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

Eldar Djangirov: Breakthrough

Read "Breakthrough" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 29, 2013

"Point Of View Redux"--the eight-minute-long opener on pianist Eldar Djangirov's Breakthrough--doesn't exactly say it all, but it says a hell of a lot. A firmly delivered flourish flies through the air in the opening seconds, a rollicking riff sets things in motion as titan-like technique powers the warp-speed explorations that follow, things take a bluesy turn for a spell, and Djangirov generates enough energy to power an entire city block along the way. This aptly-titled number serves as a musical ...

Live Review

Festival international de Jazz de Montreal 2013

by Mike Chamberlain
July 29, 2013

Festival International de Jazz de MontrealMontreal, CanadaJuly 4-6, 2013With something like 500 concerts on offer over eleven evenings, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM) provides a different experience for every person who attends, whether they come for the ticketed indoor show or just to wander the festival site and sample the free concerts on the outdoor stages. No one can sample every item on the buffet of music the festival lays out, and any review ...

Album Review

Paul Marinaro: Without A Song

Read "Without A Song" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 29, 2013

At first blush, Chicago singer Paul Marinaro's debut recording, Without A Song, is a well-meaning vanity recording that turns out to be...well, well-meaning. That impression is forgivable only for those not living in the Chicago area. Further reading reveals that this recording had its genesis in some 78 rpm acetates Marinaro found of his father singing the Frank Sinatra hits of the day, that “day" being 1947. What Without A Song is, is an exquisitely programmed 21st century love letter ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Serendipity

Read "Serendipity" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 29, 2013

Brazilian tenor sax titan Ivo Perelman's 22nd album for Leo Records crosses paths formerly traversed. Set out to be a trio date with pianist Matthew Shipp and drummer Gerald Cleaver, Perelman called bassist William Parker because one of the artists was late for the studio session, although everyone showed up; hence, the quartet format. Perelman's mammoth sax manifestations prevail as one would anticipate. Featuring the lone extended piece “Serendipity," the quartet operates within a caravan of whirlwind improvisational ...

Live Review

Molde International Jazz Festival 2013

by John Kelman
July 29, 2013

Molde International Jazz Festival Molde, Norway July 15-20, 2013It may have been his last year as festival director, but Jan Ole Otnæs sure went out on a high, not just because his programming was as impeccable as ever, but because he made it a year with a very specific philosophy. In past years, the festival's artists in residence have included such prestigious names as Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molvær and Dave Holland, but with ...

Album Review

Dick Hyman & Ken Peplowski: ...Live At The Kitano

Read "...Live At The Kitano" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 28, 2013

If musical knowledge and taste were currency, pianist Dick Hyman and clarinetist Ken Peplowski would be two of the wealthiest men around. Hyman, an octogenarian legend with killer technique and near-unparalleled knowledge about virtually every style of jazz, and Peplowski, the witty woodwind wonder who stands tall as one of the clarinet kingpins on the scene today, make for a perfect match. Both men have deep respect for the tradition(s) of this music, but neither one looks at jazz as ...

Extended Analysis

Orchester Kurt Edelhagen: Big Bands Live

by Jack Bowers
July 28, 2013

Maestro Kurt Edelhagen's Orchestra was a band for its time, deftly blending elements of swing, pop and jazz to help move Germany--at least the Western part of it--away from Nazi strictures and toward a more open-handed environment that not only tolerated but nourished the country's alliance to big-band music that spawned a wide array of world-class contemporary ensembles. As was true of many bands from overseas back in the day, not many of the Edelhagen Orchestra's recordings ...

Album Review

Harris Eisenstadt September Trio: The Destructive Element

Read "The Destructive Element" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 28, 2013

Celebrated for his musicality and leadership, drummer Harris Eisenstadt is a modernist who dispels preconceived notions that a drummers' primary function is to keep time, and prop the frontline along with a bassist. With this 2013 instilment of his September Trio, he ingrains organic textures and a touchy feely loose groove modus operandi when not engaging his band-mates in structured unison choruses. Eisenstadt also imparts his clever call and response mechanisms when jabbing with tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and pianist ...

Multiple Reviews

Satoko Fujii's Ma-Do and New Trio: Time Stands Still and Spring Storm

by Hrayr Attarian
July 28, 2013

Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii is a prolific and versatile musician whose fast pace and relatively large volume are never at the expense of quality. In fact her improvisation heavy records are innovative and cerebral yet they maintain a certain, surprising, accessibility. She has recorded in settings ranging from solo to large orchestra and always with a refreshing variety of instrumentations. Two of her 2013 releases are Time Stands Still with her Ma Do quartet and Spring Storm with her new ...

Album Review

Marc Ducret: Tower, Vol. 3

Read "Tower, Vol. 3" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 28, 2013

French guitarist Marc Ducret's new sextet, known also as the Real Thing #3 band, was supposed to mark the end of his Tower cycle of compositions, now spread over four discs and at least five projects: a solo guitar, quartet, quintet and the as-yet- unrecorded 12-member Tower-Bridge orchestra. This project was initiated by Ducret in 2008 as an attempt to mirror a musical texture to a chapter from writer Vladimir Nabokov's “Ada," in which he weaves a whole labyrinth made ...