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.

Multiple Reviews

Particular Recordings: Hammond Dialogues

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 21, 2013

In recent years, Norway has produced a generation of young, innovative musicians, sonic explorers who are redefining the roles of their instruments--guitarists Stian Westerhus, Kim Myhr and Petter Vågan, trumpeter Eivind Lønning and tuba players Martin Taxt and Kristoffer Lo. Organ player Daniel Formo, member of the avant-pop trio Kobert and mainstream jazz trio Solid!, decided last year to explore the full potential of the Hammond B3, one of the first electric instruments, as a modern instrument, ...

Album Review

Soweto Kinch: The Legend Of Mike Smith

Read "The Legend Of Mike Smith" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
February 21, 2013

Once upon a time the C-word was in common usage. It isn't heard so much these days, but the older generation mustn't be lulled into a false sense of security, because the younger generation remains perfectly capable of using the word on occasions. This is one of those occasions, because Soweto Kinch's The Legend Of Mike Smith is very definitely a Concept Album--and it's quite a concept.Kinch is an alto saxophonist, rapper and composer: a two-time winner of ...

Album Review

Albert Vila: Standards

Read "Standards" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 21, 2013

Just because a record doesn't have many surprises doesn't mean it must be predictable or prosaic, a line of thinking for which Albert Vila's Standards makes a good case. The Barcelona-based guitarist delivers a program of well-known material from the likes of compositional giant Cole Porter, saxophone legend John Coltrane, piano icon Bill Evans and other top-tier figures , hewing close to the norm without giving off a been-there-done-that vibe. The biggest surprise here may actually be ...

Album Review

Farthest South: Omens & Talismans

Read "Omens & Talismans" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 21, 2013

Farthest South is a new alternative Israeli band, comprised of a core trio from the alternative Tel Aviv Scene that attempts to challenge its formative musical experience by playing spontaneous, on-the-spot music. The three-- Guitarist Barry Berko has a background in alternative rock and contemporary music; bassist Yair Yona played in psychedelic rock and folk music formats; and {Yair Etziony is a DJ, specializing in minimal electronica and techno, but none played before non-idiomatic free improvisations. The ...

Hardly Strictly Jazz

Carole Simpson Remembered

by Skip Heller
February 21, 2013

As news of Donald Byrd's passing was leaking out slowly, jazz educator Keith Pawlak sent me a note on Facebook asking if I had heard that pianist/vocalist Carole Simpson had passed away. Her name is barely known except to a few collectors who specialize in female singers of the Eisenhower era. She was during that period almost an archetype--a gorgeous, glamourous blonde with an intimate singing style not far from June Christy and a pianistic approach that borrowed ...

Album Review

Brad Goode: Chicago Red

Read "Chicago Red" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 20, 2013

Trumpeter Brad Goode may be approaching a decade spent in Boulder, Colorado, but his heart will always belong to Chicago. Goode was born in The Windy City and, though the twists and turns of life took him elsewhere, he returned there to do his master's degree at DePaul University and launch his career. He held court at the legendary Green Mill from the mid-'80s through the late '90s, holding down a weekly gig that would often find hometown heroes like ...

Scumbles

And So to Dotage - Not!

by Sammy Stein
February 20, 2013

It is a funny thing but when you are young, you expect things to be short- lived and to fade almost as quickly as they become popular, like the crazes of deely boppers, leg warmers and clackers, which at the time, were must-haves. It was the same with music--the teenage idols in the '70s were The Bay City Rollers, Donny Osmond and David Cassidy, The Who and Queen. At the time, each craze enjoys a brief passion unless, like some ...

Album Review

Brigitte Beraha And John Turville: Red Skies

Read "Red Skies" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
February 20, 2013

On the sleeve and the CD it's “Brigitte Beraha and John Turville"; on the press release and the electronic data it's “John Turville and Brigitte Beraha." This inconsistent approach to credits has no impact on the quality of the music on Red Skies, of course, but it is perhaps indicative of the ego-free zone inhabited by pianist Turville and singer Beraha, as they bring a fresh and uncluttered approach to some favorite standards.Beraha and Turville are members of ...

Album Review

Sylvaine Helary: Sylvaine Helary Trio

Read "Sylvaine Helary Trio" reviewed by Anthony Shaw

by Anthony Shaw
February 20, 2013

The French have long had an affinity for the surrealistic and the absurd--didn't they invent both expressions? Among the ranks of the leading left-field artists (from, of course, the left bank--the traditions stretch back to Antonin Artauld, the first to promote the first playable electronic keyboard, the Ondes Martenot, and Pierre Schaeffer, who created the expression “musique concrete." But as a world power the French have also absorbed influences from around the globe, even from across the ...

Album Review

Jussi Reijonen: Un

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 20, 2013

The debut recording of Boston-based guitarist and oudist Jussi Reijonen is a remarkable crystallization of musical concepts and influences from the West and in the East. It is also a mature reflection of the musical experiences that Finland-born Reijonen accumulated in all the places that he grew up, including the Finnish Arctic Circle, the Middle East and East Africa. But more than that, it is the approach that Reijonen, a student of guitarist David Fiuczynski, Palestinian violinist/oudist ...