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 Haas / Matt Chamberlain: Frames

by Chris May
October 7, 2013

It is not often an album confounds expectations to the degree that Frames does. And confounds them not just once but twice. The first expectation arises from the players' histories. Brian Haas is best known for his work with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, the spectacularly trans-genre band which the pianist co-founded twenty years ago. Drummer Matt Chamberlain has worked with neo-classicists such as pianist Brad Mehldau and guitarist Bill Frisell, but is better known for his recordings with ...

Live Review

European Jazz Network General Assembly 2013

by Henning Bolte
October 7, 2013

Dokkhuset Trondheim Europe Jazz Network's General Assembly 2013 + Young Nordic Jazz Comets + Norwegian Jazz Nights Trondheim, Norway September 12-15, 2013 Europe Jazz Network (EJN), founded 26 years ago in Ravenna, Italy, is a pan-European association of producers, presenters, and supporting organizations engaged in presenting and promoting the creative art form of contemporary jazz and improvised music. Its membership includes 89 organizations (festivals, clubs and concert venues, independent promoters, and national organizations) in 28 ...

Album Review

The Elec Tet: Shiny Metal Objects

Read "Shiny Metal Objects" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 7, 2013

The Elec Tet started out as a fusion tribute band, but it quickly outgrew that designation. Drummer Ben Scholz originally formed the group as a vehicle to explore the sounds of now-classic '70s fusion outfits, but something else happened along the way: originality eclipsed imitation in The Elec Tet. Now, on the band's debut album, Scholz and company proudly wave the fusion flag while presenting a program of brand new tunes. While Scholz may have been responsible ...

Live Review

Tri-Centric Orchestra Commissioning Series at Roulette

by Kurt Gottschalk
October 7, 2013

The Tri-Centric Orchestra Roulette Tri-Centric Orchestra Commissioning Series Brooklyn, NY Sept. 24-25, 2013 Addressing the audience at Roulette on Sept. 24, halfway through the first of two nights of the Tri-Centric Presenting Series, trumpeter and foundation executive director Taylor Ho Bynum acknowledged the influence of Artistic Director and spiritual godfather Anthony Braxton. “Anthony Braxton often brings up the idea of scale," he said. “He wants to work solo, he wants to ...

Album Review

Samo Salamon: Stretching Out

Read "Stretching Out" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 7, 2013

Cosmopolitan is a term that is often used to describe musicians, but in the case of Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon, it is certainly a description that fits. Salamon has turned the restless nature of the travelling musician into an aesthetic strategy and has worked with two different quartets that represent his different musical sides: the hip underground of the New York jazz scene and the experimental sensibility of the European avant-garde. Stretching Out is ...

Album Review

Frank Potenza: For Joe

Read "For Joe" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 7, 2013

Joe Who? Joe Pass. Not a difficult question, given that it's Pass' image that dominates the front cover of For Joe. A quick glance at the track listing makes it pretty clear too. Then there's the rhythm section of Jim Hughart on bass, Colin Bailey on drums and John Pisano on second guitar: men whose working relationship with Pass goes back to the mid-60s--all three performed on For Django (Pacific, 1964). Band leader and primary guitarist Frank Potenza has certainly ...

Album Review

Lin Rountree: Serendipitous

Read "Serendipitous" reviewed by Jeff Winbush

by Jeff Winbush
October 7, 2013

When a musician goes into the studio the opportunity always exists for something special to come out. They can really go for it and go in a bold, fresh, new direction and see if something innovative and exciting is the result.Or they can just make the doughnuts. Serendipitous is the sound of Detroit-based trumpeter Lin Rountree making doughnuts.The problem is Nate Harasim's pedestrian production and arrangements which are stock and unimaginative. Rountree is a competent trumpeter, ...

Book Review

Tony Allen: An Autobiography Of The Master Drummer Of Afrobeat

by Chris Becker
October 6, 2013

Tony Allen: An Autobiography Of The Master Drummer Of Afrobeat Michael Veal ISBN: 978-0-8223-5591-5 Duke University Press 2013 First of all, drummers are going to love this book. With so few autobiographies of drummers in print, the publication of Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat is a cause for celebration. Co-author Michael Veal, author of Fela: The Life and Times of a Musical Icon and an accomplished musician ...

Album Review

Matthew Shipp: Piano Sutras

Read "Piano Sutras" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 6, 2013

There is a sort of primitivism that can be found at the edges of advanced physics and mathematics. The same sort of primitivism is at the heart of pianist Matthew Shipp's music. Just as one can speak of the sweet science (or art) of boxing, the pianist plays with a violent beauty.Piano Sutras is his seventh solo recording following the Thirsty Ear discs 4D (2010) and One (2006) and Un Piano (Rogue Art, 2008), Songs (Splasc(h), 2002), Creation ...

Album Review

Paula Shocron: See See Rider

Read "See See Rider" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 6, 2013

Argentinian pianist Paula Shocron is one of the most prominent artists on Justo Lo Prete's Rivorecords and has previously shown her worth on two superb trio albums: Our Delight (Rivorecords, 2011) and Serenade in Blue (Rivorecords, 2012). See See Rider offers a welcome chance to hear Shocron in a solo setting. From the opening chords of “Sweet Lorraine," Shocron's muscular lyricism is immediately on display. As she improvises around the bittersweet melody, every phrase is carved out ...