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

Keith Jarrett: Hymns/Spheres

Read "Hymns/Spheres" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
January 25, 2013

In a career well into its fifth decade, while continuing to make fine music in the new millennium, looking back at Keith Jarrett's discography reveals that the 1970s was a particularly important--and busy--time for the influential pianist. In that single decade, Jarrett released epochal solo piano explorations like The Köln Concert (ECM, 1975); orchestral works including Arbour Zena (ECM, 1975); and led not one but two now-legendary groups--the American quartet responsible for The Survivor's Suite (ECM, 1976) and the European ...

Album Review

Bongos Ikwue and Double X: Wulu Wulu

Read "Wulu Wulu" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
January 25, 2013

Nigeria has been a wellspring of vital African music for some time now, from ethnic folk music with its call and response, to palm-wine, juju, Afrobeat, and the horn and guitar driven sounds of highlife. This polyrhythmic music has also achieved international fame due to popular artists as Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade. Though these two may be the best known, singer/songwriter Bongos Ikwue has attained local legend status in the Benue State of central Nigeria, since his days ...

Album Review

Jackie Ryan with John Clayton & Friends: Listen Here

Read "Listen Here" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 25, 2013

With Listen Here, vocalist Jackie Ryan offers a diverse and delectable array of Great American Songbook and jazz classics, well-known but not regularly-recorded older hits, and superb original selections. Supported by Grammy Award-winning bassist John Clayton and most able friends (including Clayton's son, pianist Gerald, a three-time Grammy nominee), the overall effort soars. It's a tour de force of talent and taste.Ryan's voice is full, highly resonant and eminently inviting. It is also one of subtle shadings. Her ...

We Travel the Spaceways

Before We Say Goodbye To 2012

by Mark Corroto
January 25, 2013

In consumer culture, where we are all guilty of looking for the next new thing, the emphasis is always on new releases, and what the next, best, super-improved product will be. It seems that even before this week's movie opens, we are being told about next week's blockbuster. Before we turn our attention fully to 2013, here are some 2012 releases that deserve a listen. Sam Newsome The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1

Extended Analysis

Jazz on Film: Beat, Square & Cool

by Skip Heller
January 24, 2013

Again presenting eight film scores spread across five discs, packaged in a gorgeous box and enclosed with a beautifully illustrated and comprehensively notated booklet, the Moochin' About staff (who are also the force behind the excellent British magazine Jazzwise) have returned with their second installment of noir and near-noir jazz movie music. As with their previous five disc volume, Film Noir, Beat, Square, and Cool anthologizes dark, moody “crimejazz" film scores coming from composers from both outside and within the ...

Album Review

Ilia Skibinsky: The Passage

Read "The Passage" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 24, 2013

Saxophonist David Binney's Mythology Records imprint is used sparingly, but when this maverick music man chooses to release albums under its banner, they tend to be bold and brimming with the excitement of the unknown; The Passage is no exception. With this debut, Russian-born/Israeli-bred/New York-based saxophonist/composer Ilia Skibinsky joins the elite Mythology roster, which includes post- modern piano marvel John Escreet and Binney himself. Skibinsky may not be as edgy as Binney, and his compositions may not be as aggressively ...

Extended Analysis

John Hollenbeck: Songs I Like a Lot

by John Kelman
January 24, 2013

It's hard to resist, at the very least, looking at an album with as honest and unassuming a title as Songs I Like a Lot; but it's even harder to resist when it turns out that the instigator is John Hollenbeck, founder of and primary composer for Claudia Quintet--the chamber jazz ensemble which has, over the course of six albums in nine years, completely defied definition and categorization, beyond combining improvisational prowess and the ability to subtly interpret through-composed music. ...

Album Review

Eric Schaefer: Who Is Afraid Of Richard W.?

Read "Who Is Afraid Of Richard W.?" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 24, 2013

In 2013 the international music community celebrates the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth. The venerable and controversial composer has been rather quiet of late, but his body of work is one of the best known in the classical canon. On Who Is Afraid of Richard W.? Eric Schaefer--a highly-regarded drummer probably best known as a member of the German piano trio [em]--celebrates his fellow-countryman's anniversary with some imaginative reinterpretations of Wagner's work.The album isn't completely devoted to ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Michael Francis Zinna

by AAJ Staff
January 24, 2013

Meet Michael Francis Zinna:60 years old. Grew up in New York and Long Island. Loved the guitar the first time I heard it. Growing up in New York, jazz was all around. My first epiphany came with the great blues renaissance of the 1960s. Then I heard Wes Montgomery and people like Barney Kesseland Chuck Wayne. I knew then the path to go down.Instrument(s):Guitar.Teachers and/or influences?The blues was a great ...

Album Review

Maria Mendes: Along the Road

Read "Along the Road" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
January 24, 2013

Virtuosity needn't be on display at every moment; restraint, in fact, is an important yet often overlooked aspect of true virtuosity. Norma Winstone is a clear example; certainly capable of plenty, more often than not the British singer's performances are defined by nuance, subtlety and a direct line to the heart of the music. Maria Mendes is another, with the spirit of Brazil looming large over this young Portuguese-born/Netherlands-resident singer's impressive debut, Along the Road--a nine-song set of standards, material ...