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

Billy Martin's Wicked Knee: Heels Over Head

Read "Heels Over Head" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 15, 2013

What if drummer Billy Martin of the late-20th, now 21st-century band Medeski Martin and Wood had been born at the end of the 19th century in New Orleans? What kind of music would he play? Certainly, it would have a brass band setting and be inflected with blues feel. Invite Buddy Bolden over tonight, because we have some funky ragtime sound with Martin's new outfit Wicked Knee. This their first full-length release, that follows the EP Wicked Knee (Amulet, 2011).

Album Review

Kai Hoffman: Do It While You Can

Read "Do It While You Can" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
March 15, 2013

The visual image, the cover design and the positivity of the album title--Do It While You Can--all point in the general direction of a Good Time about to be had. Singer (and French horn player) Kai Hoffman ensures that a good time is exactly what's on offer, crafting a set of songs that makes the most of her personality, her slightly tongue-in-cheek naughtiness and her effortless joie-de-vivre.Hoffman, an American now resident in the UK, has previously recorded with ...

Album Review

Boz Scaggs: Memphis

Read "Memphis" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
March 15, 2013

Boz Scaggs made a household name for himself with the ultra-slick Silk Degrees (Columbia, 1975), but he had already established a solo career for himself in the wake of departing The Steve Miller Band in 1968. Memphis further reaffirms the selective approach the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter has brought to his career in recent years, at the same time reminding that his best work, such as his eponymous debut (Atlantic, 1969)--with its famous Duane Allman guitar solo on “Loan Me ...

Album Review

Joe Clark Big Band featuring Jeff Hamilton: Lush

Read "Lush" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
March 15, 2013

According to a Carl Sandburg poem, Chicago is “the city of big shoulders." There's a unique strength about Chicago that's different than New York or Los Angeles. Might it be suggested, therefore, that players emanating from the Windy City might also carry a bit more muscle, swagger and workmanlike focus? Perhaps.With Lush, his debut as leader, Chicago trumpeter/composer/arranger Joe Clark = 27881}} and his fine band unabashedly lay all of the above attributes out front in a performance ...

Meet the Staff

Meet Dom Minasi

by AAJ Staff
March 15, 2013

I currently live in: New York, NY I joined All About Jazz in: 2012 What made you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? All About Jazz is the first thing I read in the morning, there is a wealth of information and I thought as a working musician I could offer a particular point of view on topics where I have experience. How do you contribute to All About Jazz? I have a ...

AAJ PRO

Banner Advertising: Questions to Ask, What to Look For and Red Flags

by Michael Ricci
March 15, 2013

As a leader in the online jazz music space, and with years of hands-on experience at managing advertising sales and ad serving software, I felt it was a good time to help the many newcomers to this arena better understand how banner advertising works, and offer sound solutions and insights when making purchasing decisions. I'm going to shoot straight with you. Many of my comments below are based on conversations I've had with various advertisers over the last ...

Live From Philadelphia

February 2013: Chris Potter Quartet

by RJ Johnson
March 14, 2013

Chris Potter QuartetChris' Jazz CaféPhiladelphia, PAFebruary 22, 2013Although no longer considered the essential destination for working jazz groups that it once was, Philadelphia is still visited by high-level talent from New York that occasionally ventures south to perform in the city's one consistent jazz venue. Despite the current lack of mainstream interest in jazz, in Philadelphia or elsewhere, the Chris Potter Quartet performed two sets for a crowd which filled every seat, ...

Album Review

Miki Hirose: Scratch

Read "Scratch" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 14, 2013

Trumpeter Miki Hirose is a relatively new talent on the domestic jazz front, but the Japanese native has been kicking around the New York circuit for close to ten years now. Having won a number of prestigious awards in Japan, Hirose went on to play with a number of prominent U.S. musicians including Benny Golson, Lonnie Smith, Frank Wess and Billy Harper. On Scratch--his second release as leader--Hirose has re-assembled (but slightly tweaked) an international sextet that is proficient in ...

Meet the Staff

Meet Jeff Fitzgerald Genius

by AAJ Staff
March 14, 2013

I currently live in: Roanoke, VAI joined All About Jazz in: 2001What made you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? I discovered the site and thought they might appreciate my peculiar talents.How do you contribute to All About Jazz? I write the Genius Guide to Jazz, the occasional April Fool's Day gag, and seed the AAJ Facebook page with little nuggets of oddness.What is your musical background? I joined the marching ...

Album Review

Grand General: Grand General

Read "Grand General" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 14, 2013

Despite many members barely into their thirties, Grand General is a Norwegian super group of sorts. Ola Kvernberg is, perhaps, best-known internationally for a string of recordings that, including Folk (Jazzland, 2009) and the more ambitious Liarbird (Jazzland, 2011), have garnered the violinist/violist plaudits like the DnB NOR Award at the 2012 Kongsberg Jazz Festival. Guitarist Even Helte Hermansen has also garnered increasing attention at the helm of popular power trio Bushman's Revenge, whose Jitterbug Waltz (Rune Grammofon, 2010) demonstrated ...