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

Ricardo Silveira / Vinicius Cantuária: RSVC

by Mark F. Turner
October 20, 2013

If there's a recording that could instantly transport you to a balmy tropical island with your favorite beverage in hand, then this wonderful collaboration between Brazilian guitarists Ricardo Silveira and Vinicius Cantuária should do the job quite nicely with a few unexpected surprises. Each has amassed a level of rock-star like acclaim in their respective careers with numerous individual projects and collaborations such as Cantuária's and Bill Frisell's Lagrimas Mexicanas (E1 Music, 2011) and this year's Atlanticos ...

Album Review

Kosi: One More Cup of Coffee

Read "One More Cup of Coffee" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
October 20, 2013

Kosi is Akosua Gyebi Sorensen, a New York born and raised vocalist, guitarist and songwriter who attended Brooklyn College where she began performing with the college's Small Jazz Ensemble. According to her website, One More Cup of Coffee is her third album but the first released under her own name. It was recorded in August 2013 and features Kosi plus “one take wonder" guitarist Aron Marchak. The absence of any other instrumentation gives the music a loose, open feel and ...

Extended Analysis

Sting: The Last Ship

by Nenad Georgievski
October 20, 2013

Much like his fellow collegue, musician Peter Gabriel, British singer and songwriter Sting has spent the past decade, since his last album with original material Sacred Love (A&M, 2003) in endless touring, reissues, cover albums and recording past material with a philharmonic orchestra. Far from being inactive or lazy, during that time he also reunited his band Police twice--once for the induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 and for a lucrative world tour in 2007/08. ...

Album Review

Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts: Hang Time

Read "Hang Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 20, 2013

Hang Time consists of music written and performed by two student ensembles at the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts: Group Giz, an octet directed by trumpeter Greg Gisbert, and Group Gunn, a septet presided over by pianist Eric Gunnison. The CCJA is a non-profit organization “dedicated to empowering youth to creatively express themselves through the language of jazz." Drummer Paul Romaine serves as the Conservatory's artistic director. Aside from its reassurance that the future of jazz ...

Album Review

Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra: I Go Humble

Read "I Go Humble" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 20, 2013

Until this new CD crossed the threshold, the name Bjork was no more than that within these precincts. As it turns out, Bjork is a she, an Icelandic singer / songwriter whose given name is Bjork Gudmundsdottir. Apparently, saxophonist / arranger Travis Sullivan is an avowed enthusiast, as he has not only named his big band in Bjork's honor but has recorded at least two albums devoted to her music, which the twelve-piece ensemble has been playing since 2004. If ...

Album Review

Arun Ghosh: A South Asian Suite

Read "A South Asian Suite" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
October 19, 2013

Clarinetist/composer Arun Ghosh's first two albums catapulted him to the forefront of the UK jazz scene. The British-Asian's beguilingly eclectic influences from India, the Middle East and UK urban culture spawned music on Northern Namaste (Camoci Records, 2008) and Primal Odyssey (Camoci Records, 2011) that interwove haunting melodies, groove-driven ensemble play and ecstatic soloing. Ghosh won the approval of both mainstream jazz fans and World Music aficionados, becoming a regular performer at festivals, clubs and melas alike. Here, Ghosh returns ...

Interview

Jerome Harris: Guitar and Bass Doubler

by George Colligan
October 19, 2013

[ Editor's Note: The following interview is reprinted from George Colligan's blog, Jazztruth]Jerome Harris is a highly underrated musician. He's proficient doubler on bass and guitar; he's been a regular on the former with Jack DeJohnette and the latter with Sonny Rollins. Add to that he's got a wonderful singing voice, and has also recorded 4 albums as a leader. Harris initially went to Harvard with the intent of being a psychiatrist, but ended up being swayed by ...

Album Review

Idan Santhaus: There You Are

Read "There You Are" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 19, 2013

This debut release from composer/multi-reedist Idan Santhaus was a long time coming. There You Are actually started to take shape in April of 2008, when four of these tracks were recorded with a solid sixteen piece band, but that was just the beginning. It took three more years for Santhaus to get back into the studio with his jazz orchestra, which was now split between returning members from the first session and new faces, and it would be another two ...

Interview

Brad Tolinski: Jimmy Page is a Complicated Interview

by Nenad Georgievski
October 19, 2013

For more than two decades, Brad Tolinski has been the editor in chief of some of the most popular and successful music magazines in the world: Guitar World Magazine, Guitar Aficionado and Revolver. In 2012 these three magazines were purchased by publisher NewBay Media and shortly after that he was named Editorial Director of the Music Group, that also has several other U.S. music titles, including Guitar Player, Bass Player, Electronic Musician, Keyboard Magazine and Mix Magazine. Over the years, ...

Album Review

I Know You Well Miss Clara: Chapter One

Read "Chapter One" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 19, 2013

It's another nascent progressive jazz-rock band from Indonesia--with the idiosyncratic moniker--brought to us by the New York-based record label, Moonjune Records. The group sound and makeup tenders yet another slant from this region that to varying degrees, impart ethnocentric folk with Western musical concepts. With its debut, the young quartet's rite of passage is largely centered on climactic buildups, spiced with dense and haunting phraseology, where they entwine an aggregation of moody passages and breezy interludes before zooming in for ...