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.

From Far and Wide

The Harlem Renaissance and American Music

by Mike Oppenheim
March 3, 2013

The Harlem Renaissance and the “New Negro"One of the most significant intellectual and artistic trends of twentieth century American history, the Harlem Renaissance impacted art, literature, and music in a manner that forever altered the American cultural landscape. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in the 1920s through which African-American writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers sought to embrace black heritage and culture in American life. This shift towards a more politically assertive and self-confident conception of identity and racial pride ...

Extended Analysis

Moskus: Salmesykkel

by John Kelman
March 2, 2013

For a country isolated in the north of Europe, Norway has experienced a surprising number of musical waves. The first came in the early '70s, when producer Manfred Eicher and his fledgling ECM Records label brought the Scandinavian “big five"--Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson and, from Norway, saxophonist Jan Garbarek, guitarist Terje Rypdal, bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Jon Christensen--to international acclaim. The second wave, at least internationally speaking, came in 1997-98, when artists like keyboardists Bugge Wesseltoft, Ståle Storløkken and ...

Album Review

The Dave Lalama Big Band: The Hofstra Project

Read "The Hofstra Project" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 2, 2013

Pianist Dave Lalama is living proof that the divide between real-world practitioner and first-class educator is often imaginary. Lalama's résumé includes time spent with super singers like Eddie Jefferson and Anita O'Day, and big band icons like Road Father Woody Herman and super drummer Buddy Rich, but these performance credits don't tell the whole story about this artist-cum-teacher. From the early '80s onward, he was passing on his knowledge to the next generation through his work at institutions like New ...

Album Review

Swedish Chamber Orchestra / Michael Collins: Works for Clarinet and Orchestra

Read "Works for Clarinet and Orchestra" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 2, 2013

English clarinetist Michael Collins is no stranger to Mozart's lone clarinet concerto, having provided Gramophone Magazine its critical selection of the same for several years in Clarinet Concertos: Mozart--Beethoven (Deutsche Grammophon, 2000), with Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra (since unseated by equally fine performance on the 2010 Hyperion release from Thea King and the English Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jeffrey Tate). Collins now emerges as a gifted soloist and conductor on Works for Clarinet and Orchestra. ...

Book Review

Brad Tolinski: Light and Shade - Conversations with Jimmy Page

by Nenad Georgievski
March 2, 2013

Light and Shade--Conversations with Jimmy PageBrad Tolinski320 PagesISBN: 978-0307985712Crown Publishing2012Music and mythology have shared stories for at least as long as recorded history. Mythology has always been important to rock 'n' roll music since its early days, and within that guitarist Jimmy Page is seen as a guitar sorcerer or shaman, casting spells or throwing thunderbolts. Apart from the image that his band, Led Zeppelin, cultivated during its ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Lee Tomboulian

by AAJ Staff
March 2, 2013

Meet Lee Tomboulian:Composer/improviser Lee Tomboulian plays keyboards, accordion and sings. He leads Whatevs, the Weekly Reeders and Circo. He has played with Maria Schneider, Kenny Wheeler, Jimmy Witherspoon, Benny Golson, Terell Stafford, Horacio Hernandez, Greg Bissonette, Steve Houghton, Eddie Harris and many more. He was the Instructor of Jazz Piano and Improvisation at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music for six years and before that at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and other universities. Instrument(s):

Album Review

Randy Simon Jazz Project: Nyhavn Live

Read "Nyhavn Live" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
March 2, 2013

As instrumentalists and established groups explore new musical vistas, there's somewhat of a “safe harbor" in the richness of classic hard bop. Perhaps that's because the repertoire and stylistic formats of drummer Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, pianist Horace Silver and the like offer performers significant latitude in terms of groove, melodic and harmonic diversity, and muscular platforms from which to launch improvisational expression.With NYHAVN Live (pronounced “Neye-HAH-vin," a reference to a Copenhagen waterway), composer/arranger Randy Simon ...

Album Review

Luis Muñoz: Luz

by Jerry D'Souza
March 2, 2013

Luis Muñoz gathers strength with each of his recordings as he goes past the post of the previous one, making new ideas and developments his haunt. Luz, as the title would suggest, injects new light into his music. Muñoz conceives and marvelous executes his game plan. Driving the rhythm and the beat from the drummer's seat he opens up new vistas for his band. Form and genre are enveloped brilliantly as a spectrum fed by an enlightened ...

Extended Analysis

Fontanelle: Vitamin F

by Dave Wayne
March 1, 2013

The sheer improbability of Vitamin F alone is almost reason enough to savor it. But this is one heck of a great jazz recording, so Fontanelle's back story is worth pondering. Formed out of the ruins of Jessamine, one of the few Seattle bands from the mid-1990s to buck the grunge craze, Fontanelle recorded three albums in the early 2000s before moving on to other projects. Co-led by drummer Mat Morgan, keyboardists Brian Foote and Paul Dickow, multi- instrumentalist Andy ...

Album Review

Jukkis Uotila / Stockholm Jazz Orchestra: The Music of Jukkis Uotila

Read "The Music of Jukkis Uotila" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
March 1, 2013

The Music of Jukkis Uotila presents an exciting array of modern big band arrangements performed by The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra (SJO), with compositions provided by SJO's drummer and occasional pianist, Jukkis Uotila. For over twenty-five years, the SJO has been at the forefront of big band music, proving that it's possible to explore innovation while remaining loyal to a fundamental swing. One of the ways SJO keeps their music fresh is by working with an impressive roster of guest stars, ...