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

Gabriel Alegria Afro Peruvian Sextet: Ciudad De Los Reyes

Read "Ciudad De Los Reyes" reviewed by Skip Heller

by Skip Heller
January 28, 2013

Trumpeter Gabriel Alegria has all but issued a mission statement to establish and cultivate a Peruvian/jazz style. Unlike most styles of Latin music, like montuno-based Afro-Cuban and bossa nova, Peruvian music does not stem from the clave rhythm, but instead from 12/8 (or 6/8, depending on who is your resident self-proclaimed expert). In short, it's a three-against-four deal. The opening section of Chick Corea's “Litha" provides an easy American reference.Alegria's group has the typical trumpet/saxophone frontline, along with ...

Extended Analysis

Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2

by John Kelman
January 28, 2013

While the quintet heard on this first-time commercial issue of four live dates from 1969 was, in fact, already uncovered on the November 4, 1969 Copenhagen concert DVD included in the Bitches Brew: 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition and Legacy Edition (both Columbia/Legacy, 2010) and a portion of Bitches Brew Live (Columbia/Legacy, 2011)--as well as in sextet form (with the addition of percussionist Airto Moreira) on Live at The Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About That Time (Columbia/Legacy, 2001)--the performances ...

Album Review

Pamela Hines Trio: 3.2.1.

Read "3.2.1." reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 28, 2013

Pianist Pamela Hines has been busy on the jazz scene for fifteen years, producing many excellent CDs featuring her quartets and quintets, as well as pairings with several top-notch vocalists. A first-rate composer of engaging and memorable tunes who put out one of the coolest Christmas albums, New Christmas (Spice Rack, 2008), she should be better known. 3.2.1, a superb, mostly trio affair, might just push her profile closer to where it belongs.Most of Hines' recordings, including New ...

Live Review

Bassekou Kouyate / Tamikrest / Sidi Toure: London, January 26, 2013

by Chris May
January 28, 2013

Bassekou Kouyate / Tamikrest / Sidi ToureBarbicanLondonJanuary 26, 2013Ten days earlier, the vibe at this Malian package show--billed as Sahara Soul--would likely have been jumpy rather than joyful. The northern half of Mali seemed secure in the hands of Islamist invaders, who were intent on destroying the region's indigenous music and culture and poised to move south and take the Malian capital, Bamako.But, on January 26, 2013, the mood onstage at the Barbican ...

Album Review

The Odd Trio: Birth of The Minotaur

Read "Birth of The Minotaur" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 28, 2013

The dual themes running through The Odd Trio's genre-bending The Birth of the Minotaur are jam band-inspired spontaneity and intensely melodic and almost theatrical impressionism. Even though Greek mythology is the source of their inspiration the dozen pieces bear hints of cinematic scores, blues and rock in addition to Mediterranean folk music. “Pasiphae's WIld Ride," for instance, can serve as a soundtrack to a Western, set in a world of alternate reality. Drummer Todd Mueller's thunderous beats ...

Album Review

Fabrizio Sferra Quartet: Untitled #28

Read "Untitled #28" reviewed by Alex Franquelli

by Alex Franquelli
January 28, 2013

It sounds great. It really does. It happens every time a record flows in such a way that it's possible to actually enjoy its variations, contrasts and colors. Yes, colors; Untitled #28 is full of them.Musically, for instance; the sound shaped by drummer Fabrizio Sferra's quartet is one which toys with perceptions of intensity and timbres in a way that appears to be utterly spontaneous, rather than planned. Sferra is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in Italian ...

Interview

Bob Belden: Jazz Adventurer

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
January 28, 2013

Bob Belden is a jazz renaissance man: a flutist and saxophonist who began his career with Woody Herman's big band. He's also a composer and arranger, who has orchestrated jazz treatments of Puccini's opera Turandot as well as the music of The Beatles, Sting and Prince. His pair of tributes to trumpeter Miles Davis--Miles from India (Times Square, 2008) and Miles Español: New Sketches From Spain (Entertainment One, 2011)--are conceptually and sonically rich high points in a crowded discography as ...

The Mort Report

Sex and the Jazz Musician: The Brutal Truth!

by Mort Weiss
January 27, 2013

The following is taken from the chronicles of a gold panel Committee of select persons from the international confines of various state institutions that hold such findings sacred--the long-term commitment of these individuals that have given rant to their multitudinous ravings on this highly personal topic.In my course of dumpster diving for salvation, I found these discarded records from the Harding administration that are the most revealing about these ubiquitous and reoccurring problems.And Now the Brutal ...

Album Review

Kevin Eubanks: The Messenger

Read "The Messenger" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 27, 2013

It's a shame that so few people only know guitarist Kevin Eubanks as the always-smiling, lick-delivering bandleader and guitar sidekick on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was sharing the stage with drummer Art Blakey and recording with drummer Billy Hart long before he ever did the daily grind in television studios, but time has an unfortunate way of rewriting history. Eubanks added volumes to Leno's program during his tenure with the comedian-turned host, both in terms of music ...

Album Review

Arturo Stable: Cuban Crosshatching

Read "Cuban Crosshatching" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
January 27, 2013

Seemingly under no duress to prove himself, exceptional percussionist Arturo Stable exudes confidence in any number of situations, whether playing with the great Paquito D'Rivera, adding rhythmic Cuban flavors to the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra or leading his own band in its memorable 2007 debut, Notes On Canvas (Origen Records). A conceptualist who incorporates ethnic music with other influences, his sound represents more than typical Latin percussion. Stable's thoughtful perspective illuminates Cuban Crossinghatching, which he states “is the result of a ...