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.

New York Beat

Trio da Paz at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

by Nick Catalano
September 13, 2013

Trio da PazDizzy's Club Coca-ColaNew York City, NYAugust 27, 2013There can be no doubt that Trio da Paz is the hottest jazz group working in Gotham these days. In the last week of August the band was booked for an extended two-week engagement, once again featuring “friends" Harry Allen, Joe Locke and Maucha Adnet. This is the umpteenth time in the past couple of years that the group has performed at Dizzy's--each ...

Album Review

Andre Mehmari: Afetuoso

Read "Afetuoso" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 13, 2013

The music that pianist Andre Mehmari presents on Afetuoso is a true amalgamation of jazz, classical and Brazilian forms. Mehmari, who's worked with everybody from trumpeter Randy Brecker to Brazilian icon Hermeto Pascoal, is a poised and thoughtful player who covers the whole emotional spectrum on this trio date. He's wrapped up in a world of wonder, joy, passion and peacefulness, and he vacillates between these moods, marrying diverse emotions with surprising ease. “Suite Clube Da Esquina," ...

Album Review

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: New Surfacing 1978 & 1992

Read "New Surfacing 1978 & 1992" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 13, 2013

This album offers a snapshot of the post-1976 version of the legendary free-jazz improvisational unit, Spontaneous Music Ensemble's (SME) reign as a quartet. Two thirds of the material is derived from performances by the guitar-violin-percussion rendition, captured at a 1978 concert in Newcastle, England. It was previously released on Trio & Triangle (Emanem, 1978) but the recording quality was less than desirable, emanating as it did from a cassette tape. Producer Martin Davidson cleaned it up, yet eventually tracked down ...

Extended Analysis

Terry Klinefelter: Zingaro

by Victor L. Schermer
September 13, 2013

Pianist, composer and arranger Terry Klinefelter deserves greater recognition, and this album shows why. Based in the Philadelphia area with her long-time spouse, bassist Paul Klinefelter, she has brought together a cadre of the finest instrumentalists and vocalists for a collection of music that resonates with the heart. With her adept piano playing at the center, she brings in her cohorts at special moments to render a set of originals and standards that contain reflections on the joy of living ...

Album Review

Seraphic Fire: Ave Maria: Gregorian Chant

Read "Ave Maria: Gregorian Chant" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 13, 2013

The mid-1990s witness a renewed interest in Gregorian Chant with the release, twenty years after its recording, of Chant (Angel, 1973/1994) by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. The public greeted this music, much between 500 and 1500 years old, as the greatest thing since the Edison cylinder. Early Music practitioners each released their own chant recordings. Oddly, this first recording remains uniformly fine and a very good example of the Benedictine order of prayer. ...

Album Review

Judy Wexler: What I See

Read "What I See" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 12, 2013

Vocalist Judy Wexler is more than a mere singer of songs. She's an actress, mood painter, song archaeologist and vocalist par excellence, and those designations shouldn't be taken as independent virtues; they all merge in her marvelous musical pursuits. When I See is Wexler's fourth album, but it only took two--Easy On The Heart (Jazzopolis, 2005) and Dreams & Shadows (Jazzed Media, 2008)-- to establish her as one of the most highly respected vocal artists on the ...

Reassessing

Sarah Vaughan: Sophisticated Lady - The Duke Ellington Songbook Collection

by C. Michael Bailey
September 12, 2013

Sarah VaughanSophisticated Lady: The Duke Ellington Songbook CollectionOJC2013 Some long-ago forgotten jazz magazine once went out on a limb to name the most important figures in jazz history. It went something like this (chronologically): Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. That is a nice and succinct list that many could defend or deny. Breaking things down further, who might be the most important female ...

Album Review

Shrunken Head Shop: Live in Germany

Read "Live in Germany" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 12, 2013

This international group is captured performing improvised music in Germany, featuring guest trumpeter Dave Laczko on three tracks that reside somewhere between Miles Davis' Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) era and experimental trumpeter Jon Hassell's work. Laczko and guitar whiz Willie Oteri have also recorded under the moniker WD-41. Indeed, both artists are known for pushing the envelope within progressive rock and avant, jazz fusion circles, assertively manifesting these exploratory processes here. The set is primarily constructed on slow ...

Extended Analysis

S.O.S.: Looking for the Next One

by John Kelman
September 12, 2013

With more and more archival “finds" hitting the shelves--real or virtual--it's becoming increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Just because an old, long considered lost recording has resurfaced doesn't inherently make it worthy of release: sometimes the sound isn't up to snuff--though, if it's a stellar performance, that can sometimes be forgiven--but other times, the performance itself is simply not that good. Sometimes a performance becomes lost for a reason.Not so with Looking for the ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Nora Germain

by AAJ Staff
September 12, 2013

Meet Nora Germain:I am a 22-year-old jazz violinist living in Los Angeles. My parents were classical violinists in the Madison Symphony in Madison, Wisconsin, so I was raised with classical music. When I was 16, I went to Idyllwild Arts Academy in Southern California and met bassist Marshall Hawkins. Right then I decided to pursue jazz. I love jazz music, which is swing, blues, and improvisation. My goal is to use creative expression to uplift the audience, so ...