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

Eric Le Lann: I Remember Chet

Read "I Remember Chet" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
June 18, 2013

French trumpeter Eric Le Lann has a bit part in Bertrand Tavernier's 1986 film Round Midnight, the story of a French jazz fan's friendship with wayward American jazz musician Dale Turner, played by tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon. Le Lann plays a French jazz trumpeter--not much of a stretch. More to the point, the film's story mirrored, however approximately, an episode in his own life, in which Le Lann befriended the expatriate Chet Baker during the latter's troubled final decade.

Interview

Jussi Reijonen: Playground of Sound and Texture

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 18, 2013

Jussi Reijonen is an exceptional musician. On his debut recording as a leader, Un (Self Produced, 2012), the Finnish guitarist/oudist has succeeded in crystallizing a spectrum of influences, sounds and textures into a highly personal, sensual mosaic that blurs the distinction between jazz, Middle Eastern traditional music, West African music, and even Finnish folk elements. Since his childhood, Reijonen has been a citizen of the world. He was born in a small town above the Arctic Circle ...

Live Review

Top Italian Jazz at Birdland: New York, NY, June 4-9, 2013

by Thomas Conrad
June 18, 2013

Top Italian Jazz at BirdlandBirdlandNew York, NYJune 4-9, 2013 Birdland is at 315 West 44th Street in Manhattan. Taxis can drop you at the door. But if you come by subway, you pass through Times Square, that outrageous canyon where night is bright as day, with its teeming, dazed multitudes. The assault on the senses that is Times Square makes Birdland feel like a cocoon, a safe haven. The lighting is subdued, and the ...

Album Review

Girls in Airports: Kaikoura

Read "Kaikoura" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 18, 2013

Since releasing its self-titled debut in 2010, the Danish group Girls in Airports has managed to create their own expression, a unique blend of Nordic jazz lyricism, indie-rock influences and sounds from around the world, including the pentatonic scales of Ethiopian music, dub sounds of Jamaica and Brazilian rhythms. This is truly a globalized band if there ever was one. The group's aesthetic foundation relies on the natural melodies of saxophonist and composer Martin Stender, but the ...

Album Review

David Murray Infinity Quartet: Be My Monster Love

Read "Be My Monster Love" reviewed by Steve Bryant

by Steve Bryant
June 18, 2013

Tenor man David Murray is considered to be one of the most prolific and innovative players and composers of the last 40 years.Not only has he distinguished himself as an inventive leader of the avant-garde movement, he has become a veritable Renaissance man just based on the myriad of projects he has undertaken in the last few years. He composed and performed music for a tribute held in London for Emory Douglas, the legendary illustrator for The Black ...

Album Review

Ken Silverman: Visionaries

Read "Visionaries" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 17, 2013

Most of the world simply lives by the known, but some people fantasize about discoveries and ideas that are beyond the generally accepted scope of possibility. A select few from that list manage to make their dreams turn into reality, and they go down in history as visionaries; these are the people that multi-instrumentalist Ken Silverman salutes on Visionaries. A New York-based guitarist/composer who also plays charango, oud, and synthesizer on this solo date, Silverman chose a ...

Extended Analysis

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

by John Kelman
June 17, 2013

In a rarefied space, Joe Locke continues to evolve, engage and impress. There simply isn't another vibraphonist of his generation with Locke's stellar chops, thorough understanding of history/tradition--not just of jazz, but of music, period--and ability to build programs based on thematic concepts that not only stand out in his gradually growing discography, but fit contextually within it to create an actual oeuvre, an ever- expanding body of work that represents an artist whose number one priority is always the ...

Album Review

Dan Nicholls: Ruins

by Bruce Lindsay
June 17, 2013

Ruins is the debut release from keyboardist and composer Dan Nicholls. Nicholls is based in London, where he is a member of the ever-fascinating Loop Collective. He's declared that his music is inspired, at least in part, by “prevalent issues" such as the Arab Spring--a quick check of the song titles, or a glance at the cover design, suggest that there are some pretty heavy prevalent issues under consideration here.The themes may be heavy, but the music is ...

Album Review

Aruan Ortiz Quartet: Orbiting

Read "Orbiting" reviewed by Steve Bryant

by Steve Bryant
June 17, 2013

On an island known for its extensive array of virtuoso pianists, Cuban-born Aruan Ortiz distinguishes himself from the pack by a transcendent approach to his instrument, and an encyclopedic knowledge of styles ranging from traditional Afro- Cuban and classical to bop. He's also a prolific composer. Having roared into New York City and taken it by storm in a variety of settings, he now holds down the piano chair for the visionary Afro Horn MX group, composed a collection of ...

Extended Analysis

Some of my Best Friends are... Divas

by C. Michael Bailey
June 16, 2013

Bassist Ray Brown did a “Some Of My Best Friends Are..." series of recordings for Teldec shortly before his abrupt death in 2002. That bassist Colin Trusedell has chosen the same theme for his leader debut Some Of My Best Friends Are...Divas is the most auspicious thing about his release. What makes this disc one of the finest released in 2013 is its vacuum-lack of pretension and its critical- mass realized with musicianship. Nevermind that the recital includes the oft-cited ...