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.

Interview

Ted Nash: The Goal Is Creativity

by R.J. DeLuke
October 2, 2013

A New York City morning often starts early, sometimes 6 a.m., for this musician who is trying to elongate the hours available in a day. There's a lot to get to. Practicing the saxophone or flute. Sitting down to go through the elusive and demanding task of writing music worthy of the plateau, which these days seems to be a lot about commissioned work.Ted Nash is in demand.On the heels of his striking, and Grammy nominated, ...

Album Review

Yellowjackets: A Rise in the Road

Read "A Rise in the Road" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
October 2, 2013

With the departure of bassist Jimmy Haslip in 2012, pianist Russell Ferrante is the sole original member, more than three decades after the band's debut recording Yellowjackets (Warner Bros, 1981) set the ball rolling. That said, saxophonist Bob Mintzer has been onboard 22 years and drummer Will Kennedy 14. Not for nothing does the twenty second studio recording sound every bit a Yellowjackets offering--and a fine one at that. New bassist Felix Pastorius has been touring with the band for ...

Live Review

Jazz au Chellah Festival 2013

by Mehdi El Mouden
October 2, 2013

Jazz au Chellah Festival Chellah Rabat, Morocco September 11-15,2013 The evening breeze on summer nights caresses the walls of the fortress while seagulls hover all over the towers. The moon is discernible from afar. In the distance, you can spot swarms of people walking down a long alley leading to the shiny doors of the fortress Chellah. In the outskirts of Rabat, the vestiges of the old historical city of Merinids, usually visited by tourists ...

Album Review

Chicago Jazz Orchestra: Burstin' Out!

Read "Burstin' Out!" reviewed by Matt Marshall

by Matt Marshall
October 2, 2013

Covering the Great American Songbook can be tricky, thankless work for a singer. The options for handling the material just aren't as numerous (i.e., nigh infinite) as they are for instrumentalists. Severely warping a melody, chopping it up or getting rid of it altogether work perfectly well if you're blowing through a horn. But such abstractions of voice can seem forced or simply too weird within a straight-ahead format. There's scatting, of course, and other forms of nonverbal vocalization, but ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Cheryl Pyle

by AAJ Staff
October 2, 2013

Meet Cheryl Pyle:The versatile flutist Cheryl Pyle received her BA in Music from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976, having received her Associates Degree from Mesa College in 1974. Her teachers included Merrill Jordan, Janet Maestre, Francis Watson, and Jayn Rosenfeld. She took Master classes with Jean-Pierre Rampal, Julius Baker, and James Newton. She possesses an extensive classical solo repertoire and was a member of the school's orchestra whilst at Berkeley.From 1975 to 1976 ...

Album Review

Gunhild Seim: Story Water

Read "Story Water" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 2, 2013

Story Water is the most ambitious achievement of Norwegian trumpeter Gunhild Seim. It is a musical fantasy inspired by texts about the universes of dreams and death, commissioned by the VossaJazz Festival and recorded live at the festival's opening day in March 2012. Seim expands her modern jazz-based musical language, as was documented before with her Time Jungle band, including a collaboration with acclaimed pianist Marilyn Crispell, (Elephant Wings, Drollehålå, 2012). With a new, unconventional cast of ...

Album Review

The Wrong Object: After the Exhibition

Read "After the Exhibition" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 2, 2013

Wrong Object is a Belgian band that has made significant inroads to accomplishing an exalted presence in the jazz-rock and progressive rock communities. The band's sound and strategy encompasses intermittent nods to the fabled British Canterbury progressive-rock scene with inferences to Frank Zappa and jazz-rock extrapolations akin to vintage Soft Machine. Toss in a few Albert Ayler-esque sorties and guitar whiz Michel Delville's psychedelics, and you have the complete package. Best of all, the sextet has developed a patented sound ...

Album Review

Ron Aprea Sextet: Remembering Blakey

Read "Remembering Blakey" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 2, 2013

Legendary New York alto saxophonist Ron Aprea is recognized as much for his skills as an arranger, composer, record producer and band leader as he is known for his superb musicianship. On Remembering Blakey, Aprea brings to the fore all of his talents in churning out a monster album that pays homage to the leader of the famed Jazz Messengers. Unlike most tribute recordings, however, it is not a reprise of the drummer's music; none of the pieces can be ...

Live Review

Magnus Ostrom Band at Ronnie Scott's

by Jamie Skey
October 1, 2013

Magnus Ostrom Ronnie Scott's London September 16, 2013 “What guarantee do we have that the future will come? That we will be able to experience it? We generally live in our Western society separated from death. We don't think about it. Talk seldom about it. Suppress it preferably. But suddenly, it hits us. Close or at a distance. But almost always with astonishing power. Everything stays put. And we suddenly experience our fragility, our loneliness, ...

Album Review

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Red Hot

by John Sharpe
October 1, 2013

Having been simultaneously inspired by and ironic about '80s smooth jazz on the excellent Slippery Rock (Hot Cup Records, 2013), Mostly Other People Do the Killing delve back further into history to explore pre-War genres on Red Hot. It's a tall order for a foursome, so bassist and leader Moppa Elliott has added Brandon Seabrook on banjo, Ron Stabinsky on piano and David Taylor on bass trombone to fully exploit the possibilities inherent in post New Orleans modes. Though the ...