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

Dhafer Youssef: Casablanca, Morocco, April 1, 2013

by Mehdi El Mouden
April 12, 2013

Dhafer YoussefJazzablanca FestivalCasablanca, MoroccoApril 1, 2013On April 1, 2013, the Jazzablanca Festival audience was in for a unique experience. Programmed on the third day of the festival and subsequent to singer Melody Gardot and Belgium's Vaya Con Dios, singer/oudist Dhafer Youssef traced a journey from mysticism to jazz via rock beats. During the course of 90 minutes, Youssef's voice transported the audience to moments of epiphany where elation and melancholy met, his long vocal solos ...

Live Review

Tomasz Stanko New York Quartet at Birdland

by Tyran Grillo
April 12, 2013

Tomasz Stańko New York QuartetWisława Release PartyBirdlandNew York, NYMarch 29, 2013 “Assassins" might not have been the first description that came to mind when Tomasz Stańko and his young new allies took to the stage, but they proved no less calculating when they deployed the selfsame tune off Wisława (ECM, 2013) to close a balmy Friday night set at Birdland. His double album takes its inspiration from poet Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012), whose words and ...

Album Review

Jaimeo Brown: Transcendence

Read "Transcendence" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
April 11, 2013

One of the more thought-provoking releases to come along this year, drummer Jaimeo Brown's Transcendence is an ethnomusicology patchwork with elements of the blues, gospel, rock, and modern jazz. Inspired by Gee's Bend, Alabama--an African American rural community formed in the early 1800's that is steeped in vibrant music and art--Brown's project conjures the voices of the past and imparts his own language to the town's deep history and relevant present. A drummer with explosiveness and touch, ...

Bailey's Bundles

Trumpet Summit: Jeremy Pelt, Brad Goode and Terell Stafford

by C. Michael Bailey
April 11, 2013

The spirit of trumpeter Miles Davis remains very much a creative quasar furnishing a certain gravitational pull to a considerable population of bodies orbiting it. On the outer edges of this quasar's orbit are the (relatively) young trumpeters who emerged after the pedantic eclipse of Wynton Marsalis occurred. Three of these orbiting horn players have released recordings showing where they have been taking the Miles Davis Legacy since the trumpeter's death twenty years ago. Jeremy Pelt

Album Review

Cynthia Sayer: Joyride

Read "Joyride" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
April 11, 2013

Banjo!--one's mental and aural images might include straw-hatted gents picking away at an attraction at Disney World, Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole strolling in Cat Ballou, (Columbia Pictures, 1965) “The Beverly Hillbillies Theme," or perhaps the iconic “duel" from Deliverance (Warner Bros., 1972) There's probably no other musical instrument on the planet that's more associated with novelty, Americana and all-around Good Times.Joyride from celebrated jazz banjoist and vocalist, Cynthia Sayer, lives up to its title. And, while ...

Film Review

Woody Herman: Blue Flame - Portrait Of A Legend

by Edward Blanco
April 11, 2013

Woody HermanBlue Flame--Portrait Of A LegandJazzed Media 2012Born on May 16, 1913, Woodrow Charles “Woody" Herman is the subject of this feature-length documentary, produced by Jazzed Media's Graham Carter in association with Al Julian's The Woody Herman Society in recognition of the clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, bandleader and American jazz icon's Centennial birthday. Woody Herman: Blue Flame--Portrait of a Jazz Legend is much more than an entertaining film about one of the greatest ...

Live Review

SFJAZZ Collective: Phoenix, AZ, March 21, 2013

by Patricia Myers
April 11, 2013

SFJAZZ CollectiveMusical Instrument MuseumPhoenix, AZMarch 21, 2013The SFJAZZ Collective delivered an intense contemporary-jazz performance that showcased the playing and composing skills of this stellar octet, sponsored since 2004 by the non-profit SFJAZZ.The Collective's ninth annual tour is celebrating the genius of Chick Corea--the sixth keyboardist to be honored by the Collective--in new arrangements of the pianist's works, as well as original compositions, one each from the Collective's eight members. Previous tours have saluted ...

Album Review

Rob Mazurek Octet: Skull Sessions

Read "Skull Sessions" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 11, 2013

Chicago-based cornetist Rob Mazurek has performed with the best and brightest of the new jazz music scene. On this outing he merges his Sao Paulo Underground and Starlicker bands and invites other artists, capturing the essence of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew era. Mazurek frames Davis' jazz-fusion attributes as a fertile means of reimagining the overall vibe from a modernist's perspective. Fueled by diesel engine-like power, the band layers radiant colors with throttling pulses and numerous contrasts via swirling riffs, memorable ...

Album Review

Ron Oswanski: December's Moon

Read "December's Moon" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 11, 2013

A modernist with the Hammond B-3 organ, Ron Oswanski introduces himself as leader for the first time crafting a vibrant modern jazz, almost fusion-like in texture, musical experiment on December's Moon. On tap are a host of exciting new originals as well as creative and swinging arrangements of music from trumpeter Kenny Wheeler whose “Kayak, and pianist Fred Hersch's “Evanessence," take on a new life here. On a rare note, when was the last time one heard guitarist Jimmy Page ...

Meet the Staff

Meet Mark Corroto

by AAJ Staff
April 10, 2013

I currently live in: Delaware, Ohio. I joined All About Jazz in: 1999 What made you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? AAJ has a “No-Snobs" approach to jazz that tolerates both the Wynton neo-moldy figs, my free jazz and avant leanings, fusion, and even some rock. How do you contribute to All About Jazz? I'm a senior writer (that means I'm old) writing CD reviews, occasional live reviews, and an (almost) monthly ...