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

Digital Primitives: Lipsomuch & Soul Searchin'

Read "Lipsomuch & Soul Searchin'" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 8, 2013

This is only Digital Primitives' third recording, released four years after Hum Crackle & Pop (Hopscotch), but the trio sounds as if its three members have been playing together for ages. This double disc is comprised of two sets--Lipsomuch and Soul Searchin'. The trio--reed player Assif Tsahar, multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore and drummer Chad Taylor--have created their own aesthetics: concise, collaborative storytelling compositions, respectful for the blues and modern jazz legacies but fascinated by rock, folk and world music, inventive and imaginative ...

Album Review

Offshore: Cote De Cologne

Read "Cote De Cologne" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 8, 2013

The respective artists formed this quintet during their studies at Cologne Music College and snagged some awards, performing at European festivals and band contests. And it's easy to discern why. Indeed, the quintet's impassioned collectivism shines throughout the program, amplified by thought-provoking compositions and the underlying motif, noted by the band moniker, referencing the mighty seas. Hence, the musicians' toggle a seafaring aura by incorporating brisk winds, rolling waves and a few stormy passages. It's a modern mainstream ...

Interview

Nels Cline: Finding Others

by Ted Harms
April 8, 2013

Ask 10 people when they first heard of guitarist Nels Cline and you'll get 10 different answers. Maybe it was when he joined award-winning, arena-packing, ever-touring rock band Wilco. Or maybe it was stumbling upon a guitar internet forum where nerd boys and girls go over the minutiae of his expansive and varied effect pedals, amps, and guitars. Or it could have been hearing his critically acclaimed The Giant Pin (Cryptogramophone, 2004) with his group, the Nels Cline Singers (even ...

Book Review

Duncan Heining: Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers, and Free Fusioneers - British Jazz, 1960-1975

by Mike Oppenheim
April 7, 2013

Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers, and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz, 1960-1975 Duncan Heining pp. 486 ISBN: 978-1-84553-405-9 Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2012 Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers, and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz, 1960-1975, by freelance writer Duncan Heining, is a significant addition to the jazz literature. Consisting of fourteen chapters and 450 pages of text, Trad Dads focuses on the unique circumstances surrounding British jazz in the 1960s and first half of the 1970s. Heining investigates ...

Album Review

Lenny White: Lenny White Live

Read "Lenny White Live" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 7, 2013

Drumming legend Lenny White made his first trip to Japan in 1971, before he became a stick wielding star with fusion pioneers Return To Forever. He's played to appreciative audiences in that country time and again over the years, in various settings and with various outfits, so it comes as a shock to hear that he didn't receive an offer to bring one of his own groups over there until 1997. When the offer finally came, White didn't waste the ...

Book Excerpts

Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers, and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz, 1960-1975

by Duncan Heining
April 7, 2013

From Duncan Heining's Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers (Equinox, 2012) and is taken from from Chapter 11, “The Best Things in Life are Free," which discusses free jazz and free improvisation in British jazz. In this section, Heining examines the early work of the avant-garde group AMM and discusses its philosophy and wider influence on jazz and rock music." This excerpt appears by permission of the publisher, Equinox Press. This material is protected by copyright. All ...

Album Review

Stirrup: Sewn

by Mark Corroto
April 7, 2013

It's apparent why Ken Vandermark invited cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm to join the now defunct Vandermark 5 a decade ago. His versatility allows him to play a full spectrum of music from chamber jazz to stadium rock. One minute he's Pablo Casals, the next Jimi Hendrix. His adventures have taken him from Peter Brotzmann's Tentet to Dave Rempis' Ballister, to Chicago's Fast Citizens, and his own Valentine Trio, Seval, ADA Trio, and The Boxhead Ensemble. Stirrup is a trio ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Lisa Young

by AAJ Staff
April 7, 2013

Meet Lisa Young:Lisa Young is on a constant voyage of exploration and creation of vocal works using a diverse vocal language resonating from a personal sound bank aesthetic built over many years as an improvising singer.She performs and records with her jazz quartet, and with vocal and percussion group Coco's Lunch. Her most recent work, The Eternal Pulse, with her quartet, layers Indian elements, rhythmic textures and ensemble dialogue, integrating the art of konnakol. Her music ...

Album Review

Iva Bittova: Iva Bittova

Read "Iva Bittova" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 7, 2013

The catch-all term avant-garde is often used to describe singer/violinist Iva Bittová's music, but in truth her musical language--kaleidoscopic in color and unique in presentation--is essentially unclassifiable. A well known actress, Bittová expanded her horizons to music in the early eighties, since when she's bounced from Bartok to experimental rock, and from folk-influenced jazz to her collaboration with innovative New York ensemble Bang on a Can. Bittová's eclecticism is evident on her debut as leader for ECM, an intimate solo ...

Album Review

Nektar: Journey To The Centre Of The Eye

Read "Journey To The Centre Of The Eye" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 7, 2013

British progressive-rock band Nektar's epic 1971 Sci-Fi, spacey, psychedelic debut Journey To The Centre Of The Eye, benefits from a finely engineered re-mastering job, along with a vintage bonus disc featuring a live performance of the album. During its day, the band achieved great success outside its native UK and settled in Germany, where this production was recorded. This album paved the way for its seminal masterpiece Remember the Future (1973, Bellaphon) and other gold albums that followed.