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

The Claudia Quintet: September

Read "September" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 15, 2013

September is a month that signals the return of football, the advent of fall, and when the youngsters say goodbye to summer and venture back to school. But for bandleader and drummer John Hollenbeck, it's when he seeks isolation and concentrates on artist residencies. September is The Claudia Quintet's seventh-release as the celebrated ensemble reaffirms its domain as an extraordinarily hip and unique entity. Under Hollenbeck's direction, the band radiates a disparate focus that includes minimalistic oeuvres amid tightly-woven and ...

Album Review

Nashaz: Nashaz

Read "Nashaz" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 15, 2013

Nashaz was founded by jazz guitarist Brian Prunka after a few chance incidents led him to explore the great pantheon of Arabic music. These meetings made Prunka travel long and winding roads. Geographically, from his hometown, New Orleans, to Brooklyn (where he studied with Palestinian oud master Simon Shaeen and his brother Najib; and to Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and back again. Musically, he followed a similar trajectory, from jazz to Arabic music and back again. ...

Album Review

David Redmond: Roots

by Ian Patterson
October 14, 2013

Irish bassist David Redmond is nothing if not versatile, playing in the thrilling World music outfit Yurodny and in the small jazz combos of pianist Phil Ware, drummer Kevin Brady and veteran guitarists Tommy Hafferty and Louis Stewart. Belfast's Soulman Van Morrison has also called upon Redmond's services. Across the pond, to use Irish parlance, Redmond's beautifully earthy tone has lent depth to the music of vocalist Ian Shaw and trumpeter Guy Barker, amongst many others. Now he's stepping out ...

Interview

George Cables: The Pianist’s Dedication to the Group

by Victor L. Schermer
October 14, 2013

Anyone who is serious about jazz will tell you that George Cables belongs in the pantheon of the greatest jazz pianists. Everyone, that is, except George Cables. Exceptional in every way, he is yet a team player. He sees himself as part of the rhythm section, and has always emphasized the group over the soloist. He has worked extensively since the late 1960s with many of the legends: Art Blakey, Art Pepper, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, and Dexter Gordon, to ...

Live Review

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette at Zellerbach Hall

by Mark Corroto
October 14, 2013

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette Zellerbach Hall Berkeley, CA October 4, 2013 Day three of the United States government shut-down, and the public wasn't buying the official announcement that the giant sequoias in the Yosemite National Park “weren't available for viewing, today." Really? Those magnificent trees that have stood since before there was a United States, before there were colonies, and even before there was a bloody king of England, are taking a ...

Album Review

TJI Ellington Big Band: Things to Come

Read "Things to Come" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 14, 2013

Since the advent of Jazz At Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington program in 1995, schools across America have had the chance to dig into real deal charts, exploring note-for-note transcriptions of tunes written by--or associated with--Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams and Benny Carter. This music, written by the best-of-the-best for the-best-of-the-best, was never really meant to be played by youngsters, but plenty of student bands have proven that they can rise to the challenge and handle these ...

Live Review

Live From Old York: Jim White, Vijay Venkat, Adriano Adewale & Benjamin Taubkin

by Martin Longley
October 14, 2013

Jim White Fibbers September 18, 2013 Three hours of oddball Americana. Well, the evening's opening act was a local songster, but Boss Caine sounded like he was growling deeply from across the Atlantic. He was followed with virtually no pause by Paul Fonfara, who offered five of his very different songs. Then Fonfara returned, only minutes later, as Jim White's versatile sideman. So from 8pm to 11pm, the steadily accumulating audience had a ...

Album Review

John Abercrombie Quartet: 39 Steps

by Andrew Luhn
October 14, 2013

Guitarist John Abercrombie has had a long and successful association with ECM records and for his latest release, 39 Steps, he completes his quartet with a piano. Abercombie had success with this format in the 1970s with Richie Beirach, George Mraz, and Peter Donald, but in the past 10 years his ECM releases have been more focused on his quartet with violinist, Mark Feldman. For his return to this format, Abercrombie has chosen pianist Marc Copland, making ...

Album Review

Sons Of Hippies: Griffons At The Gates Of Heaven

Read "Griffons At The Gates Of Heaven" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 14, 2013

This trio merges remembrances of black-light rooms, bong pipes, and cries for peace with a modern psychedelic vibe, leaning heavily toward Indie-rock as a catalyst for its overall game-plan. They craft a massive but fluid sound via crunching chord developments, weighty backbeats and Kathleen Kelley's willowy vocal delivery, tinted with beatific overtones. Indeed, it's a transcendental experience. Yet the group funnels a sense of antiquity into a modern looking-glass. Aided by multi-instrumentalist Billy Sherwood's (Yes) vintage mellotron and Moog synth ...

Album Review

Fort Knox Five: 10 Years of the Fort Knox Five

Read "10 Years of the Fort Knox Five" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 14, 2013

“All good things come in five, baby...You can't get around no prime number, you dig?" Some music just makes you feel good. You can't explain it but some music makes you feel like life's a party and you're invited. (It's that “can't explain it" part which drives writers crazy.) 10 Years of The Fort Knox Five spills like a tray full of overfull cocktails with music that makes you feel good.They're really a quartet--Jon Horvath, Steve ...