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.

Book Review

Larry "Ratso" Sloman: On the Road with Bob Dylan

by Nenad Georgievski
October 19, 2013

On the Road with Bob Dylan Larry “Ratso" Sloman 461 pages ISBN: 1400045967 Crown Publishing 1978 (2002) In the autumn of 1975 singer songwriter Bob Dylan assembled a group of musicians for a variety show tour and this caravan named Rolling Thunder Revue enlisted people like poet Allen Ginsberg, singers Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Arlo Guhrie, guitarists Mick Ronson, Robbie Robertson and Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and many more. In October ...

Album Review

Bob Mover: My Heart Tells Me

Read "My Heart Tells Me" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
October 19, 2013

Jazz saxophone veteran Bob Mover has put together a very satisfying two-disc release, My Heart Tell Me, with both swinging instrumentals and his very effective,unadorned vocals. Disc one has Mover mostly singing standards in soft pensive fashion, bringing to mind Nat Cole, as well as Chet Baker, his early-days cohort. Standouts on this are Warren/Gordon's “My Heart Tells Me” and Carey/Fischer's “Gone With th Wind," featuring pianist Kenny Barron's impeccable accompaniment---no embellishment, unadorned, but lots of soul. ...

Film Review

Song of the South: Duane Allman and the Rise of The Allman Brothers Band

by Doug Collette
October 18, 2013

Song of the South: Duane Allman and The Rise of The Allman Brothers Band Chrome Dreams 2013 Song of the South: Duane Allman and The Rise of The Allman Brothers Band emphasizes the cultural impact of this iconic group and its late lamented leader. Even more so than the biography of the guitarist, Skydog, or the unauthorized story of the group, Midnight Riders (the respective authors of which, Randy Poe and Scott Freeman, appear extensively during ...

Album Review

Jay Vonada: Organ Trio West - Groovin’ It

Read "Organ Trio West - Groovin’ It" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 18, 2013

Trombonist Jay Vonada heads up two trombone-organ-drums trios called Organ Trio East and West. His Organ Trio West consists of himself and organist Alex Sell and drummer Kevin Lowe. Groovin' It consists of nine compositions, original and standards, presented in this novel and provocative format. While organ trios (de rigeur sans bass) are nothing new, they typically include a guitar or tenor saxophone, or both (in which case it is a quartet). Vonada's trombone provides the sturdy format with a ...

Live Review

Nathan Hook's Mobiustrip at Somethin' Jazz Club

by Daniel Lehner
October 18, 2013

Nathan Hook's Mobiustrip Somethin' Jazz Club New York, NY Tenor saxophonist Nathan Hook's Mobiustrip opened their set at Somethin Jazz Club in Midtown East, NYC with a tune called “You Probably Thought This Would Be Fun," and it was appropriate. This is not to say that Hook's music was unenjoyable or without merit (far from it, actually), but whatever expectations of dissonance and complexity a hard-worn member of the NYC jazz scene might come to ...

Album Review

Buddy Flett: Buddy Flett - Rough Edges

Read "Buddy Flett - Rough Edges" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 18, 2013

It's all in a name. Some names and occupations just go together, especially in sports. Harmon Killebrew, Orlando Cepeda, and Catfish Hunter are all baseball names. Blues musicians have similar iconic names. The Ur-Blues has Eddie “Son" House, Nehemiah “Skip" James, Tommy Johnson, and Charlie Patton. The generation after has Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield), Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett) and Elmore James. Today, we have Joe Bonamassa, Ronnie Earl, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Add to this latter group the Southern-fried, bona ...

Album Review

Kidd Jordan & Hamid Drake: A Night In November - Live in New Orleans

Read "A Night In November - Live in New Orleans" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 18, 2013

New Orleans is valued for its storied traditional jazz legacy, and not so much for avant-garde persuasions. But when it comes to off-center or free-jazz music, saxophonist Kidd Jordan's artistic persona frequently becomes a topic of conversation. He's performed and recorded with iconoclastic musicians and is perhaps the Crescent City's most prolific improviser. This excursion features his duets with the exceptional Chicago jazz drummer Hamid Drake, segmented into two sets and emanating from their encounter in front of a small ...

Interview

Tom Guarna: Mad Scientist

by George Colligan
October 18, 2013

[ Editor's Note: The following interview is reprinted from George Colligan's blog, Jazztruth] I've known Brooklyn-born guitarist Tom Guarna for maybe twelve years, give or take. He used to literally live around the corner from my apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We worked together in a band that drumming phenomenon Rodney Holmes had put together. I eventually asked Guarna to join an organ trio I was trying to start. This organ trio was called Mad Science and eventually, ...

Album Review

Jan Sturiale: Do not disturb The Peace

Read "Do not disturb The Peace" reviewed by Marta Ramon

by Marta Ramon
October 18, 2013

Do not disturb The Peace sets out the formation in which Jan Sturiale envisages his music. This guitarist makes a step forward and changes the trio format from his previous CD, Strange Meetings (Drawtheline Records, 2009), to a quintet, which gives a complete body, harmoniously and melodically, to his compositions. The ten tunes on this album show Sturiale's musical personality through a constant connection with a rock essence that meets with a contemporary jazz language. But there is ...

Album Review

Gretchen Parlato: Live in NYC

Read "Live in NYC" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 17, 2013

Live in NYC is vocalist Gretchen Parlato's eagerly awaited live recording and follow-up to 2011's excellent The Lost And Found (Obliqsound). Gretchen Parlato (Obliqsound, 2006) and 2011's In A Dream (Obliqsound) round out her catalog as a leader. That said, Parlato has been much more busy than would be indicated by her four recordings in eight years. She has appeared on some 70-plus recordings from Kenny Barron's The Traveler (Emarcy, 2006) to Esperanza Spalding's Esperanza (Concord Music Group, 2008) to ...