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.

Extended Analysis

Ry Cooder and Corridos Famosos: Live in San Francisco

by Nenad Georgievski
October 6, 2013

Over the course of his illustrious career, visionary guitarist/producer Ry Cooder has been one of the most prolific and restlessly creative forces in contemporary music. For a period of over four decades his music and songs have helped shape the American music landscape by filtering the roots of his country's musical history through his own personal style and worldview. His music is a beautiful concoction of blues, folk, country, pop, rock, gospel, Norteno, jazz, and world music that he traverses ...

Extended Analysis

Tonbruket: Nubium Swimtrip

by Andrew Luhn
October 6, 2013

Tonbruket is a band that defies categorization. The Swedish band's name roughly translates into English as “Tone Workshop," and they describe their music as “sticking closely to the essence of a composition's tone, melody, and groove." Bassist Dan Berglund, formerly of the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, founded the group in 2009 with multi-instrumentalist, Johan Lindström, after the tragic death of pianist Esbjörn Svensson in 2008. Tonbruket aims to take the rock influence which is so loved by all the members of ...

Album Review

Iro Haarla Sextet: Kolibri

by John Sharpe
October 6, 2013

On Kolibri, Finnish pianist Iro Haarla brings together four mainstays of the country's improvised music scene, along with rising trumpet star Verneri Pohjola, in an outfit which sits mid way between a small group and a big band in terms of its capabilities. It's an accomplished unit. All six were part of the TUMO agglomeration which partnered trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith on Occupy The World (TUM Records, 2013), while four of the older generation were part of celebrated drummer Edward ...

Album Review

Sebastien Branche / Thanos Chrysakis / Tom Soloveitzik / James O'Sullivan / Artur Vidal / Jerry Wigens: Magnetic River

Read "Magnetic River" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 6, 2013

Magnetic River is an exercise in a highly reserved and demanding form of collective, free improvisation, where silence is as important as any other sound and any sound is welcomed. The group of musicians--three sax players, clarinetist, guitarist, pianist and laptop/electronics player Thanos Chrysakis, also the head of the label--was recorded n April 2011. The first improvisation is slow and patient. All the musicians stress minimal and sustained sonic gestures and create a fragile, almost transparent, enigmatic ...

Album Review

AVC: Busk

by Glenn Astarita
October 6, 2013

This production signifies yet another example of UK-based Babel Records' vast array of young or nascent talent spanning everything from ferocious, free-jazz experimentation to artists who bridge numerous jazz and unrelated genres into a cohesive entity. ACV is a group of stalwarts who respectively boast resumes of stints with exalted modern improvisers such as guitarist Fred Frith, saxophonist Evan Parker, vocalist Ruth Lambert, legendary jazz trumpeter Art Farmer and other notables. Each piece tells a different story. They ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Agenor Garcia

by AAJ Staff
October 6, 2013

Agenor garcia or, “age garcia," as his friends call him, is a “sound poet." He Usually prefers the absence of formal structure to evoke aesthetic to his music, in addition to or in place of the prosaic ostensible meaning. Agenor is fascinated by the idea of transforming the structure of music, which serves to stimulate the expressiveness of his performance but dislikes the concept of “improvisation" as well the term “playing by ear." “Everyone plays by ...

Album Review

Ry Cooder: Ry Cooder & Corridos Famosos - Live in San Francisco

Read "Ry Cooder & Corridos Famosos - Live in San Francisco" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 5, 2013

Ryland Peter Cooder is the quintessential American Music iconoclast who spent more of his career creatively south of the border. Early American jazz and blues, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Cooder loved them all and delved deeply into each. A slide guitarist comparable to peers Duane Allman and Mick Taylor, it was Cooder who turned Keith Richards on to the open-G tuning that resulted in “Honky Tonk Women," and by extension “Street Fighting Man" and “Brown Sugar." Cooder had a string of eccentric, ...

Bailey's Bundles

Kuniko: At The Bare Minimalism

by C. Michael Bailey
October 5, 2013

Percussionist Kuniko Kato is a total package who redefines our awareness of the vibraphone, marimba, indeed the entire percussive spectrum. If we think of the “vibes" as Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Victor Feldman, Gary Burton and Joe Locke then we are missing a full half of the population of players. On her debut and sophomore releases for the British Linn Records, Kuniko turns her considerable attention to minimalism, first Reich and then he and his peers. Kuniko ...

Album Review

Dayna Stephens: I'll Take My Chances

Read "I'll Take My Chances" reviewed by Andrew Luhn

by Andrew Luhn
October 5, 2013

For his second Criss Cross release I'll Take My Chances, saxophonist Dayna Stephens has put together an impressive recital showing off his skill for composition, arranging, and improvisation. The ten tunes presented here are a nice mix of Stephens's originals, an Ellington classic, and original tunes from contemporary pianists Brad Mehldau and Aaron Parks. The tunes all prove to be fantastic vehicles for Stephens to showcase his warm, soulful sound, and the prowess of the group he has put together ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Kosi

by AAJ Staff
October 5, 2013

Meet Akosua Gyebi: I am a songwriter born and raised in New York City. Instrument(s): Vocalist. Teachers and/or influences? Salim Washington, Katchie (Katchie) Cartwright, Miles Griffith, Abbey Lincoln, Jill Scott, Gregory Porter, and Nina Simone. Your sound and approach to music: I've been called powerful, and I usually bring just a little bit of drama to my interpretation. My sound is bigger than my body. I ...