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.

Multiple Reviews

Stories of Friendship and Family Ties: The Gonzalez Clan Rides Out

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 20, 2013

The family unit of trumpeter Dennis González and his sons bassist Aaron González and drummer Stefan González, known as Yells At Eels, has been operating since 2000. Dennis González played and recorded with countless innovative musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, and in recent years solidified his musical bonds with Polish and Portuguese musicians. His sons, who often work independently, are half of Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes' Humanization 4tet. These two albums demonstrate how family ties and close friendships ...

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell Quartet: Live At "A Space" 1975

Read "Live At "A Space" 1975" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
September 20, 2013

The Canadian label Sackville released a series of exceptional albums throughout its forty plus year existence. A fair number of these document free-jazz concerts by American luminaries that took place in its hometown of Toronto. When the company folded, Chicago based Delmark purchased its Avant-Garde catalogue and has released expanded versions of these records on CD.One such gem is reedman Roscoe Mitchell's Live At 'A Space' 1975 now augmented with 20 minutes of previously unissued material. Mitchell, known ...

Album Review

Trio 3 + Jason Moran: Refraction - Breakin' Glass

$Read "Refraction - Breakin' Glass" reviewed by Glenn Astarita$

by Glenn Astarita
September 20, 2013

The trio--launched in 1986--comprises three legendary maestros of progressive jazz and improvisation. Customarily, the band augments its line of attack with a guest pianist. Here, Jason Moran upholds the tradition and plays an integral role, augmenting the core unit's reach into pieces fabricated with kaleidoscopic formations and variegated hues, spanning a myriad of seamlessly integrated jazz-related mosaics. Essentially, nothing seems out-of-scope for these gents. At 11-minutes, bassist Reggie Workman's “Summit Conference" is the lengthiest piece on the album. ...

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George Benson: Finding His Groove In Inspiration

by Belinda Ware
September 20, 2013

George Benson is a quintessential master of jazz whose professional musical career continues to flourish over decades due to his charisma, wit, showmanship and a succession of multiple hit record releases that are foundational in the evolution of contemporary jazz. As a seasoned jazz connoisseur, Benson stays in demand as a sought after performing artist as seen in his steady concert schedules taking to the stage in countries around the world. Simply put, Benson is on a mission ...

Album Review

Emil Strandberg: Works

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 20, 2013

Works is the first album containing compositions by Swedish trumpeter Emil Strandberg. But this is also a highly collaborative work. The set of subtle and nuanced compositions for a chamber, acoustic trio stress an intimate dialog between the three musicians. The musical expression is equal to sensitive listening and always examines its own formulation, its sound, its timbral qualities, and how it resounds. Strandberg collaborates here with two like-minded musicians--acoustic guitarist David Stackenäs with whom he plays ...

Book Review

Mingus Speaks

by Ian Patterson
September 20, 2013

Mingus Speaks John F. Goodman 329 pages ISBN: 978-0-520-27523-2 University of California Press 2013 Many are the books written about bassist/composer and bandleader Charles Mingus--one of the most influential jazz figures of the post-war years. His own autobiographical work, Beneath the Underdog (Knopf, 1971) was a sprawling, boiling stew of memoir and fiction that remains the most revealing portrait of an artist as anguished as he was brilliant. Bouts of depression, a period ...

Album Review

The Jason Klobnak Quintet: Mountain, Move

Read "Mountain, Move" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 19, 2013

Trumpeter Jason Klobnak has a knack for creating inviting and exciting music. On this, his debut album, he presents nine easy-to-digest originals that are neither overly bland nor excessively bold; he finds the perfect line between those two poles. Klobnak's quintet, made up of a two-horn front line and a standard three piece rhythm section, covers the usual ground, moving from mid-tempo ("Back & Forth") and up-tempo swing-ish scenarios ("U.L.T (Undetermined Length Of Time)") to soulful ballads ...

Live Review

Punkt Festival 2013

by John Kelman
September 19, 2013

Punkt FestivalKick Kristiansand, Norway September 6-8, 2013 Punkt is back. Three simple words with greater significance. While the annual festival, which has made its name on the strength of two additional words--Live Remix--had an eighth edition in 2012 that, on paper, should have been nothing short of spectacular, it was ultimately not just disappointing but, for longtime attendees, something that actually engendered real anger. The reasons were two-fold: first, invited festival curator Brian Eno--a ...

Album Review

Vandeweyer / Van Hove / Lovens / Blume: Quat Live At Hasselt

Read "Quat Live At Hasselt" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 19, 2013

This live sound recorded at a Belgian venue vividly transfers to disc, augmenting the dual percussionist-backed quartet's investigative mechanics amid crashing cadenzas, moments of quietude, and multilayered formulations. Featuring eminent Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove and vibraphonist Els Vandeweyer on the front end, the improvisational format yields a democratic approach as the musicians generally operate from the same temporal plane atop bristling asymmetrical movements and a polytonal soundstage. The artists' lucid creative faculties shine radiantly on “H2," as ...

Album Review

Janet Feder: Songs With Words

Read "Songs With Words" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 19, 2013

Innovative guitarist Janet Feder draws her own sonic territory on this first collection of original songs. The Colorado-based guitarist is known for her extended techniques on the prepared guitar, and her work was first introduced to the wider public on the like-minded collection of innovative guitarists I Never Meta Guitar--Solo Guitars for the XXI Century) (Clean Feed, 2010). Prior to that, she recorded with close conspirators such as Fred Frith on Ironic Universe. Songs with Words was ...