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.

Live Review

Burlington Discover Jazz Festival: Burlington, VT, May 31-June 9, 2013

by Doug Collette
June 20, 2013

Burlington Discover Jazz Festival Burlington, VT May 31-June 9, 2013Swooping into Burlington off interstate 89 through a series of uninterrupted green lights seems a good metaphor for the transitional year of Burlington, Vermont's Discover Jazz Festival.It's a tribute to departed director Brian Mital, as well as incoming director Linda Little, that even as some struggles occurred late in the ten days due to inclement weather, the colorful template for this 10-day celebration of music ...

Album Review

Angela Davis: The Art of The Melody

Read "The Art of The Melody" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 20, 2013

Saxophonist and All About Jazz contributor Angela Davis has made it official, releasing her debut recording, The Art of The Melody. Davis joins a growing legion of female reeds players that includes Sharel Cassity, Alisha Pattillo, Virginia Mayhew, Claire Daly, and Mercedes Figueras, who are flexing their respective chops in the ravenous particles of digital music.Concentrating on alto saxophone for this recording, Davis immediately channels the dry ice-and-gin tone established in the early 1950s by the young Art ...

Live From New York

Lucian Ban, Mat Maneri, Enrico Rava, Rock Candy Funk Party & Michael Hashim

by Martin Longley
June 20, 2013

Lucian Ban & Mat Maneri The Rubin Museum Of Art June 7, 2013 This was the first in a three-part series where the Rubin's acoustic-only theatre was taken over by artists from the ECM label, all of them celebrating the release of new albums. It was an ideal situation for Lucian Ban (piano) and Mat Maneri (viola) to commune in intimate no-microphone fashion with the museum's always attentive Friday night audience. ...

Album Review

Bob James & David Sanborn: Quartette Humaine

Read "Quartette Humaine" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 20, 2013

It's much easier to take Quartette Humaine at face value as an organic-and-acoustic outing between two high profile figures known for blurring the pop-jazz line than it is to take it under its marketed premise: a tribute to the famed partnership between pianist Dave Brubeck and saxophonist Paul Desmond. While pianist Bob James and saxophonist David Sanborn recorded this album a mere week after Brubeck's passing in December of 2012, the album isn't haunted by that legend's musical ghost(s); James, ...

Album Review

Yang Jing & Christy Doran: No. 9

by Ian Patterson
June 20, 2013

Classically trained pipa virtuoso Yang Jing and Irish free-jazz/jazz-rock electric guitarist Christy Doran may seem unlikely collaborators, but closer inspection shows some common musical ground. Jing's background is Chinese classical but her spirit of adventure has drawn her to more experimental settings in duos with veteran percussionists Pierre Favre and long-term Anthony Braxton collaborator Gerry Hemingway, in a quartet with three classical guitarists and with East-West quartet Different Song and nonet First European Chinese Ensemble. Doran, too, has ventured beyond ...

Live Review

Grand Union Orchestra: London, UK, June 7, 2013

by Duncan Heining
June 19, 2013

Grand Union OrchestraSpirits of Cable StreetWilton'sLondon, UKJune 7, 2013A tribute to music hall star Marie Lloyd set to a reggae beat? Could only be Grand Union Orchestra. Surprisingly, this is only the band's second visit to Wilton's, this historic East End venue that sits very close to the site of the battle of Cable Street. If you caught Stephen Poliakoff's 1930s jazz drama, Dancing on the Edge, on the BBC, then you may ...

Album Review

Julia Hulsmann Quartet: In Full View

Read "In Full View" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
June 19, 2013

There's no denying the benefit of stable longevity, but neither is there anything wrong with change. Following three ACT recordings that featured her trio--together since Scattering Poems (ACT, 2003)--supporting a series of vocalists, Julia Hülsmann moved to ECM, where the pianist was afforded greater freedom to more fully explore her trio's potential on 2008's The End Of A Summer and 2011's Imprint. Both albums presented a trio beyond anything left to prove and functioning in thoroughly egalitarian fashion, both compositionally ...

Live Review

The Wood Brothers: South Burlington, VT, June 4, 2013

by Doug Collette
June 19, 2013

The Wood BrothersShowcase LoungeHigher GroundSouth Burlington, VTJune 4, 2013The distinct progression that's taken place since the Wood Brothers began playing together in 2004 has become an abiding pleasure to watch. Successive concerts evince distinct evolution and, in the latest appearance at this Vermont venue--again as a versatile trio--The Woods continued the slow inexorable movement toward playing like a full-fledged blues-rock band.When (not if!) that day comes, it will not be at ...

Album Review

Gwyneth Herbert: The Sea Cabinet

Read "The Sea Cabinet" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
June 19, 2013

The Sea Cabinet is singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert's sixth album release, her first since All the Ghosts (Naim, 2009). That album's Herbert compositions drew comparisons with such iconic British songwriters as Ray Davies and Paul McCartney--comparisons which were spot-on but for the crucial fact that Herbert unfailingly sees the world from a woman's point of view--while the elasticity and phrasing of her vocals were rightly likened to Joni Mitchell.As its title suggests, The Sea Cabinet brings together a dozen ...

Album Review

Youn Sun Nah: Lento

Read "Lento" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
June 19, 2013

With Lento Korean Vocalist Youn Sun Nah once again captivates with an eclectic mix of source material and her ability to evidently manipulate her voice to achieve any effect she so chooses.Nah has crafted a style so purely her own and so compelling, the only valid point of comparison is her previous work. In that vein, Lento represents a less overtly surprising album than her previous endeavor, Same Girl, taking instead a more consistently somber tone. And while ...