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

Bill Frisell: Big Sur

by John Kelman
June 11, 2013

Most, if not all, musicians value the relationships--both musical and friendship--that they build over the years, but few are as loyal as guitarist Bill Frisell. One look at his various releases over the past couple of decades and it becomes instantly clear that, once he has established a successful working and personal relationship with another musician, he rarely ever calls on anyone else. With the exception of Rudy Royston--who, since first collaborating with the guitarist in 2007, has regularly split ...

Interview

Wallace Roney: In the Realm of Anti-Gravity

by R.J. DeLuke
June 11, 2013

Much is made of trumpeter Wallace Roney coming from the Miles Davis school, a mentor-protégé situation that blossomed in the 1980s that Roney is very proud of. But that wouldn't be telling the whole story of the Philadelphia native who, in his prime years, has become one of the world's finest trumpet players, and a musician whose quest for innovation is everlasting. Hearing jazz music around the house as a small child, it crept into his head and ...

Album Review

Vole: The Hillside Mechanisms

Read "The Hillside Mechanisms" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 10, 2013

Three stalwarts of the London Improvisers Orchestra come together on the debut outing of the genre-mashing Vole. When playing credits number saxophone iconoclasts Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker and Ingrid Laubrock, bassist Simon Fell and pianist Alexander Hawkins, then energy and imagination can be almost guaranteed. What's fascinating is how they align improv with noise, heavy metal and prog outbursts, sometimes within the space of a single cut. Although there are some clearly scripted sections, the whole program is ascribed collectively, ...

Album Review

Gabriel Reyes: Satori

Read "Satori" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
June 10, 2013

Chilean guitarist Gabriel Reyes' second release as a leader, Satori brims with the visceral effervescence of soul-jazz within the framework of sophisticated and stylish orchestration. The eight Reyes originals that comprise the album are intricately penned with ample room for the individual sextet members to express their spontaneous creativity.Reyes' emotive unaccompanied guitar serenade opens “El 5," the funk-infused workout that follows features the rhythm section's infectious vamps supporting a chorus of guitar and horns. Out of this basic ...

Album Review

Made To Break: Provoke

by Mark Corroto
June 10, 2013

The evolution of Ken Vandermark continues with his new quartet Made To Break, an electric/acoustic ensemble that bridges his musical strengths of composition, organization, and improvisation. Founded in 2011, the saxophonist drew together bassist Devin Hoff (The Resonance Ensemble), drummer Tim Daisy (Vandermark 5, The Frame Quartet, Sound In Action Trio, Bridge 61), and a new contributor, Christof Kurzmann (electronics).In the early 2000s, Vandermark's interest in non-jazz elements like funk and reggae developed with his Spaceways Inc. trio ...

Interview

Christy Doran: New Bag, New Tricks

by Ian Patterson
June 10, 2013

The opening concert at the 14th Bray Jazz Festival in May, just half an hour outside Dublin in County Wicklow, was something of a homecoming gig for Irish guitarist Christy Doran and his quartet New Bag. Doran was born 63 years ago, just a few short miles down the road from Bray, in Greystones, though at the age of 10 his parents relocated to his mother's homeland of Switzerland, where Doran has lived and made music for the past half ...

Extended Analysis

Einar Scheving: Land Mins Fodur

by Alex Franquelli
June 10, 2013

It is jazz, all right. But it is that kind of jazz that manages to flow in a natural, effortless way. The rigid canons of composition are refined by a clever approach to folk music, which in Land Míns Föður (The Land of My Father) ceases to be a mere echo in an otherwise contemporary context to become the lens through which relatively recent influences are filtered and acknowledged. Drummer Einar Scheving is one of the most prolific and praised ...

Catching Up With

Kawabata Makoto: Music Concrete, Space Resurrection, Self-Annihilation

by Jack Gold-Molina
June 9, 2013

Hailing from Japan, Kawabata Makoto has been a leader in psychedelic rock and experimental music, and an active performer and solo artist since the late 1970s. Mostly famous as a founding member/guitarist for Acid Mothers Temple since the mid- 1990s, he has released literally dozens of albums--many on psychedelic-colored vinyl-- and has done vital work with creative, experimental musicians and bands including Toho Sara, Tsurubami, Mainliner, Jean-François Pauvros, and German free jazz/experimental music drummer Mani Neumeier. The guitarist recently wound ...

Album Review

The Rosenthals: Fly Away

Read "Fly Away" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 9, 2013

In many ways, trumpeter Daniel Rosenthal has always been the odd man out in the Rosenthal clan. The members of this tight-knit, literal-cum-musical family have long been known as a folk and bluegrass breed, but Daniel took a turn toward jazz and never looked back; that is, until recently. After leaving the New England Conservatory, where he studied with revered jazz figures like composer/valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, Daniel joined the Either/Orchestra in ...

Album Review

Hush Point: Hush Point

Read "Hush Point" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 9, 2013

The quartet Hush Point conjures the possibilities of small group hipness. One that quips instead of guffaws, and prefers covertness to the obvious. Led by John McNeil, this quartet of saxophonist Jeremy Udden, bassist Aryeh Kobrinksy, and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza may be new, but McNeil's sage coolness isn't. The sixty-something trumpeter has been delivering hip since the 1970s with the Horace Silver Quintet and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. As with his previous recordings with saxophonists Bill McHenry, ...