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

Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra: Book Of Rhapsodies

Read "Book Of Rhapsodies" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 5, 2013

If you were to identify the music from Book Of Rhapsodies as cartoon music and asked to name specifically which cartoons, it might be easy to guess your age. The baby-boom generations would call bandleader Brian Carpenter's music the soundtrack to Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam and might guess Carl Stalling. X-Generation would identify the soundtrack to the show Ren & Stimpy. Older folk would know Stalling adapted much of his music from originator Raymond Scott. But then, we would ...

Extended Analysis

Julie Sassoon: Land of Shadows

by Duncan Heining
November 5, 2013

Land of Shadows is British improvising pianist Julie Sassoon's second solo CD and her first for the German jazzwerkstatt label. Recorded live in Cologne and at the famed Bauhaus theatre in Dessau, the record marks both an consolidation and an advance on its predecessor, New Life (2006 Babel). Where New Life drew its energy from the joy of first motherhood, Land of Shadows explores a darker world of experience. Sassoon moved to Berlin a few years ago and ...

Album Review

Gretchen Parlato: Live in NYC

Read "Live in NYC" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
November 5, 2013

In the ever-growing crowd of jazz vocalists, Gretchen Parlato increasingly stands out for her unique sound and musicality. She has been criticized by those who think she should sing “bigger," move around more, and open her eyes when she performs. But she has held to her own meditative style, which includes encouraging her bands to have spontaneous, passionate, and personally-expressive conversations, rather than being obedient supporters that she unilaterally “leads." This is all very evident on Live in NYC, which ...

Album Review

Nik Turner: Space Gypsy

Read "Space Gypsy" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 5, 2013

Nik Turner (woodwinds, vocals) was a member of the seminal British space-rock band, Hawkwind. Here, he rekindles the days of yore with a splendid new offering that proffers a fresh perspective. To a certain extent, Space Gypsy generates a contrast of how current and perhaps cleaner digital technology contrasts the warmer, full-bodied sound of analog, when considering Hawkwind's 70s albums, for example. Regardless, Turner's tuneful works are standalone entries, paralleling his roots. Coupled with his popping and serrated sax lines, ...

Catching Up With

Randy Brecker: A Fusion Legacy

by R.J. DeLuke
November 4, 2013

On stage at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland last July, the ubiquitous trumpeter Randy Brecker lowered his horn after playing two joyous and funky numbers on the stage that is one of the festivals largest venues, serving as a hockey arena during the appropriate season. There were throngs of people, sitting and standing, gleefully taking in the music. After wiping his forehead, Brecker formally announced his group: the Brecker Brothers Reunion Band. “We play FUSION," he ...

Album Review

Gustavo Cortiñas: Snapshot

Read "Snapshot" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
November 4, 2013

Snapshot is a terrific release by drummer Gustavo Cortiñas, featuring a dynamic combination of musicians who are all associated with the stellar Northwestern University jazz department. The group includes the department's head, the great tenor saxman Victor Goines, who has played with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Charles to Bob Dylan. There's also guitarist Mike Allemana, who cut his chops with legendary saxophonist Von Freedman and then went back to Northwestern for a degree. And three recent Northwestern grads ...

Live Review

Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2013

by Ian Patterson
November 4, 2013

Guinness Cork Jazz Festival Various Venues Cork Ireland October 25-28, 2013 Whether it was chance or fate is debatable but the fact is that had it not been for a cancelled bridge tournament the first Cork Jazz Festival might never have got off the ground. The 35th Guinness Cork Jazz Festival was officially launched in the Gresham Metropole Hotel, with a bit of the red carpet treatment for guests, sponsors and local dignitaries. It ...

Album Review

Janis Siegel: Janis Siegel - Nightsongs: A Late Night Interlude

Read "Janis Siegel - Nightsongs: A Late Night Interlude" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 4, 2013

Vocalist Janis Siegel is the mezzo-soprano/alto quarter of the Manhattan Transfer as well as half of the female contingency of the same with soprano Cheryl Bentyne. Like Bentyne, Siegel has managed a very successful solo career, releasing ten recordings since 1981. Nightsongs: A Late Night Interlude follows 2006's A Thousand Beautiful Things (Telarc, 2006) and 2004's Sketches of Broadway (Telarc). Siegel is a wholesale master of jazz vocals subgenre: ballads, scats, bop, she competently does them all. Nightsongs endeavors a ...

Extended Analysis

Herbie Hancock: The Complete Columbia Albums Collection 1972-1988

by John Kelman
November 4, 2013

As Legacy Records slowly works its way through complete album collection boxes for artists ranging from Stanley Clarke and The Brecker Brothers to the massive Miles Davis and Johnny Cash boxes, one of the notable absences has been keyboardist Herbie Hancock. While he was not a Columbia artist for as long as either Cash or Davis, he was around long enough to release a total of 31 albums over the course of seventeen years--though a full 25 percent of them ...

Album Review

Adam Lane Trio: Absolute Horizon

Read "Absolute Horizon" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 4, 2013

Adam Lane is among the best and brightest of the new wave of forward- looking jazz and improvising bassists, who along with his formidable cohorts exploit the trio format. Here, every inflection, tonality and nuance becomes prominently embedded into the group's stylization which is based on instant composition. No doubt, the musicians' astonishing synergy is a powerful underlying component. Sprinkled with off-kilter thematic overtures, blooming tone poems, and unwieldy or tumultuous breakouts, the trio largely straddles the avant-garde spectrum. Lane ...