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

Hristo Vitchev Quartet: Familiar Fields

Read "Familiar Fields" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 11, 2013

In an age where there is a constant demand for instant gratification, it takes courage to let musical material develop at a slow pace in order to realize an artistic vision. Nevertheless, this is what Bulgarian-born guitarist Hristo Vitchev has done on his album, Familiar Fields, whose compositions were written in the space between Vitchev's second and third album: The Secrets of an Angel (2009) and The Perperikon Suite (2011).In the accompanying liner notes, Vitchev writes about the ...

Interview

Francesca Han: Right Music, Right Time

by Ian Patterson
February 11, 2013

Korea has never been more fashionable, leading the way in technological advances and dictating hair styles, television viewing, eye shape and pop music trends across Asia and beyond. The mindboggling response to singer PSY's song “Gangnam Style," with over a billion hits on You Tube, epitomizes the phenomena of the so-called “Korean Wave." Fewer people, inevitably, are aware of the depth of Korean jazz talent, amply demonstrated on the essential compilation Into the Light--Korean Music III--Traditional Music and Korean Jazz ...

Album Review

Food: Mercurial Balm

Read "Mercurial Balm" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 11, 2013

In their sophomore outing on the ECM label, Food continues their shape-shifting evolution, both in personnel and musical outcomes. With influences of jazz, electronica and world music, UK saxophonist Iain Ballamy and Norwegian percussionist Thomas Strønen remain as the nucleus of a group that has managed to reinvent itself with each of its seven releases. Through their fruition from a standing quartet to an augmented duo, there has been an ethereal consistency in context and quality. Mercurial Balm is something ...

Extended Analysis

Peter Brotzmann: Long Story Short

by Mark Corroto
February 11, 2013

Whether you have no experience with the Godfather of free jazz or you measure your Peter Brötzmann CD and LP collection in linear feet, this 5CD box curated by the German saxophonist is either a great introduction to or an affirmation of his music and influence.Organized on the occasion of his 70th birthday, these four days of performances in November 2011, also marked the 25th anniversary of the Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria. Brötzmann did not assemble a ...

Album Review

Thomas Fonnesbaek: Sound Of My Colors

Read "Sound Of My Colors" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
February 11, 2013

So what is the difference between “Thomas Fonnesbaek, featuring Lars Jansson and Paul Svanberg," the billing for this album, and the Lars Jansson Trio, which features Jansson on piano, Thomas Fonnesbaek on bass and Paul Svanberg on drums? Well, it's all to do with emphasis. Fonnesbaek wrote nine songs for this, his debut album as leader, and decided the groove for all 12 numbers. The result is a more rhythm- driven music than the trio's usual meditative ...

Album Review

RAF Squadronaires and Todd Gordon: Evergreen

Read "Evergreen" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
February 11, 2013

The Royal Air Force Squadronaires can rightly lay claim to being one of the UK's most historically important big bands, and judging by the vibrancy of Helping the Heroes (Jazz Specific, 2012), undoubtedly one of the very best. A showcase for vocalist Todd Gordon and The Royal Air Force Squadronaires' impressive collective voice, that album is being launched in 2013 in several European countries as well as Canada, Australia South Korea and Japan under the new title Evergreen, no doubt ...

Big Band Report

Buddy Rich: In a Zone of His Own

by Jack Bowers
February 10, 2013

One of the channels that came with my Dish Network package is Classic Arts Showcase, which is a treasure trove of film clips documenting classical, ballet, folk, pop and other forms of music that one is unlikely to see anywhere else (although some footage is presumably available on YouTube, which more and more seems to encompass almost everything musical and beyond). When there is nothing else of interest to watch (which, alas, is much of the time), I sometimes press ...

Album Review

Barry Altschul: The 3dom

Read "The 3dom" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 10, 2013

Seems of late, Mr Simon, Mr Garfunkel and the nation have been singing “Coo, coo, ca- choo, Mrs. Robinson" not for Joe DiMaggio or the deceased Ann Bancroft, but for drummer Barry Altschul. Somehow, in the 1980s and '90s we misplaced him. Actually, he moved to Europe, recording for smaller labels before he quietly returned to the US. Not that the famed drummer from the 1960s bands of pianist Paul Bley and saxophonist Sam Rivers, or '70s work with Circle, ...

Live Review

Canzionere Grecanico Salentino: New York, NY February 1, 2013

by Ernest Barteldes
February 10, 2013

Canzionere Grecanico SalentinoMichael Schimmel Center For the Arts at Pace UniversityNew York, NYFebruary 1, 2013At the opening performance of its debut US tour, the Southern Italian Canzionere Grecanico Salentino sextet presented a cohesive set of traditional and original songs in an almost all-acoustic setting. The sextet opened by coming onstage, one by one. Accordionist Massimiliano Morabito began alone, and was slowly joined by the other members of the group. The ensemble played an up-tempo tune ...

Album Review

Dorian Devins: The Procrastinator

Read "The Procrastinator" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 10, 2013

Ginny Carr and the Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet recently paid proper homage to vocalese master Eddie Jefferson with the song “He Was the Cat," from Hustlin' For A Gig (HouseKat Records, 2012). Jefferson, along with Clarence Beeks (King Pleasure), specialized in writing lyrics for and singing the more notable jazz compositions, like “Moody's Mood for Love" and “Parker's Mood." This rarefied musical form has remained dormant for many years, waiting for a new talent to pen new lyrics for old ...