffeeAron Marchak. It is an album which relates the tales of the night people of New York, with their ups, downs, affairs, anger,lost loves and triumphs. Kosi sings with poignancy and tender emotion and the listener is drawn into the songs and characters she paints with her music. ...

Opinion

Music from Norway: Just How Important Is It, Really?

by John Kelman
November 10, 2013

[Note: This article was first published by Music Norway] When asked, by the newly minted Music Norway, which brought two separate organizations together at the beginning of 2013--Music Export Norway (responsible for exporting the country's music to the world) and Music Information Center (responsible, for many things, including acting as an archive/information source)--to write a piece about the Norwegian music scene from an outsider's perspective, it seemed, at first, to be a truly daunting challenge...and no small honour. ...

Album Review

Nils Petter Molvaer & Moritz von Oswald: 1/1

by John Kelman
November 10, 2013

With the breakup of his trio responsible for the superb Baboon Moon (Sula, 2011), it's been a fair question to wonder: what's next for Nils Petter Molvær? One possible answer is certainly 1/1, the Norwegian trumpeter's debut with German multi- instrumentalist and influential techno producer Moritz von Oswald and his nephew, Laurens. The trio's debut performance at Kristiansand, Norway's 2013 Punkt Festival, while strong, was largely misleading; the show certainly occupied some of 1/1's more ethereal territory, but Molvær and ...

Extended Analysis

Blue Touch Paper: Drawing Breath

by John Kelman
November 10, 2013

It's difficult enough for an artist or group to deliver their sophomore effort, but it's even more of a challenge when their debut is as strong as Blue Touch Paper's surprising Stand Well Back (Provocateur, 2011). Blue Touch Paper is the brainchild of British keyboardist/composer Colin Towns, who has already garnered plenty of acclaim for his Mask Orchestra and Quintet, as well as his series of big band looks at the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra on Meeting of the ...

Album Review

Dave Bennett: Don't Be That Way

Read "Don't Be That Way" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 10, 2013

Clarinetist Dave Bennett's Don't Be That Way is a throwback album, but it's not a carbon copy of what's come before. Bennett certainly finds inspiration in the work of past masters, driving down the highways and byways that have been paved by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and others, but he's willing to look at their music with a fresh set of eyes; he's a centrist, but not a complete traditionalist. He'll occasionally throw a curve ball on a ...

Album Review

Dr. Lonnie Smith: Dr. Lonnie Smith Octet - In The Beginning, Volumes 1 & 2

Read "Dr. Lonnie Smith Octet - In The Beginning, Volumes 1 & 2" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 10, 2013

B-3 specialist Dr. Lonnie Smith retools a dozen original compositions from early in his career and performs them live with an octet on In The Beginning, Volumes 1 & 2. Drawing material from his recordings, Finger-Lickin' Good (Columbia, 1966), Think! (Blue Note, 1968), Turning Point (Blue Note, 1969) and Move Your Hand (Blue Note, 1969), Smith, with the help of saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith, cast this music against the rich palette of a horn-heavy little-big band. On these ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Aage Risnes

by AAJ Staff
November 10, 2013

Meet Aage Riisnes: Harlequins Enigma is a Norwegian based band created in 2008 by synth musician, composer, and video producer Aage Riisnes. Harlequins Enigma is mostly a one-man band but Elin Berge, Katie Leung, and Sara Jensen have served as co-members on several albums over the years. The primary musical creations revolve around chip-tune, electronica, techno, experimental, video game soundtracks, space, ambient, and new-age genres. Riisnes began experimenting with synth-based music in the early 1990s. Throughout the years, collaborations ...

Album Review

Joel A. Martin: Jazzical Menken

Read "Jazzical Menken" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
November 10, 2013

On any given Sunday especially if the weather is good, if one travels to Long Island's North Shore “Gold Coast" you will occasionally see beautiful, hand-detailed Rolls-Royces, Ferraris, Bentleys or other luxury-end autos tooling about. In more than one conceptual way, Jazzical Menken is tantamount to experiencing this metallic magnificence. The primary difference, thankfully, is that one can enjoy this marvelous recording 24/7/365 and it never needs brakes or-- horrors!--a tune up. Virtuoso pianist and composer/arranger Joel ...

Book Review

1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die

by Charlie Ricci
November 9, 2013

1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die Tom Moon 992 Pages ISBN: 076113963X Workman Publishing Company 2008 Tom Moon once played saxophone in Maynard Ferguson's big band. More famously, he is a music critic who worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rolling Stone Magazine, and National Public Radio. His top flight music credentials helped him complete his first book, 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die. The theme of this massive tome ...

Film Review

Peter Gabriel: Live in Athens 1987 (The Full Recorded Show)

by John Kelman
November 9, 2013

Peter Gabriel Live in Athens 1987: The Full Recorded Show including Youssou N'Dour and Le Super Etoile de Dakar Real World / Eagle Eye Media 2013 Count on Peter Gabriel to be ahead of the curve. In 1987, when he was touring his commercial breakthrough record So (Geffen, 1986), he was already thinking ahead (now that the MTV generation had made the value of videos clear) to the potential of recording and releasing concert videos ...