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.

Live Review

Cape Town Jazz Festival 2013

by Dan Bilawsky
April 15, 2013

Cape Town Jazz Festival 2013Cape Town, South AfricaApril 5-6, 2013Music has the power to transport those on the receiving end to another place, but the terms of travel are usually figurative in nature. For four North American journalists, however, the figurative took fantastic form with an offer to visit Cape Town, soak in the culture of South Africa, and review the Cape Town Jazz Festival. When oh-so-rare opportunities like this come knocking at your door, you don't ...

Catching Up With

Kit Downes: Old Stars, New Blues

by Bruce Lindsay
April 15, 2013

Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Saturday 30th April 2011. The young British pianist and composer Kit Downes has travelled to this west of England town to première his latest composition, Animation Migration, at the Playhouse Theatre. It was an unusual event for a jazz festival. Downes' band played music inspired by the story of evolution and DNA alongside Lesley Barnes' similarly inspired and wonderfully colorful animations, followed by a question and answer session, where Downes and Barnes were joined by scientist and ...

Album Review

Robert Hurst: BoB: a Palindrome

Read "BoB: a Palindrome" reviewed by Steve Bryant

by Steve Bryant
April 15, 2013

Detroiter Robert Hurst has been considered one of the best bassists to come out of the Jazz Renaissance of the '80s. His melodicism, technique, and harmonic acumen positioned him as a first- string bass man. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis made him his bottom man for the better part of the '80s, and as part of saxophonist Branford Marsalis' fabled “X-men," Hurst, pianist Kenny Kirkland, and drummer Jeff Tain" Watts were considered to be arguably the best rhythm section in jazz during ...

Album Review

Chet Atkins and Les Paul: Guitar Monsters

Read "Guitar Monsters" reviewed by Skip Heller

by Skip Heller
April 15, 2013

The seventies were bountiful years for guitar fans. Looking now at Guitar Player magazines of the period, it's almost dizzying to see how many veteran guitarists were doing some of their most interesting and liberated work. Bop stalwarts, blues greats (often obscure), and notable country pickers were all well-represented on vinyl throughout the decade, on a variety of labels.Chet Atkins, whose easy listening country guitar records (all on RCA) were too often tasteful to a fault, came out ...

Album Review

Joelle Leandre & Jerome Bourdellon: Evidence

Read "Evidence" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 15, 2013

Bass and flute represent significant tonal contrasts and here, flutist Jerome Bourdellon and world-renowned bassist, composer and improviser Joelle Leandre divulge innumerable perspectives and quite a bit of food for thought on these duets. However, Bourdellon employs bass clarinet and bass flute on two tracks, as no other instruments are nestled into the mid-sections of the program and the artists follow similar modalities to complement and support each other. Each piece presents a different viewpoint, largely immersed in ...

Extended Analysis

June Tabor, Huw Warren, Iain Ballamy: Quercus

by John Eyles
April 14, 2013

June Tabor has been superb for so long that it is easy to take her for granted as England's finest female traditional folk singer. Despite holding that status for many years, she has never seemed to rest on her laurels. Alongside the traditional folk songs on which she built her reputation, Tabor has a repertoire broad enough to include John Lennon's “In My Life," Lou Reed's “All Tomorrow's Parties," Elvis Costello's “Shipbuilding" and Joy Division's “Love Will Tear Us Apart," ...

Album Review

Blood, Sweat, Drum + Bass: On the Road to Damascus

Read "On the Road to Damascus" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 14, 2013

A study trip to Damascus in 2010 by Blood, Sweat, Drum + Bass's founder Jens Christian “Chappe" Jensen resulted in the east-meets-west On the Road to Damascus, the 27-piece Danish big band's 5th recording. The labyrinths of the ancient walled city--with its souks, cobbled streets and towering mosques--and the rhythms of the modern metropolis alike may have provided the initial impetus, but Jensen's love of modern textures--notably rhythmic--and his artful arrangements bestow a personal vision on these Arabian tales in ...

Album Review

The Greyboy Allstars: Inland Emperor

Read "Inland Emperor" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
April 14, 2013

Something of a modern urban funk legend, due in large measure to the high-profile solo endeavors of keyboardist Robert Walter and horn man Karl Denson, The Greyboy Allstars nevertheless know intuitively when to reconvene to the greatest effect. Inland Emperor is their first collaboration in the six years and it bears all the earmarks of their twenty-year old chemistry.“Profundo Grosso" starts things off with a guitar-heavy arrangement underpinned by Walter's sinuous organ lines. Stop and go syncopation surrounds ...

Multiple Reviews

Lisa Ullen / Nina de Heney / Okkyung Lee / Mariam Wallentin

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 14, 2013

The duo of acclaimed Swedish improvisers pianist Lisa Ullén and double bassist Nina de Heney, winner of the Swedish radio prize Jazzkatten for 2012 as the musician of the year, has been active now for more than four years and was documented on the remarkable double album Carve (LJ Records, 2009). Ullén and de Heney managed to articulate a highly personal musical language, organically sculpting sounds into detailed sonic textures. In 2011 the duo chose to expand its musical spectrum ...

Tell Me More

Danny Seraphine: The Road to Sacred Ground

by Belinda Ware
April 14, 2013

Chicago is by far one of the most prolific musical ensembles to emerge on the music scene with an array of number one hits that have proven to be timeless in global appeal. Chicago transformed music with the innovative creation of its signature jazz/rock sound, fueled by the band's solid horn section, blazing guitar work, and the renowned percussive talents of legendary drummer, Danny Seraphine.Touring across America and around the world with Chicago, Seraphine has notably received accolades ...