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.

Extended Analysis

Robben Ford: Bringing It Back Home

by Something Else! Reviews
March 14, 2013

Robben Ford's most focused, unembellished album in like, forever, may have also been the easiest album the virtuosic blues/jazz/rock/you-name-it guitarist has made in a long spell, too. In talking about Bringing It Back Home, the guitarist/vocalist says, “The results are really pure, and the most fun I've had making an album in years." In “bringing it back home" with a collection of older folk, blues and R&B tunes, some of which he didn't even know about prior to the recording ...

Album Review

Samuel Blaser Quartet: As The Sea

Read "As The Sea" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 14, 2013

The whole of some musical outfits is greater than its separate parts. The Berlin-based, Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser's Quartet is one of these outfits, comprised of resourceful musicians with strong personalities, distinct approaches that together complement the strengths of this band but also pushes it into newer terrains. Blaser is conservatory trained and university educated, has a perfect-pitch sound on the trombone and rich musical vision that encompasses anything between composer Richard Wagner's grandiose operas, classical Indian ...

Album Review

Antonio Sanchez: New Life

Read "New Life" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 14, 2013

You may have attended a concert by vibraphonist Gary Burton or guitarist Pat Metheny and, like many others found yourself unable to keep from focusing your attention on the drummer, Antonio Sanchez. His presence, exudes a sort of rhythmic magnetism that has backed players such as Chick Corea, Miguel Zenon, and Metheny for the past 13 years.When he releases a disc as leader playing his original compositions, his full arsenal is on display. New Life follows the double-disc ...

Album Review

Carl Bartlett, Jr.: Hopeful

by Dan Bilawsky
March 14, 2013

Hope springs eternal from the horn of Carl Bartlett, Jr. The young alto saxophonist's debut album puts his positive spirit out front on a set of music that explores the quiet, the lively and everything in between. Bartlett, a Queens, New York native still living in the jazz capital of the universe, didn't instantly take to the saxophone, having first spent time exploring clarinet, trumpet and piano at an early age, but he found his true voice when he met ...

Album Review

Erik Truffaz Quartet: El Tiempo De La Revolución

Read "El Tiempo De La Revolución" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
March 13, 2013

Across a twenty-year recording career, Swiss-born trumpeter Erik Truffaz has explored jazz, rock, electronica, dance and ambient musics. El Tiempo De La Revolución, his tenth album for Blue Note France, mixes jazz, '80s soul and a touch of Nordic cool to create some intriguing soundscapes and moods.El Tiempo De La Revolución is credited to the Erik Truffaz Quartet, which Truffaz formed in 1997. Alongside original members Marcello Giuliani on bass and Marc Erbetta on drums, Truffaz is joined ...

One LP

Terence Blanchard: Miles Davis, Four & More

by William Ellis
March 13, 2013

Terence Blanchard: Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 30 June 2011 It's Miles Davis Four and More and the reason why it's so special for me [is] because I remember the first time I heard it as a kid. Listening to that live performance blew me way because you know I had been listening to a very different style of trumpet playing and improvisation. Those guys just kept me in a tail spin trying to figure out ...

152

Album Review

Simon Latarche: Cornish Preludes Book II

Read "Cornish Preludes Book II" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 13, 2013

Simon Latarche's sophomore outing is the sequel to Cornish Preludes (Pentreath Music, 2010) and features the same fine ensemble that shaped the success of that debut. Cornish Preludes Book II continues the UK-based composer/pianist's scholastic pursuit of Claude Debussy's approach to impressionist composition. Combining his academic interest with the influences of Cornwall's colorful history and natural beauty, Latarche has produced another winner.The full ensemble is engaged to a somewhat greater extent on Cornish Preludes Book II compared to ...

Jazz Emerges

Part 1: New Orleans Brass Bands 1950-1990

by William Carter
March 13, 2013

Visible Roots of America's Most Original Cultural Product

A lifelong preoccupation with traditional New Orleans jazz inspired my book, Preservation Hall (W.W. Norton, 1991). While doing my own shooting, I uncovered a trove of historical photos I decided to mix with my own (sources available on request). Like the music itself, this project is a blend of old and new, personal and professional. Blogs, like recordings, add a fresh dimension to a traditional art.

Album Review

Kayle Brecher: Spirals And Lines

Read "Spirals And Lines" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 13, 2013

Sheila Jordan's name often comes up as a comparative reference point for those who are unfamiliar with the work of vocalist/composer/arranger Kayle Brecher; this link is an audibly obvious one on Spirals And Lines, but the connection goes deeper than sound. Jordan's uncompromising and creative voice, even more so than her literal voice, helped to put her on a pedestal in the eyes of the jazz vocal community, and Brecher taps into this spirit in her work. ...

Behind the Lens With...

Behind the Lens With Michael Reilly

by Michael Reilly
March 13, 2013

Meet Michael Reilly:I am a painter of jazz, when the painting is right you can see the music come through the brush. I have been painting of 25 years, Jazz to me is the perfect thing to paint; it combines both my passions.View more Michael Reilly photos at All About JazzGear:Pen, Ink, paint.Teachers and/or influences?Robert Neuman.I knew I wanted to be a photographer when...I ...