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

Robb Cappelleto: !!!

by Karl Ackermann
April 5, 2013

It takes confidence to title a debut release with a series of unpronounceable punctuations but guitarist/composer Robb Cappelletto does just that with !!!. Cappelletto's Toronto- based trio tackles a variety of styles from blues-rock to hard bop and ballads. Within each style they demonstrate an expert ability to negotiate some complex pieces in untraditional ways and, in the process, create a fresh sound. Eight of the ten compositions on !!! were penned by Cappelletto.“Scare Tactics" open the set ...

Tell Me More

Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, and Crazy Little Things

by Belinda Ware
April 5, 2013

Television Actress Lynda Carter introduced herself to national audiences with a spectacular debut in one of the most successful superhero television shows to date, starring in dual roles as Wonder Woman and her alter ego of Diana Prince on The New Adventures of Wonder Woman. As the series became a hit, Carter became one of America's favorite actresses as a super hero with beauty, style, and a smile that warmed your inner being. After the show's run, Carter revealed her ...

Album Review

Michael Gallant Trio: Completely

Read "Completely" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 5, 2013

The art of the piano trio can go the conservative route. How many players are out there going over the same jazz standards, the same American Songbook tunes? Some do it very well; others sound uninspired. But things evolve. Bill Evans created a quiet revolution with his late fifties/early sixties trio with bassist Scott La Faro and drummer Paul Motian, shifting the trio-mates to more prominent positions in the creation of the sound. Keith Jarrett pushed things further in that ...

Album Review

Evgeny Masloboev & Anastasia Masloboeva: Russian Folk Songs in the Key of New Jazz

Read "Russian Folk Songs in the Key of New Jazz" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 5, 2013

The latest entry of the Russian Folk Songs series for UK-based Leo Records find the father and daughter team, Evgeny Masloboeva and Anastasia performing with Moscow's prominent new jazz artists, resulting in this fascinating gem. It's an unclassifiable brew in the literal sense. Russian folk is predominately evident throughout many of the abstractions and jazz-tinged momentums. They explore dark, creaky corridors, free-form improvisation, and infuse melodically satisfying modalities and stark tonal contrasts, as the ensemble alternates roles on various tracks. ...

Meet the Staff

Meet Geoff Anderson

by AAJ Staff
April 5, 2013

I currently live in: Littleton, CO I joined All About Jazz in: 2007 What made you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? It all started at a concert by George Brooks and his band Summit at the Boulder Theater around 2002. The band featured tabla maestro Zakir Hussain as well as guitarist Fareed Haque. Brooks played tenor sax, Steve Smith was on trap drums and Kai Eckhardt played bass. The music was a unique combination ...

Live From New York

Luis Bonilla, Terri Lyne Carrington, Tony Levin & Otis Taylor

by Martin Longley
April 4, 2013

The Luis Bonilla Quintet Dizzy's Club March 19, 2013 For two nights only, trombonist Luis Bonilla brought his quintet to Dizzy's Club. The first set on the first evening launched off into an assured blast of convoluted style amalgamation. Many might view Bonilla as a Latin jazz specialist because of his Costa Rican background, but the Californian 'bone man bandleader's version of jazz skirts many different zones, usually within each individual composition. Opening ...

Album Review

Lorraine Klaasen: A Tribute To Miriam Makeba

Read "A Tribute To Miriam Makeba" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 4, 2013

The late Miriam Makeba is a musical hero in her native South Africa, but her importance in the grand scheme of South African history goes well beyond her vibrant vocals. Makeba became a cultural icon and symbol for freedom, fighting the good fight against apartheid for--and with--her countrymen. She was exiled from her homeland because of her public defiance to the status quo, and denied a right of return for decades, but it didn't shut her up or slow her ...

Album Review

Albert King: Born Under a Bad Sign

Read "Born Under a Bad Sign" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 4, 2013

First things first. Left-handed blues guitarist Albert King played a right-handed, right-strung guitar turned upside down. Left-handed blues guitarist Jimi Hendrix played a right-handed, left-strung guitar upside-down.That said..When Albert King came to Memphis and signed with Stax records in 1966, no parties knew exactly what effect King's blues sensibilities would have on the Southern soul of house band Booker T. and the MGs nor how the band's well-established southern-fried credentials would inspire King. The result, captured ...

Extended Analysis

Easy Star All-Stars: Thrillah

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 4, 2013

Ten years ago, the Easy Star All-Stars began a series of albums that transformed landmarks of pop musical culture into thick and easy flowing reggae. They started with Dub Side of the Moon (2003, Easy Star Records) (from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon), continued through Radiodread (2006, Easy Star) (from Radiohead's OK Computer) and then re-visioned The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band (2009, Easy Star).But where could ...

Album Review

Rent Romus' Lords of Outland: Thee Unhip

Read "Thee Unhip" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 4, 2013

Thee Unhip is a poem by band member, trumpeter/electronics artist C.J. Borosque. The seasoned and thoroughly hip band that was founded by woodwind ace Rent Romus in 1984 is a collaboration between West Coast experimental jazz record labels, Nine Winds and Edgetone. Exciting, raucous, slightly spaced-out and wily, the band has quite a bit of fun with the expressionistic side of jazz and improvisation. However, the quartet's proving ground is based on laudable technical faculties and intriguing song-forms, where bristling ...