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

Bob Marley & The Wailers: Kaya Deluxe Edition

Read "Kaya Deluxe Edition" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
May 26, 2013

It's telling that the photos of Bob Marley adorning the first half of the comprehensive booklet with this 'Deluxe Edition' of Kaya show the late third-world icon beaming and smiling right and left, much as he does on the front cover. In contrast, the photos interspersed with song lyrics and recording detail in the latter half of the insert display an intense man unafraid to address serious issues, the likes of which he mainly avoided, and was thus criticized for, ...

Album Review

Roby Glod / Roberta Piket / Mark Tokar / Klaus Kugel: Op Der Schmelz Live

Read "Op Der Schmelz Live" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 26, 2013

This pan-European-American collective quartet, named after the Op Der Schmelz venue in Luxemburg (where this album was recorded), focuses in transforming intuitively detailed sonic moments into balanced movements, full of surprises and risk- taking. The quartet is comprised of four experienced improvisers--Luxemburg-based saxophonist Roby Glod, New Yorker pianist Roberta Piket, Ukrainian bassist Mark Tokar and Köln-based drummer Klaus Kugel- -who share emphatic interplay, a discursive approach and natural intimacy. All the pieces begin in a conventional manner ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Ma-Do: Time Stands Still

Read "Time Stands Still" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 25, 2013

In terms of CD releases, pianist Satoko Fujii passed the bandleader baton to her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, in 2012, resulting in two exceptional albums on the Libra Records label: the trumpet/piano duo outing, Muku, and Forever, from Tamura's European folk music-flavored Gato Libre group. For the always prolific Fujii, a year without a release under her leadership is an oddity. The year 2013 is lining up differently, however, with the debut of the Satoko Fujii New Trio's Spring Storm ...

Live Review

GuitarNow! 2013, Day Two: Ottawa, Canada, May 4, 2013

by John Kelman
May 25, 2013

First Annual GuitarNow! Festival, Day TwoKailash Mital TheatreCarleton UniversityOttawa, CanadaMay 4, 2013When local guitarist Roddy Ellias--the recipient, that very week, of one of the Jazz Journalist Association's Jazz Hero awards for 2013 (the only Canadian on the list)--created the concept of the first annual GuitarNow! Festival with Carleton University, it's objective was to provide Ottawa guitarists with three days of intensive workshops, the chance to hear a wide variety of world-class guitarists from ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Jon LaTona

by AAJ Staff
May 25, 2013

Meet Jon LaTona:Born and raised in Buffalo, NY. I loved jazz so much that I wanted to go to school for it. Now I have a debut record that I am extremely proud of. It was so thrilling to record because I was working with musicians that I grew up watching and listening to.Instrument(s):Acoustic bass.Teachers and/or influences?My favorite teachers are James Kurzdorfer, Kevin MacConnell, and vibraphonist Tony Miceli. Those three ...

Album Review

Noah Preminger: Haymaker

Read "Haymaker" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 25, 2013

Although saxophonist Noah Preminger titled his disc Haymaker, a term denoting a wildly unorthodox punch thrown by a boxer, his third release as a leader (second for Palmetto) is anything but undisciplined. Following Before The Rain (Palmetto, 2011), he reorganizes his quartet and reunites with guitarist Ben Monder from debut sextet session Dry Bridge Road (Nowt Records, 2008). The pair share an affinity for disciplined music making and the gifts of musical sprezzatura and a pure tone.Their music ...

Album Review

Allman Brothers Band: A&R Studios New York 26th August 1971

Read "A&R Studios New York 26th August 1971" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
May 25, 2013

The swagger that distinguished the original lineup of The Allman Brothers Band is on full display here in “Don't Keep Me Wondering," but a comparable confidence permeates this entire performance captured roughly two months before the untimely death of founding member guitarist Duane Allman. Recorded August 26th 1971 at New York's A&R Studios (and broadcast live on WPLJ-FM radio), the sextet is clearly sensing the realization their hard work was beginning to come to fruition with the burgeoning success of ...

Live Review

The Gil Evans Project directed by Ryan Truesdell at Jazz Standard

by Dan Bilawsky
May 24, 2013

The Gil Evans Project directed by Ryan TruesdellJazz StandardNew York, NYMay 17, 2013 Somewhere along the way, the centennial of a notable jazz figure's birth became a major cause for celebration and reflection. Unfortunately, these celebrations have occasionally become last hurrahs for the dearly departed, as their life's work fades into the mist of time after they get their hundred-year due; the hardcore jazz community never really forgets or forsakes them, but the rest ...

Album Review

John Crawford: Ulia River of Time

Read "Ulia River of Time" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 24, 2013

Of all nature's wonders, the river is the one that can most readily encapsulate the passage of time in very human terms. In just a few miles a river moves from the first tentative steps of childhood to the brash, energetic, movements of youth and the meanderings of middle age before it disappears in its old age into the infinity of the ocean. It's a sobering thought. Ulia River Of Time, from British pianist John Crawford, moves part of the ...

Album Review

Odean Pope: Odean's Three

Read "Odean's Three" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
May 24, 2013

It's been a banner year for tenor saxophone trios. Not the most common lineup, this challenging ensemble has seen some terrific releases from musicians both famous and unsung, veterans and newcomers alike. Now Philadelphia saxophonist Odean Pope adds his superb contribution with Odean's Three. It might not be fair to judge any jazz musician by the standard of whether he's become a 'household name.' What's famous among jazz fans--a group dedicated to esoteric musicians if ever there was ...