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

Dave Hamblett: Light At Night

Read "Light At Night" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
February 16, 2013

Anyone wishing to explore the wealth of talent to be found among the UK jazz scene's up-and-coming musicians can cheerfully begin here. Light At Night, the debut from drummer Dave Hamblett, features six of the finest of these young players. The album is impressively consistent, with Hamblett's thoughtful compositions drawing some fine performances from the drummer and his band mates.Hamblett graduated from the Royal Academy Of Music in 2010 and formed this group the same year. He has ...

Bailey's Bundles

Chorus Corner: Chanticleer, Cantus and Seraphic Fire

by C. Michael Bailey
February 16, 2013

Singers singing songs. Times are good for choral music when stalwart Chanticleer and relative newcomers Cantus and Seraphic Fire produce new music in such close proximity. Chanticleer releases a collection of concert highlights while Cantus expands the choral acreage on all four sides and Seraphic Fire looks backward with an instrumentally strip-down of an old favorite. Chanticleer The Siren's Call: Live Concert Highlights Chanticleer Records 2012 Enjoying its ...

Album Review

Peter Brotzmann: Solo At Dobialab

Read "Solo At Dobialab" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 16, 2013

Never at a loss for words (or, in his case, notes), saxophonist Peter Brötzmann is, nonetheless, one to speak only when necessary. Meaning, he chooses his sounds carefully. On first blush this fire-breathing legend, who brought forth such monumental free jazz discs as Machine Gun (FMP, 1968), the 1970 session Fuck de Boere: Dedicated to Johnny Dyani (UMS/Atavistic, 2001), and his current monster electric noise band Hairybones, might appear loquacious, even unreserved.But get a glimpse of ...

Album Review

John Edwards / Okkyung Lee: White Cable, Black Wires

Read "White Cable, Black Wires" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
February 16, 2013

After its impressive debut, it is gratifying to report that the Fataka label seems set to continue in similar vein. Recorded by Sebastian Lexer in May 2011, White Cable, Black Wires follows the pattern of the first two Fataka releases, featuring a small, intimate setting involving a key London improviser-- this time, bassist John Edwards paired with Korean-born cellist Okkyung Lee. Across five pieces ranging in length from just under six to just over eleven minutes, the pair thrives in ...

Album Review

Hristo Vitchev Quartet: Familiar Fields

Read "Familiar Fields" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
February 16, 2013

There's a poignant scene in the film Gladiator (DreamWorks/Universal, 2000), where the film's hero, Maximus--played by actor and guitarist, Russell Crowe--flashes back on the lush fields of his far away farm home. There's a longing, a yearning sense in that memorable, moving sequence. Those fields pull at his heart.With Familiar Fields, his fifth CD as leader, guitarist Hristo Vitchev and his crew sends up a stimulating and engaging recording that is metaphorically dream-like. From start to finish, this ...

One LP

Robert Glasper: Slum Village, Fantastic Vol. 2

by William Ellis
February 15, 2013

Robert Glasper: Glasgow Jazz Festival, 28th June 2012 The reason this album is special to me is because the producer of the album--J Dilla is my favorite hip hop producer and I got the privilege to actually work with him before he passed away in 2006. To work with him--watch him make music--watch him in “the lab" and see how he works. J Dilla is probably the only producer I know that changed the ...

Album Review

Kendrick Lamar: good kid, m.A.A.d city

Read "good kid, m.A.A.d city" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
February 15, 2013

Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar's hit album good kid, m.A.A.d city is subtitled “a short film." Lamar's ambition mirrors that of saxophonist Bob Belden, who derided the narrow conceptual vision of too many musicians in a recent All About Jazz interview, saying: “Modeling music along the lines of film narrative ... should be a logical evolution of the jazz composer mindset. Sadly, we happen to be in an era of ... music that does not tell a story other than that ...

Album Review

Heather Masse & Dick Hyman: Lock My Heart

Read "Lock My Heart" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 15, 2013

In a way, vocalist Heather Masse has come full circle with the release of Lock My Heart. As a youngster, Masse used Dick Hyman's Professional Chord Changes and Substitutions for 100 Tunes Every Musician Should Know (Warner Bros., 1986) as a vocal road map through the world of jazz standards; little did she know she'd be recording with the very man who put the book together less than two decades later. Masse, who hails from Maine and ...

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Interview

William Ellis: Music On A Chink Of Light

by Ian Patterson
February 15, 2013

[ Editor's Note: “Music On A Chink Of Light" was originally published on August 4, 2010. This encore presentation coincides with William Ellis's new column One LP. ]Black and white photographs of jazz legends taken by the likes of Herman Leonard, William P. Gottlieb and William Claxton have gained iconic status over the years. Decades on, their photographs of Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Chet Baker and Miles Davis adorn countless walls of jazz aficionados ...

Album Review

Luis Munoz: Luz

by Hrayr Attarian
February 15, 2013

Luis Muňoz's Luz is an unabashedly romantic paean to Latin music in its various guises. There is, however, nothing syrupy in this enchanting seventh release for the Costa Rican composer and percussionist, replete with “jazzy" creative spontaneity. Muňoz's impressionistic compositions are carefully arranged around a central theme, allowing adequate space to spotlight individual side musicians. The exquisite tango “Amarilis" features violinist Laura Hackstein's wistfully passionate strings as she plays the head with Astor Piazzolla-like flair. Pianist Adam ...