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.

Reassessing

Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe

by C. Michael Bailey
July 26, 2013

Chet BakerChet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & LoeweOJC1959/2013 The newest round of re-releases/remasters from the Concord Music Group celebrate the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records. Singer and trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe joins Mulligan Meets Monk (OJC/Riverside, 1957/2013) in the label's birthday celebration. Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe can easily be considered a sequel and one half of a creative ...

Album Review

lePercolateur: Pop Manouche

Read "Pop Manouche" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 26, 2013

Something different and exciting is brewing on lePercolateur's Pop Manouche. This Chicago-based, Hot Club-indebted outfit finds a way to blend the sonic sensibilities of Django Reinhardt's famed band into an alt- pop/alt-folk/alt-instrumental format on their debut album, creating something unique in the process; it's as if songstress Sam Phillips, the beyond-category Pink Martini, indie folk band Hem, Reinhardt, and a few other unlikely collaborators got together to make some music. The core instrumentation--violin, multiple guitars and bass--immediately ...

Multiple Reviews

Contrasting Faces of Spontaneous Music Ensemble

by John Eyles
July 26, 2013

For years, the Emanem label has had so many releases by Spontaneous Music Ensemble in its catalogue that it has become the de facto guardian of the SME legacy, the keeper of the flame. Although there have been excellent SME recordings on other labels--Karyobin (Island, 1968; Chronoscope, 1993) and Spontaneous Music Ensemble (Marmalade, 1969; Polydor, 1972) spring to mind--no other label's SME releases match the breadth, depth, richness and variety of those on Emanem. As well as seeking ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With J. Vega

by AAJ Staff
July 26, 2013

Meet J Vega:I've been playing music and teaching guitar for more than 35 years. I've been on the faculty at Cal State L.A., East L.A. College, and Los Angeles City College. I also lead a quintet called J. Vega & Friends that plays throughout Southern California and maintain a teaching studio. Instrument(s):Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass, percussion.Teachers and/or influences?Jimmy Wyble, Tom Hynes, Richard Pattie, and Matthew Elgart.I ...

Album Review

Robin McKelle & The Flytones: Soul Flower

Read "Soul Flower" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 26, 2013

First, Robin McKelle & The Flytones Soul Flower is not neo-soul. Neo-soul is what Amy Winehouse was and Cee Lo Green is (at least on his “Forget You"). Neo-soul is a cheeky attempt to cash in on a classic style while, at the same time, not taking it seriously. Second, Soul Flower might be better termed retro-soul, except that McKelle avoids the pitfall of clinging too tightly to the old style that has plagued other artists trying to put a ...

Album Review

SH.TG.N: SH.TG.N

by Dave Wayne
July 26, 2013

Before the 21st Century, the worlds of metal and jazz rarely, if ever, intersected. But that's all changed, so much so that musicians from both sides of the fence are rethinking their music, demolishing self-imposed genre boundaries and coming up with some truly innovative sounds. Belgium's SH.TG.N has the same sort of pioneering spirit. Yes, the results from its eponymous maiden release are mixed, but mixed in a promising way.Though the band's publicity trumpets various metal influences quite ...

Live Review

Chuck Anderson Trio: Philadelphia, PA, July 13, 2013

by Victor L. Schermer
July 25, 2013

Chuck Anderson TrioJamey's House of MusicPhiladelphia, PAJuly 13, 2013Chuck Anderson is a virtuoso jazz guitarist with an eclectic repertoire that includes standards, originals, a dash of rock, and artisan electric adaptations of classical acoustic guitar music. He started out forty years ago as the house guitarist at the Latin Casino, and then formed his own groups that included the great bassist Al Stauffer and the genius pianist Bernard Peiffer. His career was disrupted by a ...

Album Review

Alan Broadbent: Heart To Heart

Read "Heart To Heart" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 25, 2013

Pianist Alan Broadbent can't be accused of rushing to release his second solo piano album; Heart To Heart comes more than two decades after Broadbent initially took the solo plunge with Live At Maybeck Recital Hall, Volume 14 (Concord, 1991), but it was worth the wait. While only Broadbent knows the exact reason for waiting so long to return to this format, it's safe to assume that it has something to do with his in-demand status in ...

Album Review

Eric Erhardt: A Better Fate

Read "A Better Fate" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
July 25, 2013

Unlike a lot of jazz artists hawking a debut recording these days, reed/woodwind multi-instrumentalist Eric Erhardt is not fresh out of music school. He has been around for a while, playing for two decades in Broadway pit bands and with trad jazzers Ken Peplowski and Artie Shaw. A student of Dave Liebman, Erhardt's own musical interests are quite far afield of those of his past employers. He calls what he's created Acoustic Fusion, and if the 70's definition of fusion ...

Extended Analysis

Mort Weiss: A Giant Step Out and Back

by Sammy Stein
July 25, 2013

A while back, flamboyant and forthright clarinetist Mort Weiss sent an email saying he was going to make a free form album. Frankly, it was hard to believe as no-one had been more against free form jazz than Weiss. For around two years he had been taking free form apart, decrying many players and the genre, implying it was, “Emperor's New Clothes" or worse, and now, finally, had he really come round to liking it and even performing free form? ...