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

Mauricio Pessoa: Habitat

by Dan Bilawsky
March 27, 2013

Bossa nova blossomed in the public eye a half century ago and, though it isn't a pop radio staple anymore, it still retains its firm standing in the world of jazz and in its native Brazil. Those who were there at the beginning, or worked with the originators of this style at a later date, have continued to maintain their audience by surfing the waves of the beautiful and bouncy bossa and samba styles, but they have some competition now. ...

Album Review

Brian Groder / Tonino Miano: FluiDensity

Read "FluiDensity" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 27, 2013

The duo of trumpeter Brian Groder-- known for his collaborations with iconoclastic improvisers, saxophonist Sam Rivers (Torque, Latham, 2006) and pianist Burton Greene (Groder & Greene, Latham, 2009)-- and classically-trained pianist Tonino Miano attempts to bridge the 21st improvisational techniques with the innovations of 20th century contemporary music. These two like-minded musicians draw inspiration from diverse and influential composers, Duke Ellington, Cecil Taylor, Arnold Schoenberg, Béla Bartók and Frederic Rzewski and transcend their influence into a set of lyrical, carefully ...

Bailey's Bundles

Sacred Steel: Rev. Utah Smith, et al. and The Slide Brothers

by C. Michael Bailey
March 27, 2013

The “Sacred Steel" tradition born in the House of God Church some 80 years ago employed the pedal steel and lap steel guitars as the centerpiece of their message. The steel guitars, long an eloquent staple of country and western music are used to a much grittier effect in this largely African-American mode of worship. In the last decade the Sacred Steel tradition has been revitalized and moved into the mainstream by steel-guitarist Robert Randolph, who has ...

Album Review

Miki Hirose: Scratch

Read "Scratch" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 27, 2013

Presenting a superb list of new originals, New York-based trumpeter Miki Hirose delivers an impressive second effort on Scratch providing a challenging yet, very accessible musical statement that reflects in some part, his affinity for the Latin genre. Originally from Kobe, Japan, Hirose came to New York City in 2003 and has since become an important part of its vibrant jazz scene performing with many luminaries among them, Benny Golson, Dr. Lonnie Smith , Frank Wess and many more. Hirose ...

Album Review

Chris Potter: The Sirens

Read "The Sirens" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 27, 2013

Saxophonist Chris Potter has consistently shown a deep feeling for jazz tradition and a willingness to modernize his vocabulary at the same time. The lyricism of Lester Young, the fearlessness of Charlie Parker, the keening spiritualism of John Coltrane and the tireless creativity of Sonny Rollins all inspire him, as do funk, electric set-ups and classical music, and this openness has increasingly colored his discography with the passing years. The Sirens, Potter's debt for ECM as leader, is a return ...

Hardly Strictly Jazz

Reliving Elvis

by Skip Heller
March 27, 2013

No matter how much is written, or by whom, Elvis Presley remains impossible to explain. The usual “young white rocker who could sing black" is as inaccurate as any standing American mythology. His legacy has been as mangled as his career was, often to the detriment of the work itself. Yes, at the time of his death, Elvis had become (to use Frank Zappa's description) “that poor guy, that drug-infested blimp." Yes, by 1962 he had become the star of ...

Live Review

Burghausen Jazz Festival 2013

by John Kelman
March 26, 2013

Burghausen Jazz Festival Burghausen, Germany March 12-17, 2013 Located almost exactly halfway along the border of the province of Bavaria (located in Germany's southeast) and Austria, the town of Burghausen might seem an odd place for a jazz festival, especially one now celebrating its 44th year. But this town of just 18,000 people, located literally a stone's throw (or a quick bridge walk) away from Austria, has long been a wealthy town, thanks to the Wacker chemical ...

Album Review

Marcos Pin Factor-E Reset: Barbanza

Read "Barbanza" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 26, 2013

Galician guitarist Marcos Pin has recorded in trio or quartet settings for a decade, so the dectet that interprets Barbanza represents a significant change in his modus operandi. Judging by the results though, you'd think he'd been composing for larger ensembles from the get go. Inspired by the Barbanza region of Galicia in north-west Spain, you might expect Iberian flavored music, but instead, the short-lived large ensembles of trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist Cannonball Adderley--and their post-bop quintets--seem to inform ...

Album Review

The Lifelike Quartet: Pretending You're Here With Me

Read "Pretending You're Here With Me" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 26, 2013

Tin Pan Alley and the heyday of classy songwriting vanished into the mist of history long ago, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any writing teams today that possess the wit and wisdom to put together smart-and-catchy tunes. Many of these people are still out there, plugging away as they craft clever creation after clever creation, but they're marginalized by, and within, a business that prefers cheap confections to substance. Lyricist Cliff Goldmacher and songwriter Joel Evans, two successful ...

Jazz Near Me

Getting Closer to the Dream

by Christopher Mote
March 26, 2013

[Editor's Note: All About Jazz, Hidden City Philadelphia, and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia have collaborated to present a series of articles on the local jazz scene that John Coltrane inhabited, developed in, and ultimately transcended between 1943 and 1958, when he called the city home.] In some ways, John Coltrane's house is like any other in Strawberry Mansion. The three-story, Dutch-gabled row home where he lived from 1952 to 1958 was seen as ...