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.

Extended Analysis

David Binney: Lifted Land

by John Kelman
June 26, 2013

In a career that seems to go from strength to strength and milestone to milestone, it's hard to imagine how David Binney manages to not only release one terrific record after another, but to do so, in some cases, under some pretty constricting terms. Like the five other albums that the influential saxophonist/composer has recorded as a leader or co-leader for the Dutch Criss Cross label--most recently 2010's Aliso and the following year's Barefooted Town--producer and label owner Gerry Teekens ...

Album Review

Global Noize: SLY Reimagined

Read "SLY Reimagined" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 26, 2013

Keyboardist/Programmer/Conceptualist/Producer Jason Miles has a knack for birthing patchwork tribute albums that don't come off as such. The man behind Miles Davis' Tutu (Warner Bros., 1986) programming has also been the force behind well received album-length nods to Davis, Brazilian bigwig Ivan Lins, pop-jazz crossover saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., and Motown megastar Marvin Gaye. Now, he looks toward the edgier side of soul with this expansive, yet highly polished tribute to Sly And The Family Stone. While ...

Multiple Reviews

Fataka blossoms!

by John Eyles
June 26, 2013

Although the Fataka label only issued its first two CDs in autumn 2012, it has already established such a high standard that any new release carries strong expectations. Its first four releases featured renowned British and American improvisers playing European free improv of the highest quality. All four came clad in nondescript dun-coloured sleeves inside which there lurked some excellent artwork--so it felt rather as if it was hiding its light under a bushel... Now, with its fifth and sixth ...

Album Review

Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense: Moment & The Message

Read "Moment & The Message" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 26, 2013

Trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson communicates a vibrantly rhythmic platform on Moment & The Message. His resume includes work with alto saxophone luminaries Steve Coleman and Steve Lehman; the album opener “Circus" is stylistically framed on pioneering woodwind legend Henry Threadgill's geometrically patterned compositions. But Finlayson rests on his own laurels with this debut solo effort. The set is highlighted by snappy detours, brisk arrangements, zigzagging pulses, and nimble interludes that offset the darting and impactful dialogues between the soloists.

Album Review

Young-Ae Jung: The Man I Love

Read "The Man I Love" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 26, 2013

Korean, Berklee-educated singer Young-Ae Jung has a very specific vision for the jazz she wishes to make. The original pieces are of the same “grown-up" variety, as singer Louis Van-Aarsen populated her fine recording Destiny (Self Produced, 2012). Jung's imagery has completely matured. The standards with which the singer peppers the originals on her début recording The Man I Love meld well in the overall repertoire provided. Jung assembles her band with fellow Berklee graduates and faculty, ...

Album Review

Anthony Braxton: Sax Quintet (New York) 1998

Read "Sax Quintet (New York) 1998" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 25, 2013

Saxophone agglomerations are not without precedent in reedman/composer Anthony Braxton's copious playbook. Indeed, his “Composition 37" for four saxophones on New York, Fall 1974 (Arista, 1975) could be said to have launched the genre, bringing together as it did three of the founder members of the pioneering World Saxophone Quartet two years before their eventual formation. What is perhaps even more remarkable about Sax Quintet (New York) 1998 is that the single piece performed, “Composition 173," was originally scored for ...

Album Review

Kayle Brecher: Spirals And Lines

Read "Spirals And Lines" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
June 25, 2013

Kaylé Brecher's 2012 Spirals and Lines is a brass-rich, dramatic exploration of the vocalist, arranger and composer's various influences, with an understated yet solid political and social leitmotif.A delightfully original trio interprets singer/songwriter Bob Dylan's “Paths of Victory" as a New Orleans-style marche. Propelled by drummer Erik Johnson's precise and rumbling beats, Brecher delivers the lyrics with exuberant humor with an undercurrent of dark satire. Her lilting vocals mirror sousaphonist Jimmy Parker's surprisingly nimble and thrilling solo.

Album Review

Joe Locke: Lay Down My Heart: Blues & Ballads Vol.1

Read "Lay Down My Heart: Blues & Ballads Vol.1" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
June 25, 2013

The successful combination of two chordal instruments--like vibes and piano--requires giant ears and mutual respect in order to avoid melodic pile-ups and harmonic collisions. On this CD, vibraphonist and composer Joe Locke and pianist Ryan Cohan provide a textbook example of how this is done. They are happily aided and abetted by bassist and co-producer David Finck and drummer Jaimeo Brown, who consistently demonstrate the same high level of musicianship. The result is a warmly recorded and completely satisfying set.

Live Review

OFFest, Skopje, Macedonia, June 1-6, 2013

by Nenad Georgievski
June 25, 2013

OFFestSkopje, MacedoniaJune 1-6, 2013Now in its 12th year, the younger sister of the Skopje Jazz Festival has been presenting a more contemporary or 21st century type of world music, where the music is a result of an accelerating fusion, a combination of local traditions with ideas and technologies from afar. It is even more than that, its umbrella has become a destination or a gathering point for a variety of forward-thinking musicians across the entire spectrum ...

Extended Analysis

Überjam Deux

by John Kelman
June 25, 2013

It's been a decade since Up All Night (Verve, 2003), John Scofield's second and, at the time it seemed, final album with his Überjam band, a group of younger players who, following his earlier forays into the territory—1998's first meeting with Medeski, Martin & Wood, A Go Go (Verve), and the larger-casted Bump (2000)—placed the guitarist smack dab on the jam band map with a combination of viscerally accessible grooves and oodles of solo space to focus on his more ...