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

TJI Ellington Big Band: Things to Come

Read "Things to Come" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 20, 2013

To accentuate the positive, the ten-year-old Ellington Big Band, flagship ensemble of the Tucson (AZ) Jazz Institute, established its credentials by earning first-place honors twice (2010, 2012) in Jazz at Lincoln Center's annual Essentially Ellington competition, and has been named best Performing Arts High School Jazz Band by DownBeat magazine. On the heels of these honors, the band displays its muscle and savvy on Things to Come, a wide-ranging anthology of jazz and popular standards that have stood the test ...

Album Review

Kaze: Tornado

Read "Tornado" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 20, 2013

Kaze, one of pianist Satoko Fujii's many groups, offers up its sophomore effort with Tornado. A quartet lineup of piano, two trumpets and drums, it's sound is as idiosyncratically original and no-hold-barred as it comes. The trumpets often sound like trumpets--brassy one minute then whispery the next. The two trumpets spit hard, rapid-fire notes and long sinuous lines all in a conventional mainstream fashion that suddenly gives way to creating sound waves that don't fit into any musical genre on ...

Extended Analysis

Goce Stevkovski Septet: 7 Stories

by Nenad Georgievski
August 20, 2013

It seems that number seven is a universally accepted lucky or holy number in most cultures from west to east. And there appear to be many places where the number seven can be found, including the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven virtues and the seven colors of the spectrum; add to that list drummer Goce Stevkovski's debut, 7 Stories.Much like his colleague Manu Katché, Stevkovski is a much sought-after session and live drummer. ...

Album Review

Barbez: Bella Ciao

Read "Bella Ciao" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
August 20, 2013

Bella Ciao, the fifth album from Brooklyn art-rock band Barbez, is a homage to both ancient Roman Jewish melodies and the Italian Resistance during the Second World War. Barbez's leader, Dan Kaufman--who recorded one of the most remarkable albums in the history of the Tzadik label, Force of Light (Tzadik, 2007), a profound musical realization of the poems of the late Jewish/German poet Paul Celan--named his current project after the famous partisan anthem. This anthem has been an international symbol ...

Reassessing

Bill Evans Trio: How My Heart Sings

by C. Michael Bailey
August 20, 2013

The Bill Evans Trio How My Heart Sings OJC 1962/2013 Pianist Bill Evans' 1962 Riverside recording How My Heart Sings concludes the first wave of re-issues celebrating the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records. The previous releases include: alto saxophonist Julian Cannonball Adderley's 1959 Things Are Getting Better, guitarist Wes Montgomery's So Much Guitar!, trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe (OJC/Riverside, 1959/2013) and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan's Mulligan Meets ...

Album Review

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

Read "Looking for the Next One" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 19, 2013

Complete with an in-depth 16-page booklet--including photos and a storyboard of the core trio's existence, S.O.S features three protagonists of the '70s British progressive- jazz movement and beyond. The band formed in 1973 and lasted through 1976 with one self- titled album for the Ogun record label in 1975. Looking for the Next One, is a 2-CD set comprising of studio and live material that offers previously unreleased material that is grounded on the trio's innovative unification of electronics to ...

Catching Up With

Poncho Sanchez: Mambo King

by Steve Bryant
August 19, 2013

For over 30 years, conguero/bandleader Poncho Sanchez has been the premier proponent of West Coast Latin Jazz. Growing up in Norwalk, California, Sanchez was exposed to and influenced by two very different styles of music: Afro-Cuban music and bebop, as well as R&B. Originally a guitarist, Sanchez taught himself the flute, drums, and timbales before finally deciding to pursue conga playing in high school. In 1975, Sanchez's idol, vibraphonist “Cal Tjader invited him to perform with his band. Sanchez played ...

Album Review

Tony Adamo: Miles of Blu

Read "Miles of Blu" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
August 19, 2013

Long before rappers and scratchers, resurrected Mummies, and Lord Buckley's hipsters and flipsters, the ancient Greeks had a name for “cats" like Tony Adamo--rhapsode. The homonym notwithstanding, a rhapsode was a speak-singer--who plucked his lyre and “spung" (spoke-sung) expressive tales of towering, powerful Gods and the tribulations of mortals below them. Pan pipes and percussion types might have accompanied a rhapsode (perhaps doing an early Greek version of James Brown's “Famous Flames" or Adamo's hip crew here?).With Miles ...

Album Review

Michael Gallant Trio: Completely

Read "Completely" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 19, 2013

For many an ivory-tickler, the piano trio is the perfect format for supper club-appropriate sashays through standards, but Michael Gallant doesn't think that way; he'd rather put a little power, pizzazz and punch into the piano trio, using it as a springboard to launch his oft-excitable tunes. Gallant is a talented multi-tasker who served as an editor for Keyboard magazine, contributes articles to Downbeat, scores videos for various clients like the Anti-Defamation League, and gigs regularly, so ...

Reassessing

Wes Montgomery: So Much Guitar!

by C. Michael Bailey
August 19, 2013

Wes MontgomerySo Much Guitar!OJC1962/2013 Wes Montgomery's So Much Guitar! continues the latest round of re-releases/re-masters from the Concord Music Group, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records. So Much Guitar! follows the re-releases of singer and trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe (OJC/Riverside, 1959/2013) and Mulligan Meets Monk (OJC/Riverside, 1957/2013) in the label's birthday celebration. Montgomery enjoyed a productive stay at Riverside between ...