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

Joao Paulo Esteves Da Silva & Jazz Orquestra de Matosinhos: Bela Senao Sem

Read "Bela Senao Sem" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
July 5, 2013

João Paulo Esteves Da Silva's compositions, while owing much to the folk and classical traditions of his native Portugal and something to Gil Evans' writing in the 1950s, on occasion display quite breathtaking originality. If modern, post-Salazar Portugal has a musical identity it is surely contained in these wordless, questing songs emerging from Matosinhos, a city hitherto renowned artistically only as the birthplace of architect Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira and poet Florbela Espanca.

Extended Analysis

Jimmy Amadie Trio: Live At The Philadelphia Museum of Art

by C. Michael Bailey
July 5, 2013

In a period of profound artistic expansion and change in jazz, with labels like ECM, Winter & Winter and Pirouet and countless self- produced recordings erasing and redrawing genre lines, is it even proper (or even necessary) to celebrate the time tested, the mainstream, the old fashioned purveyors of the music? Is there a need for one more traditional piano trio recording featuring a collection of standards stepped on more than times than black tar in Nuevo Larado? For an ...

Album Review

Esa Helasvuo: Stella Nova

Read "Stella Nova" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 5, 2013

Pianist Esa Helasvuo is one of the pioneers of the Finnish improvised music scene. An experienced artist and former educator at the acclaimed Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Helasvuo has collaborated with the best improvisers in that scene--including drummer Edward Vesala, bassist Teppo Hauta-aho and saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen--and composed music for various orchestras and choirs, as well as for the stage, films, television and radio. Unfortunately, this mature and underrated musician has not recorded in over twenty years. ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Josh Brown

by AAJ Staff
July 5, 2013

Meet Josh Brown:Josh made the move to New York in the early 2000s. He quickly began establishing his name as an up-and-coming jazz trombonist, studying with jazz greats Slide Hampton, Steve Davis, and Barry Harris by day, while cutting his teeth on the local scene at night. Aside from his work as a leader, notable credits vary far and wide, from small group work with renowned jazzmen Grant Stewart, Frank Basile and Ehud Asherie, to large groups such ...

Album Review

Bill Frisell: Big Sur

by Troy Collins
July 5, 2013

Along with household names like Pat Metheny and John Scofield, Bill Frisell is one of the most distinctive American guitarists of his generation. Despite his penchant for abstraction, Frisell's phrasing, touch and tone are as singularly unique and readily identifiable as those of his more conventional peers. Though his vast discography includes bold experimental solo albums and erstwhile membership in John Zorn's infamous Naked City, Frisell's abiding fascination with Americana has found him fine-tuning his encyclopedic interpretations of American folk ...

Album Review

Sao Paulo Underground: Beija Flors Velho E Sujo

Read "Beija Flors Velho E Sujo" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
July 4, 2013

Integrating spirited avant-garde jazz improvisation and lo-fi electronica with the revolutionary innovations of Brazil's Tropicalia movement, Beija Flors Velho E Sujo is São Paulo Underground's fourth recording and the first to exclusively feature the variable ensemble's core trio. The group was originally co-founded by Chicago-based cornetist Rob Mazurek and Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Mauricio Takara, whose debut, Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres (Aesthetics, 2006) was made as a duo with contributions from invited guests. Keyboardist Guilherme Granado and part-time drummer Richard Ribeiro were ...

Album Review

Man Overboard: All Hands On Deck

Read "All Hands On Deck" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 4, 2013

Swing. But which swing? According to London-based quintet Man Overboard, debut album All Hands On Deck is full of “Hot Vintage Swing." According to Duke Ellington, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Which begs the crucial question, does Man Overboard have that swing?Man Overboard (not to be confused with the American pop punk band of the same name) formed in January 2011. It's the brainchild of guitarist Jean Marie Fagon, who moved from ...

Multiple Reviews

Australian Allure: The Music Of Gian Slater And Christopher Hale

by Dan Bilawsky
July 4, 2013

Trying to define or pigeonhole the music and artistry of vocalist Gian Slater and bassist Christopher Hale is an exercise in futility; in fact, reductive tags like “vocalist" and “bassist" don't even really do them justice. Slater and Hale have each managed to transcend the normal parameters of their chosen instrument(s), reaching a place where they can play multiple roles within a single work and travel through various musical landscapes with subtlety and grace or passion and power. They're both ...

Album Review

Rebecca Harrold: The River of Life

Read "The River of Life" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 4, 2013

Pianist/composer Rebecca Harrold is a single-handed reminder of the charms of early “new age" piano music while, at the same time, taking it to a different, more melodically complex level, on her debut, The River Of Life, a spiritually inspired collection of original compositions. Harrold has had her thumb in many musical pies, including the female a cappella group Faith In Action, for whom she sang and composed, and serving as the pianist for the Boston Ballet. Her bona fides ...

Jazz Ed

Steve Wilson: Music Education Is In Crisis

by Joan Gaylord
July 4, 2013

"I think jazz education, frankly, is in crisis." Saxophonist Steve Wilson voiced this strong opinion in response to a recent article about the effects that budget cuts have had on many American school music programs. Sitting in a practice room at Juilliard, he shared his concerns about the current state of music education and how he has watched things change over the last 20 years. An accomplished musician, Wilson is also an educator who has served ...