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

Federico Ughi Quartet: Federico Ughi Quartet

Read "Federico Ughi Quartet" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
June 28, 2013

The Federico Ughi Quartet is part of the lineage that continues to emerge from saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Ughi's work embodies a range of disparate influences, including classical music and Italian folk tunes, but in the quartet's eponymous release Ughi pays homage to Coleman's spiritual, philosophical, and musical influence. The quartet even mirrors Coleman's archetypal two-horn-bass-drums lineup, in this case David Schnug on alto sax, Kirk Knuffke on cornet, Max Johnson on bass and, of course, Ughi on drums.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Vic Dillahay

by AAJ Staff
June 28, 2013

Meet Vic Dillahay:Vic Dillahay is a Colorado-based guitarist, fretless guitarist, and mandolinist. He currently plays swing-era jazz with vibraphonist Pete Ehrmann in The Pete & Vic Duo, modern jazz with saxophonist Doug Carmichael (3ology), and acoustic hip-hop with One Member Shy of a Good band.Instrument(s):Guitar and fretless guitar.Teachers and/or influences?It all started with Wes Montgomery. As a kid I took lessons from Tim Baldwin, a local guitarist who constantly tried ...

Album Review

Deborah Shulman: Get Your Kicks

Read "Get Your Kicks" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
June 28, 2013

In the vicinity of Staunton, Illinois, a short strip of asphalt heretofore known as “Route 66" lies silently abandoned. A local wag once suggested that the ghost remnant be pulverized into bits and sold to nostalgia types, with a wealth to be had--probably by the wag. Whether or not a fortune is to be made with vocalist Deborah Shulman's Get Your Kicks: The Music and Lyrics of Bobby Troup remains to be seen, but this recording is a treasure trove ...

Album Review

Jean René Mourot: EP

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 28, 2013

The début solo recording of French pianist Jean-René Mourot features a mature artist with a clear aesthetics and musical vision. The classically trained Mourot turned to popular music after his initial training and only later studied jazz and improvisation with American pianist and educator Eric Watson, a close associate of the great saxophonist Steve Lacy. Mourot's carefully built compositions draw inspiration from the nuanced architecture of such impressionist French composers as Claude Debussy, and from the minimalism ...

Album Review

Reijseger / Harmen Fraanje / Mola Sylla: Down Deep

Read "Down Deep" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
June 27, 2013

As one of its first signings, Ernst Reijseger has amassed a sizable discography with Winter & Winter. Werner Herzog--with whom Reijseger has also shared a lengthy relationship, scoring seven of the German film director's films since 2000's Ajax: Hark the Herald Angels Sing--has aptly described the Dutch cellist as capable of anything, furthermore suggesting that he could “play the American Civil war on his cello." Whether or not that's true remains to be seen, but clearly Herzog sees Reijseger as ...

Extended Analysis

Lamacal

by Henning Bolte
June 27, 2013

Lama is a young Portuguese/Canadian trio with a firm foothold in both Rotterdam and Porto. Lama is trumpeter Susana Santos Silva, double bassist Gonçalo Almeida and drummer Greg Smith. Lamaçal, Lama's second album on Clean Feed, was recorded live during the Portalegre Jazz Fest in 2012, and features well known clarinetist/saxophonist Chris Speed as a guest. Santos Silva, Almeida and Smith are remarkable musical characters who have something to tell and who have also succeeded in establishing a strong group ...

Album Review

Mercedes Nicole: Beautiful Alignment

Read "Beautiful Alignment" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 27, 2013

Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Nina Simone all make appearances in the biography of Seattle-based singer Mercedes Nicole. She has been a creative face in jazz since the turn of the century, writing, producing and performing tributes to Simone, Etta James, and Dinah Washington. With Beautiful Alignment, Nicole debuts on disc with a collection of songs reflecting her preferences and influences as well as her own original view of jazz vocals. Leading a trumpet-fronted quartet, ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Ralph J DeLorso Jr.

by AAJ Staff
June 27, 2013

Meet Ralph J DeLorso Jr:I am a 59 year-old seasoned professional drummer. For 43 years I worked for WM Morris and Willard Alexander. For many years I have performed and recorded with many artists. I have performed with the late Jackie McLean two years before his passing at the Artist Collective in Hartford. I started playing drums at four, and at 12 I worked in a burlesque house with Ann Corio in Hartford. I snuck in with house ...

Album Review

Joshua Abrams Quartet: Unknown Known

Read "Unknown Known" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 27, 2013

"There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns--there are things we do not know we don't know." Strangely, Donald Rumsfeld didn't mention the unknown known: the things we don't acknowledge that we know. While the sleeve notes contain no reference to the former Secretary of State, the choice of title for the ...

Live Review

Washington, D.C. Reclaims its Role as a Jazz Destination

by Paula Phillips
June 27, 2013

Oxygen for the Ears: Living Jazz Oxygen for the Ears is a 2012 award-winning documentary film depicting the vibrancy of the jazz scene in the nation's capital. Made in three years by German-born astrophysicist Stefan Immler, the 94-minute documentary shows the city's key role in the past, present and future of jazz and is gaining attention for the filmmaker and his adopted city. The film was selected for 16 film festivals in the U.S., Canada and Germany, winning ...