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

Hashem Assadullahi: Pieces

by Mark Corroto
April 24, 2013

Saxophonist Hashem Assadullahi and his core band returned to the studio to release an exceptionally strong sophomore effort with Pieces. The Texas born-Northwest cured-New York-based musician revealed his penchant for melody on his prior release Strange Neighbor (8bells, 2009). Here he builds upon that foundation with a scattering of themes from pop tunes, avant-garde leanings, and some deftly orchestrated group improvisations. Assadullahi's returning partners here are guitarist Justin Morell and trumpeter Ron Miles, who yearly receives the “artist ...

Album Review

Thisbe Vos: Under Your Spell

Read "Under Your Spell" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 24, 2013

First, there is that name...Thisbe Vos. It is not merely exotic; it is something much more than that, something mythic. Dutch-born, living the dream in America's land of Milk and Honey--LA--Vos, by her looks, voice, repertoire, composing...demands attention, and gets it without ever raising her voice. Her debut, two years percolating, Under Your Spell is a fully realized throwback that doesn't sound a day over the rainbow. Made up of five standards and six smacking, swinging originals, Under Your Spell ...

Album Review

Matthieu Metzger: SelfCooking

Read "SelfCooking" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 24, 2013

SelfCooking offers a glimpse into the busy mind of a restless musician, French saxophonist Matthieu Metzger. Deep thoughts about weird compositions that have lurked in his memory, accidental explorations while playing with the extended family of saxophones and the joyful cooking of sonic textures, spiced with electronic treatments, some are his own design of real time transformation music software. Metzger-- a member of the French (Orchestre National de Jazz) and collaborator of reed player Louis Sclavis and guitarist Marc Ducret-- ...

Record Label Profile

Big Jazz on SmallsLIVE

by Bob Kenselaar
April 23, 2013

Since its launch in 2010, the SmallsLIVE record label has been offering a substantial sampling of the outstanding jazz talent consistently featured at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City's Greenwich Village. Musicians who appear on the label range from the great veterans Harold Mabern and Jimmy Cobb to contemporary players at the top of their careers like Larry Goldings and Roy Hargrove, not to mention a mainstay of the Smalls scene: up-and-coming young musicians quickly making names for themselves, ...

Album Review

Ceramic Dog: Your Turn

Read "Your Turn" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
April 23, 2013

Five years have passed since the release of Party Intellectuals, the 2008 Pi Recordings debut of Ceramic Dog, a power trio led by legendary Downtown guitarist Marc Ribot. Much has changed in the ensuing years, including the recording industry--a subject fervently addressed on Your Turn, the ensemble's eclectic sophomore effort. Railing against capitalism and consumerism with equal vigor, Ceramic Dog blends post-punk rebellion with the sonic liberation of free jazz, finding catharsis in-between genres. Ribot's role as an ...

Extended Analysis

John Hollenbeck: Songs I Like a Lot

by C. Michael Bailey
April 23, 2013

There are four potent musical personalities at play on Songs I Like A Lot. The first is the erstwhile leader, drummer John Hollenbeck, musical raconteur and general high-art roustabout. He has had a long association with vocalist Theo Bleckmann, both in big band settings on A Blessing (Omnitone, 2005) and with Claudia Quintet on What Is Beautiful? (Cuneiform, 2012). Bleckmann, in turn, is friends with vocalist Kate McGarry, who's Girl Talk (Palmetto, 2012) was a highlight of the year. From ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Serendipity

Read "Serendipity" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 23, 2013

Back in the day, when a 12-inch LP was limited to about 20 minutes of music per side, an engineer would have had to carefully edit a recording such as the 45-minute long improvisation heard on Serendipity.That certainly is an unacceptable proposition for the quartet assembled by tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman.His intensely productive period of recording in 2011 is still bearing fruit. This session with pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, and drummer Gerald Cleaver took ...

Live Review

Rufus Reid: Stanford University, February 27, 2013

by Bill Leikam
April 23, 2013

Stanford Jazz Orchestra, directed by Fredrick BerryGuest Artist: Rufus ReidBing Concert HallStanford, CAFebruary 27, 2013 Walking into Stanford University's new Bing Concert Hall can be a stunning experience. Listening to the magnificent acoustic qualities of the hall, it is nothing short of an aural experience that brings a fresh vibrancy to a concert such as the one produced by Fred Berry, director of the 17-piece Stanford Jazz Orchestra. Berry focused this concert ...

Album Review

Tianna Hall and the Mexico City Jazz Trio: Two for the Road

Read "Two for the Road" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
April 23, 2013

It would be a mistake to dismiss vocalist Tianna Hall's fifth album Two For The Road as another collection of reinterpreted familiar workhorses. While it's true that the record consists exclusively of standards Hall's nuanced approach to them, and the inclusion of a couple of lesser-known songs, makes for a unique listening experience.The two highlights on this otherwise almost uniformly superior album are the sparse reading of Radiohead's “Creep" and Cole Porter's “So In Love" transformed into a ...

Album Review

J.J. Grey & Mofro: This River

Read "This River" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
April 22, 2013

Over the last five years, under the tutelage of JJ Grey, Mofro has evolved from a compact little swamp-funk blues band into a full-fledged r&b unit legitimately paying homage to the legacy of its native South. This River continues the evolution in that direction, redolent with all the confidence and authority of its predecessors.The authenticity of “Somebody Else," for instance, is striking as its horns, supplied by saxophonist Art Edmiston and trumpeter Dennis Marion, alternately punch and sway ...