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.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Joseph Alan Fears

by AAJ Staff
January 27, 2013

Meet Joseph Alan Fears:Born in 1957 In Hastings, Nebraska. Moved at age 11 to start a band and, from 1971 until 2009, Joseph Alan Fears has been performing live in concerts, festivals and nightclubs, as well as recording and releasing songs on his own label, Jaff Records.Presently performing with his band Zafaja, known all over the world for a great live show.Instrument(s):Bass, guitar, piano, organ, drums, congas.Teachers and/or influences?

Album Review

Joe Gilman: Relativity

Read "Relativity" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
January 27, 2013

The concept of interpreting art and other visual works into a piece of music, is probably not an easy thing to realize, yet on Americanvas (Capri, 2010), pianist Joe Gilman successfully accomplished this feat, drawing his inspiration from the art world using paintings as vehicles for jazz improvisation. Relativity follows the same theme, this time focusing on the works of Dutch graphic artist Maurtis Cornelis Escher better known as M.C. Escher where Dr. Gilman, music Director of the Brubeck Institute's ...

Book Review

Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show: The Graphic Design of "U2"

by Nenad Georgievski
January 27, 2013

Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show: The Graphic Design of “U2" Lisa Godson 106 Pages ISBN: 0954519302 AMP Visual 2003 Since its humble beginnings in the 1960s, the album cover has travelled a long distance from being a practical protective packaging to a miniature canvas rife with famous and iconic images. Every music collector or fan knows that whatever the media--be it vinyl, cassette or CD--the ears also have eyes. As a form ...

Extended Analysis

Various Artists: Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard

by Skip Heller
January 26, 2013

There is always complaint that American contemporary musical life is at turns either too glitzy or overly-intellectualized. Either claim is overly simplistic, neither completely wrong. And in no area is it more true than country music. On one hand, there is the proud stupidity of Toby Keith and Gretchen Wilson. On the other, the self-consciously literate indulgences of the Americana movement. Great stuff still lives on in the margins, but it's hardly the norm.Early country music was healthy ...

Album Review

Liudas Mockunas & Barry Guy: Lava

by John Sharpe
January 26, 2013

Iconoclastic saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Evan Parker furnish the most customary duo outlets for master bassist Barry Guy, so Lithuanian reedman Liudas Mockunas' situation on Lava is an exposed one. However, he acquits himself well in a voice entirely his own. Co-founder of the No Business imprint, Mockūnas weighs in as one of the country's premier improvisers, appearing alongside an ever increasing catalogue of Baltic, Scandinavian, and US performers. Previous appearances have placed him in a Peter Brötzmann-like trio on ...

Live Review

Phish: New York, New York, December 28-31, 2012

by Doug Collette
January 26, 2013

PhishMadison Square Garden New York, New YorkDecember 28-31, 2012Phish's four-night, year-end run at Madison Square Garden was the work of a band relishing its shared experience as a group, as well an enduring bond with its audience. It was as if the desultory dissolution of 2004 had never happened, yet the triumph of the 2009 reunion continues to inspire the band.As befitting the occasion of the turn of the year, not to mention ...

Album Review

Joe Holt: In the Spirit of Dave McKenna

Read "In the Spirit of Dave McKenna" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 26, 2013

The late Dave McKenna (1930-2008) belonged to a group of pianists that include Ralph Sutton (1922-2001), Dick Wellstood (1927-1987) and the very much alive Dick Hyman. These are durable, traditional jazz pianists, well-versed in stride, with enormous genre and technical vocabularies. McKenna recorded many enjoyable discs for the Concord and Arbors labels and deserves the acknowledgement Joe Holt gives him on In The Spirit of Dave McKenna. Holt, a native of Chestertown, MD, is a music educator ...

Live Review

Midge Ure: New York, NY, January 9, 2013

by Mike Perciaccante
January 26, 2013

Midge Ure with special guest Right The Stars The Iridium New York, NY January 9, 2013Midge Ure has had quite a diverse career. Since arriving on the musical horizon in the late '70s, Ure has made himself known as a force to be reckoned with as a member of Slik, The Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Visage, Ultravox and Band Aid, the one-off group that spawned a movement. During his career, the Scottish guitarist, singer, keyboard ...

Album Review

Kazuhisa Uchihashi and Tatsuya Yoshida: Barisshee

Read "Barisshee" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
January 26, 2013

Since its inception, the Tzadik label has continued to introduce musicians from the vibrant Japanese underground scene. Prolific drummer Tatsuya Yoshida is one of the most famous, active in countless outfits--most of them duos and trios. Guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi, who now resides in Berlin, is a close collaborator, guesting in Yoshida's legendary Ruins, recording a series of improvisational albums with the drummer in the last decade. With this duo recording, they keep honing their language. Both play ...

Extended Analysis

Chris Potter: The Sirens

by John Kelman
January 25, 2013

The appearance of saxophonist Chris Potter as a leader on ECM may come as a surprise to some, but a look back at the label's 44-year history makes The Sirens--his label debut and 19th as a leader since first emerging with trumpeter Red Rodney before he'd turned twenty, and releasing his own debut, Presenting Chris Potter (Criss Cross), in 1992--not just sensible, but inevitable. Potter's history with the label, starting with bassist Dave Holland's longstanding quintet and big band, from ...