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

George Shearing: George Shearing at Home

Read "George Shearing at Home" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 11, 2013

Pianist Sir George Shearing (1919--2011) was himself an integral part of the be bop jazz movement in the late 1940s. His quintet that featured vibraphone and guitar with the standard piano trio was sonically ground breaking. His precise and measured piano style influenced a generation of pianists and several of his compositions ("Lullaby of Birdland" and “Conception") have become jazz standards. He was not flashy, but a solid, well-considered player whose playing could always be counted on to be elegant ...

Album Review

Tunnel Six: Alive

Read "Alive" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 11, 2013

The formation of the American/Canadian sextet Tunnel Six wasn't planned. The six musicians met up at the 2009 International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada, and discovered rare group chemistry after having played together there. Since then the group has performed across Canada and the U.S., and cut two CDs, Lake Superior (OA2 Records, 2010) and now Alive, recorded at their live shows in Vancouver, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.The line-up--sax and ...

Album Review

Mara Rosenbloom Quartet: Songs from the Ground

Read "Songs from the Ground" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 11, 2013

Pianist Mara Rosenbloom frames her second album on personal recollections encapsulating childhood, family matters, and challenging situations. Therefore, the idealization for this outing is not merely steeped within an austere band approach. Taken from this perspective, her musicality embeds or perhaps synchronizes a form of melodic goodness with a traumatic periphery. Rosenbloom's brand of modern jazz is not all about rummaging through difficult time signatures or complex geometrical theme-building episodes. It's more focused on the construction of ...

Extended Analysis

Jaga Jazzist: Live with Britten Sinfonia

by John Kelman
May 10, 2013

Norway's Jaga Jazzist has always been difficult to pigeonhole. Despite the word “jazz" in the nonet's moniker, its principle writer, multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth, has cited everyone from Steve Reich, Rick Wakeman, Dungen and Spirit to Fela Kuti, King Crimson, MGMT and Air as influences on the group's last studio record, One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune, 2010). Horntveth is also a fan of jazz arrangers/composers like Gil Evans, so it's not that Jaga Jazzist doesn't have jazz in its DNA; it's just ...

Album Review

Anthony Strong: Stepping Out

Read "Stepping Out" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 10, 2013

Not too many years ago it seemed that the art of the male jazz vocalist was heading in the same direction as black and white televisions and 8-track cartridges. One or two notable voices kept the flame alive, but new, young, vocal talent wasn't emerging. Then it started: a slow process, but new male singers began to appear. In the UK the most obvious example of the new breed is the million-selling Jamie Cullum. Anthony Strong's performance on Stepping Out ...

Live Review

Denise Donatelli and Geoffrey Keezer Quartet: Half Moon Bay, CA, April 13, 2013

by Bill Leikam
May 10, 2013

Denise Donatelli and Geoffrey Keezer QuartetDouglas Beach House aka Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society/ConcertHalf Moon Bay, CaliforniaApril 21, 2013Two-time Grammy nominee Denise Donatelli once again teamed up with master pianist Geoffrey Keezer for the singer's performance at the Bach Dynamite and Dancing Society. Aside from these two principals, Essiet Essiet from Queens, New York, took charge of the bass. Also from the New York scene, Sylvia Cuenca handled the drums and percussion with ...

Album Review

Bernt Rosengren Big Band: Bernt Rosengren Big Band with Horace Parlan piano, Doug Raney guitar

Read "Bernt Rosengren Big Band with Horace Parlan piano, Doug Raney guitar" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 10, 2013

Swedish saxophonist Bernt Rosengren had already made his mark in various small group settings by the time he turned his attention to building a big band in the mid '70s. His tenor had captured the attention of many an ear in director Roman Polanski's Knife In The Water (Zespol, 1962), and his work with trumpeter Thad Jones, pianist George Russell, and trumpeter Don Cherry gave him a certain cachet within the European and American jazz scenes, but Rosengren's restless spirit ...

Live Review

Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour: Mesa, AZ, April 26, 2013

by Patricia Myers
May 10, 2013

Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55th AnniversaryMesa Arts CenterMesa, AZApril 26, 2013Six jazz stars connected to the Monterey Jazz Festival performed a diverse repertoire relating to other musicians associated with its history, with nods to pianist Duke Ellington, singer Billie Holiday and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The concert included both full sextet performances and small combo arrangements playing jazz standards plus compositions by the band's members.Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and bassist Christian McBride, the ...

Album Review

Jan Shapiro: Piano Bar After Hours

Read "Piano Bar After Hours" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 10, 2013

Professor and former Berklee College Voice Department Chair Jan Shapiro does make it into the studio occasionally. Her previous recordings include Read Between The Lines (Self Produced, 1997), Not Commercial (Self Produced, 1998) and Back to Basics (Self Produced, 2006). Shapiro's fourth recording, Piano Bar After Hours continues where she left off with Basics, presenting a stripped down version of jazz vocals performed in an intimate duo format with her favorite pianists (save for Al Jarreau's “Tell Me" which is ...

Album Review

Herd of Instinct: Conjure

Read "Conjure" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 10, 2013

Celebrated Southern Californian progressive-rock band Djam Karet has extended the scope of its Firepool Records label by signing Herd of Instinct. With the ensemble's sophomore release for the label, Karet guitarist Gayle Ellett augments the core trio by performing on a vast array of keyboards, and uses the Mellotron as a vehicle to summon a classic '70s prog sound, at times sparking remembrances of vintage King Crimson. This electrifying unit translucently morphs the days of prog-rock yore with ...