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

Jim Widner Big Band: And the Beat Goes On

Read "And the Beat Goes On" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 12, 2013

Bassist Jim Widner formed his band in 1987 to carry on the legacy of summer jazz camps established by bandleader Stan Kenton in the early '60s. Since then the band has added touring and recording to its resume; And the Beat Goes On, the ensemble's sixth CD for the Chase Music Group, was recorded in June 2012 to commemorate its twenty-fifth anniversary. That's quite a long time in big-band years, especially when one takes into account deaths and other personnel ...

Live Review

Buddy Guy at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
October 12, 2013

Buddy Guy with Special Guest Quinn Sullivan NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY October 3, 2013 Legendary Chicago guitarist Buddy Guy has seen and done it all. He is one of the greatest guitarists of his generation. The Louisiana-born, Guy was exposed to the blues at a young age, soaking up the guitar styles and influences of Lightnin' Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Lightnin' Slim and John Lee Hooker. After relocating to ...

Album Review

Griffith Hiltz Trio: This Is What You Get...

Read "This Is What You Get..." reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 12, 2013

This band may be a trio in body, but it's so much more in spirit and sound. Guitarist Nathan Hiltz, multi-reedist Johnny Griffith and drummer Sly Juhas make up a single entity that expands and contracts at will, occasionally coming off as a legitimate sounding quintet or breaking away in various duo contexts; they completely obfuscate the very idea of the trio, and that's a wonderful thing. Hiltz is the secret weapon, contributing to the size identity ...

Live Review

Hall & Oates at the Beacon Theater

by Mike Perciaccante
October 12, 2013

Hall & Oates Beacon Theater New York, NY September 23, 2013 Daryl Hall and John Oates are one of the most successful duos in rock history. They have achieved six Number 1 Billboard hits ("Rich Girl," “Kiss On My List," “Maneater," “Out of Touch, “Private Eyes" and “I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)." Additionally, they have charted many other songs in the Top 40 as well as numerous RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums.. ...

Album Review

Trio ELF: Amsterdam

Read "Amsterdam" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 12, 2013

One aspect of German pianist Walter Lang's artistry involves his work in the traditional piano trio format, evinced on stellar recordings like Eurasia (M & I Records, 2009) and Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (Nagel Heyer, 2005). His approach here comes out of the Bill Evans school of the piano trio, with a light and subtle keyboard touch and vivacious interaction with the bass drums. Lang's own sweet and lovely way with a melody, inside the interaction of the ...

Album Review

Mike Keneally: You Must Be This Tall

Read "You Must Be This Tall" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 12, 2013

Virtuoso guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Keneally has been all over the musical radar, spanning the past three decades. Performing with Frank Zappa in 1988, the artist has also aligned with avant-garde guitar hero Henry Kaiser and currently mans the keyboards amid some guitar work in support of iconic progressive rock guitarist Joe Satriani. With his 24th solo album, Keneally propagates some insanely complex time signatures, perhaps deriving influence from Zappa but mixes it up poignantly by infusing humor, slamming backbeats, ...

Album Review

J.J. Grey & Mofro: This River

Read "This River" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 12, 2013

Swamp-rock doesn't come much more swampy or rocky than This River. JJ Grey's sixth studio album with Mofro is named for the St. John's River near Grey's childhood home (Jacksonville, Florida) and stewed in a pressure cooker stocked by Tony Joe White, Stax Records, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chess Records and other classic country blues and funk.Grey is a multi-faceted musician --a singer and songwriter who also plays (electric and acoustic) guitar, bass and harmonica--and so This River flows ...

Interview

Jeff Ballard: Paid Dues

by George Colligan
October 11, 2013

[ Editor's Note: The following interview is reprinted from George Colligan's blog, Jazztruth] I recently did some teaching in the U.K. at the Birmingham Conservatoire; I was the lone guest clinician/guest performer. Last year, roughly around the same time of year, I teamed up with drumming great Jeff Ballard. I had kind of forgotten that I had recorded an interview with him. So it's over a year late, but hopefully my jazztruth readers will forgive me.

Album Review

Judy Wexler: What I See

Read "What I See" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 11, 2013

Vocalist Judy Wexler has already garnered much attention among the All About Jazz family of critics, having been covered by the likes of colleagues Dan Bilawsky and Nicholas F. Mondello. They both remark on the breadth of Wexler's repertoire, which is impressive. Rather than browbeating us with one more collection of songs inhabiting Scott Yanow's moratorium list from his 2008 compendium, The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide (Backbeat Books), Wexler seeks out less heard songs to nudge to the forefront ...

Book Review

The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History And The Challenge of Bebop

by Ian Patterson
October 11, 2013

The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History And The Challenge of Bebop Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. 240 pages ISBN: 978-0-520-24391-0 University of California Press 2013 A new book on pianist Bud Powell is something of an event. The first full length book on one of jazz's most dazzling pianists, Dance of the Infidels: A Portrait of Bud Powell, was written in French by Powell's former confidante and supporter Francis Paudras, and published ...