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.

Live Review

Detroit Jazz Festival 2013

by C. Andrew Hovan
September 17, 2013

2013 Detroit Jazz FestivalDetroit, MichiganAugust 30-September 2, 2013Summing up the modus operandi that seemed to characterize so much of the performances at this year's Detroit Jazz Festival, one might sagaciously go with the phrase 'wild abandon.' Now in its 34th year of existence, the festival still boasts the title of “largest free jazz festival in North America." Musician Chris Collins in his sophomore effort as artistic director continues to hone his skills in putting together this cumbersome ...

Album Review

Travis Sullivan's Björkestra: I Go Humble

Read "I Go Humble" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 17, 2013

Björk isn't a member of the jazz community, but the jazz community has had no problem embracing her. Musicians as different as vocalist Kate McGarry and drummer Jeff Tain" Watts have explored the eclectic Icelandic singer's work and put their own stamp on her intoxicating music, but they each left her catalog after a single-song visit. Saxophonist/Arranger Travis Sullivan is on the other end of the spectrum. He set up shop in her world in 2004 and never truly left. ...

Live Review

Live From Old York: Krystle Warren, Gwyneth Herbert & Katy Moffatt

by Martin Longley
September 17, 2013

Krystle Warren/Gwyneth Herbert The Duchess September 10, 2013 The Duchess is mostly accustomed to music at high volume, so this evening of intimate almost-jazz singer-songwriters highlighted the ripping sound of the joint's sticky beer-suction flooring on its small gathering's footwear. Baby Jesus forbid that any audience member dared head toilet-wards during a particularly delicate point in a song. Fundamentally, this was the rule for virtually the entire duration of each set, as ...

Album Review

Katsura Mouri & Tim Olive: Various Histories

Read "Various Histories" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
September 17, 2013

For the second release on his own 845 Audio label--following his impressive 33 Bays pairing with Alfredo Costa Monteiro--Tim Olive debuts his established duo with turntablist Katsura Mouri, whose history includes being a member of the experimental improvising turntable unit BusRatch with Takahiro Yamamoto. Various Histories was recorded near Kyoto (where Mouri is the manager of Parallax, the record shop around which BusRatch was formed) on a sweltering hot day in August 2010, in a space without air-conditioning. The recording ...

Live Review

Detroit Jazz Festival 2013

by Steve Bryant
September 17, 2013

Detroit Jazz FestivalDetroit, MIAugust 30-September 2, 2013You have read the news and heard the stories on radio and TV. Detroit is bankrupt and going into ruin. However, Gretchen Valade definitely doesn't appear to believe the hype, as she managed to fashion the Detroit Jazz Festival (DJF) into one of the largest, most star-studded musical parties in North America, with four stages scattered all over downtown Detroit over the Labor Day weekend.In 2012, newly-appointed artistic director ...

Album Review

Brian Landrus' Kaleidoscope: Mirage

by Dave Wayne
September 17, 2013

Thus far, every recording by low-end multi-reed artist Brian Landrus has been refreshingly different. The NEC grad burst on to the scene a few years back with Forward (Cadence Jazz Records, 2008) a richly textured free-leaning acoustic jazz album created with a large ensemble of seasoned jazz veterans such as pianist Michael Cain and drummer Bob Moses. His subsequent release, Everlasting (CIMP Records, 2009), a quartet date with Moses and bassist John Lockwood also had free-bop tendencies.Traverse (Blue ...

Album Review

Maurice Johnson: Peace Love & Jazz

Read "Peace Love & Jazz" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
September 17, 2013

Since forming his band in Oklahoma City in 1985, guitarist Maurice Johnson has carefully carved out a niche in the local jazz scene there and on his release Peace Love & Jazz, he displays the talent, tone, and technique to be a force to reckon with for years to come. The multi-talented Johnson is also a versatile composer, author, producer and a master luthier who designs and builds custom handcrafted archtop jazz guitars.There is no mistaking Johnson comes ...

Interview

Ryan Keberle: Multicolored Tapestry

by R.J. DeLuke
September 16, 2013

Ryan Keberle is a musician with open ears, who listens to all kinds of music with the attitude that in most cases something can be learned from it. He listens as a fan and as a musician. It can be just to enjoy rock, alternative, pop, R&B or blues. But there might be a kernel of something that will stick with him, maybe influencing in his gripping and supple trombone solos, or in his writing and arranging.He plays ...

Album Review

Ahmad Jamal: Saturday Morning

Read "Saturday Morning" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 16, 2013

"Play like Jamal," Miles Davis told his pianists in the mid 1950s. The trumpeter was not shy about recruiting band leaders or poaching their musicians, so you might suppose he canvassed Jamal. But the pianist maintains Davis never popped the question. Interviewed in 2012, he side-stepped the subject, saying that he was in any case too busy leading his own band to consider offers from Davis or anyone else. “I lived a block and a half from Miles when I ...

Album Review

Vana Gierig: Making Memories

Read "Making Memories" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 16, 2013

German-born, New York-based pianist Vana Gierig was making memorable music long before Making Memories came into existence. This Berklee and New England Conservatory-trained ivory tickler has been turning heads with his own work, and through sideman stints with everybody from über-hip cabaret singer Ute Lemper to violinist Regina Carter, for quite some time, but no single project has been able to properly display the true depth and breadth of his artistry; that is, no single project until this one.