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.

Album Review

Bobby Lyle: The Way I Feel

Read "The Way I Feel" reviewed by Chris Becker

by Chris Becker
August 24, 2013

Pianist and composer Bobby Lyle's first encounter with the great Hammond B-3 player Jimmy Smith was in a Minneapolis nightclub called Big Al's, where the then-teenaged Lyle performed as the “local talent" on the downstairs stage. Upstairs, Smith was playing as the headliner and Lyle, after finishing his set as quickly as possible, raced upstairs to hear Smith and perhaps shake his hand.“Jimmy was a black belt in karate," says Lyle of that first meeting. “So when he ...

Book Review

Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker by Charles Haddix

by C. Michael Bailey
August 24, 2013

Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie ParkerCharles Haddix190 PagesISBN: 025203791University of Illinois Press2013 Charlie Parker shares with delta blues legend Robert Johnson the lack of a comprehensive and academically-sound biography. Johnson's biographical material is strewn across several books, the earliest riddled with romance and inaccuracy, periodical articles and liner notes. While at least two completed or near completed biographies by the late Stephen Calt and Mack ...

Live Review

Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House Ensemble at the Cali

by Sammy Stein
August 24, 2013

Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House EnsembleCalifornia ClubIpswich, Suffolk UKAugust 18, 2013Once a month, the California Club, affectionately known as the Cali in Ipswich, Suffolk, is transformed into Ipswich Jazz Club. Seating around 150 people, it was once a Liberal club and is run entirely by friends and members as a non-profit venue for jazz fans. They put on a range of local and international artists and offer a welcome to regulars and newcomers.

Album Review

Geoff Goodman: Jazz + Haiku

Read "Jazz + Haiku" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
August 24, 2013

On the face of it jazz and haiku wouldn't seem to have a great deal in common: jazz, born in the brothels of New Orleans at the close of the 19th century; haiku, an offshoot of age-old Japanese Zen Buddhism, seeking answers to the meaning of life in the quiet life and a pithy observation of nature. Yet, as he lurched from one dive to another in Storyville, might not Jelly Roll Morton, on occasion, have gazed ...

Album Review

Arborea: Fortress of the Sun

Read "Fortress of the Sun" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 24, 2013

This duo from Maine casts a post-psychedelic, homespun folk vibe with a few subtle twists, signaling a nouveau spin on bands such as '70s British folk denizen Pentangle, and a classic Haight-Ashbury trippy street fair. Featuring sustainable and impressive compositions, Shanti Curran's virtuous vocals impart a spell of transcendental wonderment, sprinkled with dreamy atmospherics. This acoustic-electric set is devised with hauntingly melodic themes that sometimes drift into an interminable abyss. The creative touch of studio-induced echo adds capacious ...

Album Review

Cheryl Bentyne / Mark Winkler: Cheryl Bentyne / Mark Winkler: West Coast Cool

Read "Cheryl Bentyne / Mark Winkler: West Coast Cool" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 24, 2013

In 2010, veteran Los Angeles singer/lyricist Mark Winkler joined forces with the Manhattan Transfer's lead singer, multi-Grammy Award-winning artist Cheryl Bentyne, playing the music of the '50s and '60s commonly known as West Coast Jazz at venues throughout California and elsewhere. West Coast Cool is this remarkable duo's music-only version of their live show, turning its passion for the music into a vocal tribute of one of the most important styles in jazz history.Defining the style may not ...

Live Review

Leon Russell and Southside Johnny &The Asbury Jukes at the NYCB Theatre

by Mike Perciaccante
August 24, 2013

Leon Russell, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes with special guests The Persuasions NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY July 27, 2013Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame member Leon Russell, as well as Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, along with special guests The Persuasions, thrilled a small but enthusiastic audience at the intimate NYCB Theater in Westbury on July 27, 2013. The intimate venue, which on many concert occasions is used as a theater ...

Album Review

The Geordie Approach: Inatween

Read "Inatween" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
August 23, 2013

At the risk of pigeonholing The Geordie Approach's music, there's really nothing like a little Noise/skronk/experimental electro/free jazz/pounding post-rock to shake off the cobwebs. The trio's debut album, Why Eye (Bruce's Fingers, 2007) will have deterred the faint hearted with its intense free improvisations, and equally, sucked in more adventurous listeners into the all-enveloping spiral of sound. Inatween picks up where Why Eye left off, blurring the edges of musical genres and raising a standard for collective free improvisation that ...

Album Review

Rotem Sivan: Enchanted Sun

Read "Enchanted Sun" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 23, 2013

Is this destined to be one of the great undiscovered albums of the year? Released with little fanfare on Steeplechase's Lookout strand back in June, Enchanted Sun has picked up precious few reviews. Maybe it is just the summer slumber. Let us hope so, for the debut recording from Israeli-born, New York-based guitarist Rotem Sivan and his trio deserves to get n.o.t.i.c.e.d.Unusually for a modern guitar-led album, there are no loops, no effects, no overdubs, no turntablists, no ...

Reassessing

Cannonball Adderley & Milt Jackson: Things Are Getting Better

by C. Michael Bailey
August 23, 2013

Cannonball Adderley & Milt JacksonThings Are Getting BetterOJC1959/2013 Alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's 1959 Things Are Getting Better joins guitarist Wes Montgomery's So Much Guitar!, trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe (OJC/Riverside, 1959/2013) and Gerry Mulligan's Mulligan Meets Monk (OJC/Riverside, 1957/2013) in re-issue celebrating the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records. Adderley was in much demand in the late 1950s, being part of Miles ...