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

Eskelin - Alcorn - Formanek: Mirage

Read "Mirage" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 10, 2013

The Rolling Stones, Yes, and other prominent bands have incorporated the pedal steel guitar into the rock vernacular. Here, pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn extends this instrument beyond customary Americana or Country & Western formats and becomes the link between modern jazz champions, tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and bassist Michael Formanek. She builds a bridge for a program interspersed with traditional jazz improvisation metrics and ethereal treatments amidst Eskelin's bluesy phrasings and shimmering choruses. Alcorn's artistry embeds an ...

Interview

Talking Jazz Guitar With Peter Bernstein and Jimmy Bruno

by Scott Krane
July 9, 2013

For many years Les Paul held a regular concert at the Iridium Jazz Club in Manhattan on Monday nights. After his death in 2009, others who are loosely considered to be in the same genre as Les Paul's jazz trio have performed the traditional gig at the Iridium. On Monday, July 8, on the eve of his day of birth, the Les Paul trio (Lou Pallo on solid-body electric guitar, Nicki Parrott on bass and John Colianni on ...

Interview

Derrick Hodge: Raw, Unabashed Honesty

by DanMichael Reyes
July 9, 2013

Versatility is a trait that any young musician wishes to attain in his/her career. While the ability to seamlessly flow in and out of any musical situation or genre can be attained by spending countless hours in the shed and listening to an array of records, a unique musical environment helps immensely in shaping a young musician's ear. Derrick Hodge has no hesitation in stating that he is a product of his musical environment, having been raised outside Philadelphia in ...

Album Review

Vibes and Bass: Frantelunia

Read "Frantelunia" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
July 9, 2013

Other than vibraphonist Gary Burton's periodic duo collaborations with pianist Chick Corea, bassist Steve Swallow, and guitarist Ralph Towner, it's difficult to think of many examples of the vibraphones in a duo setting. Vibraphonist Walt Dickerson and pianist Sun Ra's overlooked album, Visions (Steeple Chase Records, 1978), is one exception, but they aren't too thick on the ground. Swelling the ranks is the Swedish duo of vibraphonist Anders Astrand and electric bassist Mikael Berglund. Frantelunia charts composed/improvised territory similar to ...

Live Review

Fieldstone Jazz Festival: Great Neck, NY, June 29, 2013

by Dan Bilawsky
July 9, 2013

Fieldstone Jazz FestivalGreat Neck, NYJune 29, 2013 While jazz is often performed in spaces befitting its stature--like theaters, auditoriums and swanky supper clubs--it also has a very long history as an alternative venue-housed art form. Over the past century, it's gone from the brothels of New Orleans to the rent parties of Harlem to the lofts of avant-garde artists to the homes of jazz patrons looking to support the music and bask in its glow.

Album Review

Harris Eisenstadt September Trio: The Destructive Element

Read "The Destructive Element" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 9, 2013

In a jazz setting, the traditional role for a bassist is to keep time, and in effect be the glue that holds a composition--and essentially the jazz unit--together. Maybe that is the reason is why drummer Harris Eisenstadt chose to construct his September Trio sans bassist. Aptly named, The Destructive Element follows the September Trio of Eisenstadt, pianist Angelica Sanchez and tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin's eponymous Clean Feed Records debut from 2011.It's not that the music here is ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Julphan Tilapornputt

by AAJ Staff
July 9, 2013

Meet Julphan Tilapornputt:Julphan Tilapornputt is a Boston-based jazz guitarist originally from Thailand. Julphan attended Berklee College of Music, where he has studied under jazz masters Mick Goodrick, Tim Miller and Larry Baione. He has earned a scholarship from Berklee in writing and composition, been a part of ASAB (Asian Students at Berklee), and Berklee's Stage Crew. After Berklee, Julphan performed in local Boston venues like The Beehive, Wally's Café, and at New York's Bar Next Door as part ...

Album Review

Steffen Schorn and the Norwegian Wind Ensemble: Tiefentraume

Read "Tiefentraume" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 9, 2013

German multiple reed man Steffen Schorn plays a wide array of wind instruments: tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and subcontrabass saxophones; Bb, bass, contra-alto and contrabass clarinets, along with the piccolo, flute, alto and bass flutes. So it makes sense for an artist with that many wind instruments in his quiver to collaborate with a wind ensemble, specifically with The Norwegian Wind Ensemble, the country's esteemed--and oldest--small orchestra, for Tiefentraume, a set of symphonic music featuring Schorn, along with saxophonist Roger ...

Album Review

Aaron Lebos Reality: Aaron Lebos Reality

Read "Aaron Lebos Reality" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
July 9, 2013

Since coming together as a group in 2012, Aaron Lebos Reality has forged a musical permanence in Miami's culturally diversified music scene, performing a wide range of jazz, funk, rock, R&B, Latin and world styles of music. Though guitarist Lebos, leader of the band, has several albums to his credit, the self-titled Aaron Lebos Reality is this group's debut recording and quite a first effort it is. As a guitar-led quartet, the jazz-rock sounds best describes the nature of the ...

Album Review

Lol Coxhill & Michel Doneda: Sitting on Your Stairs

Read "Sitting on Your Stairs" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
July 8, 2013

In July 2012, London-based saxophonist Lol Coxhill died, aged 79, after a prolonged period of illness in a hospital. A favorite with London audiences for decades, in the months following his death Coxhill was fondly celebrated and remembered by the city's extensive improvised music community. Now, Sitting on Your Stairs is the first album of Coxhill's music released posthumously. It was recorded on February 3rd 2011 at Les Instants Chavirés at Montreuil, Paris, and documents Coxhill's last ever concert in ...