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

Koch-Schutz-Studer with Shelley Hirsch: Walking and Stumbling Through Your Sleep

Read "Walking and Stumbling Through Your Sleep" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 4, 2013

The Swiss improvising trio has made its distinctive footprint for Switzerland-based Intakt Records, also featuring projects based on collaborations with notable musicians, spanning various genres. Here, fabled New York City improvising vocalist Shelley Hirsch imparts her flippant and wily vocal clarity, prowess and passion. Vastly experimental and skirting the perimeters of avant rock and tiny elements of chamber, the ensemble's unique instrumentation also lends well to the improvisational component, spiced with wild and sometimes zany electronics permutations. Essentially, abstract sounds ...

Album Review

Samuel Hallkvist: Return to Center

Read "Return to Center" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 4, 2013

Return to Center is a detailed staging of a sonic meeting between man and machine. Swedish, Denmark-based guitarist Samuel Hällkvist, on his third solo album, contrast the digital exactness of MIDI programming with the human qualities and modes of expression that we traditionally associate with acoustic instruments. Thus Hällkvist and like-minded associates orchestrate a nuanced texture that bridges the natural timbre of acoustic instruments and inventive sonic manipulations and treatments that push the sonic envelope to new frontiers.

Interview

Ross Hammond: Holding onto the Wave

by Troy Collins
June 3, 2013

Sacramento-based guitarist Ross Hammond has been steadily gaining attention, courtesy of a tireless performing schedule reinforced and documented by a series of diverse albums issued on his own Prescott Recordings imprint. Hammond's releases have featured a variety of instrumental lineups, ranging from lyrical solo recitals to frenetic collective improvisations. His most recent endeavor is Cathedrals (Prescott Recordings, 2013), the sophomore follow-up to Adored (Prescott Recordings), the 2012 debut of his all- star quartet, which found the young guitarist leading an ...

Album Review

George Benson: Inspiration: A Tribute To Nat King Cole

Read "Inspiration: A Tribute To Nat King Cole" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 3, 2013

Million-selling, hugely popular and readily recognisable jazz artists are a bit thin on the ground these days. So when one such giant records a tribute to another it's something of an event. George Benson's Inspiration: A Tribute To Nat King Cole certainly falls into that category: an album of songs from one of the biggest stars of the twentieth century, performed with due respect by one of the biggest names in the contemporary jazz scene.The album's opener, “Mona ...

Album Review

Jeff Williams: The Listener

Read "The Listener" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 3, 2013

Drummer Jeff Williams spent the first part of his career building a name for himself as a supporting player, laying down the rhythmic law for Lookout Farm and serving as sideman to the jazz stars, but these days he's making waves as a leader. He turned plenty of heads with Another Time (Whirlwind Recordings Ltd., 2011), which announced his return to recording under his own name and featured a potent piano-less quartet; that same foursome returns for this intriguing live ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Billie Davies

by AAJ Staff
June 3, 2013

Meet Billie Davies:Drummer and band leader Billie Davies is mostly an autodidact whose natural talent, relentless, explorative spirit, and multifaceted experiences have led to an innovative approach to jazz. With a background in classical and jazz along with a lifetime of musical experiences in jams, performances, recordings, and music production, the listener is treated to jazz inclinations within her ensembles that bristle with cutting-edge freshness. Instrument(s):Drums.Teachers and/or influences?Some of my ...

Album Review

Kyle Eastwood: The View From Here

Read "The View From Here" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 3, 2013

Bassist Kyle Eastwood frequently integrates a cinematic contour into his body of work. And true to form, he's contributed music to eight of his famous father, actor, and director Clint Eastwood's films. The bassist's output can be characterized by tuneful hooks, calmly soaring opuses, and countered by odd-metered time signatures, clement flows, and passionate soloing spots. Indeed, his meticulous composing skills create intriguing propositions. With handclaps and a prominent bass ostinato on the Flamenco-tinged “Sirocco," the band fuses ...

Live Review

ELBJazz Festival 2013: Hamburg, Germany, May 24-25, 2013

by John Kelman
June 3, 2013

ELBJazz FestivalHamburg, GermanyMay 24-25, 2013Attending a multitude of festivals each year, there's always the challenge of finding the hook--the thing that makes a festival different from any other. When it comes to Hamburg's ELBJazz Festival, now only in its fourth year, it's easy. A harbor town on the Elbe River, located just 70 miles from the North Sea and with over 10 million containers passing through its port each year, the idea of holding a festival that ...

Album Review

Raquel Bitton: Rhythm of the Heart

Read "Rhythm of the Heart" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 2, 2013

There are two powerful aural cues on Raquel Bitton's Rhythm of the Heart. The first is Edith Piaf. I don't suspect that any song sung in French does not cue a thought of Piaf. The second cue is that of the Latinesque music often featured on the Lawrence Welk Show, the only place to hear this music in some climes and times. Bitton chooses the songbook of Tino Rossi (1907--1983) for her subject. Rossi was the Latin voice of the ...

Extended Analysis

Julian Shore: Filaments

by Dave Wayne
June 2, 2013

There is nothing wrong with mellow jazz. As long as distance can be maintained from the hackneyed, dialed-in feel of smooth jazz, it can be a refreshing change of pace from the intensity and analytical focus of a lot of modern art music, jazz or otherwise. Listening to pianist Julian Shore's Filaments, there's the sense that he set out to craft music easy on the ears without compromising any of his personal artistic values. The opening “Grey Light, Green Lily" ...