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.

Extended Analysis

Bill Frisell: Silent Comedy

by Ian Patterson
August 22, 2013

Only once before in a discography that runs to 35-odd albums has leader Bill Frisell released a solo guitar album--the brooding Ghost Town (Nonesuch Records, 2000). Thirteen years on, Frisell returns to the solo format, though the difference between the two offerings is like night and day. Whereas Ghost Town was a series of mostly acoustic compositions embellished with overdubs, Silent Comedy's real- time, loop-heavy electric improvisations employ no post-production. And, where Ghost Town was introspective and darkly poetic, Silent ...

Album Review

The Swallow Quintet: Into the Woodwork

Read "Into the Woodwork" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
August 21, 2013

In the press sheet for Steve Swallow's Into the Woodwork, the award-winning electric bassist is quoted, saying: “Good humor before and after the red light goes on is very important. Music-making should be fun, after all." Those fortunate enough to see Swallow with Steve Kuhn and Joey Baron this past summer--including a memorable stop at the 2013 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival--experienced this ethos first-hand, as smiles and outright laughter defined a performance that was, indeed, great fun, but just as ...

Interview

Dennis Rea: Zero-G and the Sea Prog Festival

by Jack Gold-Molina
August 21, 2013

Based in Seattle, guitarist Dennis Rea has a long history playing creative and experimental music as well as progressive rock. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he lived and performed in China, putting together some of the earliest tours by Western musicians performing non-mainstream music, and in 2006 he published a book about his experiences there entitled Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan. Rea also has a history of being involved in organizing creative ...

Album Review

Tom Goehring: A Reflected Journey

Read "A Reflected Journey" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 21, 2013

A Reflected Journey is a quintet date, but it doesn't have a quintet date feel about it. The man of the hour--trumpeter Tom Goehring--doubles on flugelhorn, and his front line partner, the ever engaging and well-rounded Roger Rosenberg, covers baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone and bass clarinet. With all of those horns in the picture, and a large variety of different pairing possibilities at hand, Goehring's able to paint in diverse fashion from track to track during this nine-song program.

The Mort Report

A Brief History of Ragtime to 3/4 aka A Waltz Through the Cosmic Thought Process

by Mort Weiss
August 21, 2013

Opening!Screaming through the quagmire of being, I see--nay, feel--justification of the heat of singularity of thought. Yearning of (and for) all energies spinning--not only in the dance of Shiva, but in the fulfillment of a manifest destiny of understanding and love that gives forth its eternal fires of hope and the many tomorrows that can & will exist in the immutable paradigms of reception and order, thus bringing together the complete schism of an entity of pre- and/or ...

Album Review

Mark Masters: Everything You Did

Read "Everything You Did" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 21, 2013

Rock band Steely Dan released Pretzel Logic (ABC) in 1974. The album was big, one its most successful. But with younger audiences unfamiliar with jazz, the disc surely must have caused some confusion, along the lines of: “What in the world is this 'East St. Louis Toodle-oo?' And what are they talking about with 'Parker's Band?'" The former tune, a three-minute instrumental, closed out side one and it was, of course, from the pen of composer/bandleader Duke Ellington. The latter, ...

Extended Analysis

University of Central Florida Jazz Ensemble 1: Jazz Town / The Blues Is Alright

by Jack Bowers
August 21, 2013

The state of Florida, not usually thought of as a hotbed of jazz, has become a breeding ground for those who may someday be counted among the music's best and brightest, thanks to the state's several widely praised undergraduate Jazz Studies programs that are churning out well-schooled musicians almost as fast as Ben and Jerry's churns out ice cream. In addition to the University of Miami's renowned curriculum, there are first-rate programs at Florida International University, the universities of North, ...

Album Review

Bill Frisell: Big Sur

Read "Big Sur" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 21, 2013

Heralded guitar maestro Bill Frisell combines his 858 Quartet and Beautiful Dreamers units to impart another watermark on his Americana legacy, featuring an organic acoustic-electronic sketch of this picturesque area of California coastline. The album comprises nineteen-tracks, spanning Civil War-era country-chamber, undulating ostinatos, layered strings, parts, and even snippets of surf music on “The Big One." Frisell's aural snapshots of Big Sur tender an alluring vista melded with melodic content and occasional detours amid a polychromatic framework, mottled ...

Interview

Warren Wolf: Beyond Perfect Pitch

by George Colligan
August 20, 2013

[ Editor's Note: The following interview is reprinted from George Colligan's blog, Jazztruth]Warren Wolf is an amazing young multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore. He plays the drums quite well, and I've hired him and worked with Wolf the drummer in a number of settings. He is the premier young vibraphonist on the scene. He also plays piano and bass extremely well. I hope he doesn't play anything else! You might have seen him with Christian McBride or his own group. ...

Album Review

Alan Ferber: March Sublime

Read "March Sublime" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 20, 2013

When you open a nice bottle of red wine, to get the best results, it is better to set the bottle aside for some time. You let the wine, as they say, “breathe," allowing oxygen to bring out the hidden flavors. Same for a big band recording like Alan Ferber's March Sublime. Instead of setting the disc aside, you might check with your neighbors (or close your windows) and turn up the volume. At higher amplification, the subtleties and nuances ...