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

Callum Au Big Band: Something's Coming

Read "Something's Coming" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
February 26, 2013

Trombonist and arranger Callum Au has amassed a remarkable wealth of experience, playing or arranging for, among others, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the Oxford University Big Band (he graduated from the university in 2011), Seth MacFarlane and Buddy Greco. He's a busy man--a list of his projects suggests that he's discovered the secret of the 30-hour day--and he's now found time to release his own debut, Something's Coming.Au has brought together a group of talented young players, ...

Album Review

Jeremy Pelt: Water and Earth

Read "Water and Earth" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 26, 2013

Change is often a precursor for innovation. After many years of straddling modern mainstream, and progressive jazz via his burgeoning solo career and first-call session duties, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt leans a few notches toward the jazz-fusion spectrum on Water and Earth. However, the artist doesn't take matters to the extreme and serves up a compellingly divergent track mix, owing patronage to bop and outlying areas of the jazz vernacular. Using trumpet effects in spots, including the dual keyboard attack of ...

Album Review

Cactus Truck: Brand New For China!

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 26, 2013

John Dikeman is one of the most interesting saxophonists now operating in the Amsterdam scene. He is a charismatic player, well-versed in the legacy of modern and free jazz as his recent releases-- Across the sky, with bassist Raoul Van Der Weide and drummer Klaus Kugel (Not Two, 2012); and Nihil is Now (Stone Floor, 2012), with the Universal Indians trio--testify. Still, it is the Cactus Truck trio that represents Dikeman at his best. This trio-- with ...

Album Review

-isq: -isq

by Bruce Lindsay
February 25, 2013

Type -isq into Google and the legend “Your search-- -isq --did not match any documents" appears. Add quotation marks and try again: this time around 6.5 million results appear and in among the links to Information Standards Quarterly and Integrated Systems Queensland up pops the website for London-based quartet -isq. This eponymous debut from the band, led by singer Irene Serra, is full of beautifully crafted original songs, performed with a pleasingly individual style. It can't be long before Google ...

Live Review

Newport Beach Jazz Party: Newport Beach, CA, February 14-17, 2013

by Larry Taylor
February 25, 2013

Newport Beach Jazz PartyNewport Beach, CAFebruary 14-17, 2013Thursday was Valentine's Day and the kickoff for the 13th Annual Newport Beach Jazz Party at the Marriott Hotel, Southern California. This four-day event combined two holidays, Valentine's & President's Weekend, bringing together some 70 great musicians, playing day and night--evening concerts in the Grand Pacific Ballroom, afternoon pool-side events and Saturday and Sunday morning brunch shows. For night owls, there were after-hour sessions for listening and dancing. Fans with ...

Album Review

Aaron Diehl: The Bespoke Man's Narrative

Read "The Bespoke Man's Narrative" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
February 25, 2013

The reference to some exquisitely dressed man in the title of this release also conveys the stylistic bent of pianist Aaron Diehl's noteworthy debut on Mack Avenue. He is among a list of rising jazz pianists which include Gerald Clayton and Aaron Parks. The recording brings to life a project that was conceived in Indianapolis after Diehl, 26, earned first place in American Pianists Association's 2011 Cole Porter Fellowship. The project fully displays Diehl's musicality--exquisite touch, phrasing, ...

Live Review

Umbria Jazz Winter: Orvieto, Italy, December 28, 2012 - January 1, 2013

by Sara Villa
February 25, 2013

Umbria Jazz Winter 2013Orvieto, ItalyDecember 28, 2012--February 1, 2013Dee Alexander's Evolution Ensemble

Dee Alexander's sensitive and virtuosic voice, together with the exquisite harmony of her group, charmed the Umbria Jazz Winter public with two different concert series. The first was dedicated to the memory of Alexander's mentor, Light Henry Huff, and the second focused on the music of James Brown.

The group's new album, Sketches of Light (IGEA, 2012), was the basis of ...

Album Review

Jason Kao Hwang: Burning Bridge

Read "Burning Bridge" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 25, 2013

In recent years, avant-garde music has had no more an effective champion than composer/violinist Jason Kao Hwang. With his longstanding quartet EDGE and three additional players, Burning Bridge extends and broadens Hwang's forward-thinking approach to composition and style. Where his brilliant collection, Crossroads Unseen (Euonymus Records, 2011), referenced subdued Asian-influences, Burning Bridge features a somewhat more pronounced cultural touch. Sun Li's pipa--a lute-like Chinese instrument that dates back two millennia--and Wang Guowei's erhu (a Chinese two-stringed violin) add distinctive traditional ...

Album Review

Jackie Ryan: Listen Here

Read "Listen Here" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 25, 2013

There exists an intersection point in a vocal recording where four elements coalesce in excellence to produce a superb recording: the vocal, instrumental, material and sonic. Singer Jackie Ryan's Listen Here exists on this very point. AAJ critic Dan Bilawsky addressed the first two elements in his thoughtful review of Listen Here, calling Ryan, “a force of nature" and her instrumental support, “ damn good," observations easily echoed here and not improved upon. The latter pair of elements deserve a ...

Interview

Conrad Herwig: There's Nothing Else

by Bob Kenselaar
February 25, 2013

Talking about some of his great influences in jazz, Conrad Herwig points out that it's important to look beyond their achievements on their instruments. “Sometimes during a musician's lifetime, people put so much emphasis on their virtuosity as a player that they don't really think about the vehicle of their expression—their compositions." Herwig was speaking of saxophonists John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson, but the same could be said about Herwig himself. He's one of the foremost jazz trombonists ...