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.

Extended Analysis

Opusjazz

by Robert J. Lewis
December 8, 2012

From her earliest years, pianist Julie Lamontagne was immersed in classical music, but after attending a concert by the great Oliver Jones, she switched to jazz in her mid-to late teens. However, her musical mother tongue and first love remains classical, to which she returns to after a long hiatus, but with a new angle: she wants to integrate classical music with the more open-ended structure of jazz, leaving herself room to improvise. The result is Opusjazz, a music that ...

Album Review

David Gilmore: Numerology: Live At Jazz Standard

Read "Numerology: Live At Jazz Standard" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 7, 2012

Numbers and music are inextricably linked together. Numbers exist within every musical impulse and control the very nature of music through their connective ratios and relationships. This concept is explored to the fullest, without coming off as inaccessible “math music," on guitarist David Gilmore's Numerology: Live At Jazz Standard. Gilmore--not to be confused with Pink Floyd's guitar-wielding David Gilmour--has made a name for himself as a Berklee-based educator and go-to sideman, appearing on recordings with saxophonist Wayne ...

Album Review

Stevens / Rutherford / Parker / Guy: One Four and Two Twos

Read "One Four and Two Twos" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
December 7, 2012

This release brings the very welcome return of an August 1978 studio session involving four legends of British improv: drummer John Stevens, trombonist Paul Rutherford, saxophonist Evan Parker and bassist Barry Guy. The first four of its five quartet tracks were originally released on LP in 1980 by View; all five were rereleased on CD in 1994 by Konnex, accompanied by a 1992 Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME) track. Here, all five are accompanied by three unreleased 1979 duo tracks from ...

Live Review

Supersilent & John Paul Jones: London, England, November 18, 2012

by John Eyles
December 7, 2012

Supersilent & John Paul JonesVillage UndergroundLondon Jazz FestivalLondon, England November 18, 2012 By its tenth and final night, the 21st London Jazz Festival, had featured such illustrious names as saxophonists Peter Brötzmann, Jan Garbarek and Sonny Rollins, pianist Herbie Hancock, and guitarists Bill Frisell and John McLaughlin. But, as festivals always seem to, it had saved the best for last... and made it difficult to choose which gig to attend. Across town, guitarist ...

From Far and Wide

Shakespeare's Sonnets Sung to a Jazz Beat

by Fradley Garner
December 7, 2012

Shakespeare's Sonnets Sung to a Jazz Beat“If music be the food of love, play on." And while you're at it, set 16 of Shakespeare's sonnets to music, and play and sing them to a jazz beat. Which, by my troth, is exactly what Caroll Vanwelden has done. The comely Belgian pianist wanted to produce a new album of her own compositions. “One day I found a book of the sonnets I used 13 years ago when I worked ...

Album Review

Scott Boni Trio: Scott Boni Trio

Read "Scott Boni Trio" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
December 7, 2012

Washington, Pennsylvania is no hot spot for jazz music. With one possible exception (Al & Reuben's Restaurant), you are more likely to hear the latest hits from Brad Paisley or Carrie Underwood; no, let's face it, you are more likely to hear dead silence than jazz in almost any establishment in or around this small city just a few miles from the West Virginia border.It's heartening, then, to hear a good jazz album from Washington, PA native and ...

Album Review

Matt Renzi / Stefano Senni / Jimmy Weinstein: 4 Stories

Read "4 Stories" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 7, 2012

This recording session of the trio of reed player Matt Renzi, bassist Stefano Senni and drummer Jimmy Weinstein was accidental. The trio had not planned to make a recording, nothing was discussed before the four recorded improvisations, and the session was completed in one day, recorded direct to disc with no edits, and presented in the same sequence as the tracks were laid down. The improvisational stories unfold patiently and organically, stressing a calm and intimate atmosphere, ...

Album Review

Monome: Monome

by Ian Patterson
December 6, 2012

Monome began life in 2006, but on this Italian trio's debut recording it's effectively a quartet, with German saxophonist Peter Ehwald playing on five of the seven tracks. Ehwald first played with Monome in 2010, and since when their collaborations have become increasingly frequent, to the point that his presence here is an essential ingredient in the mix. The chemistry, whether as a trio or a quartet, is pronounced and borrows from classical, post-bop and more contemporary influences; the circular ...

Interview

Li Gao Yang: Locks, Stock and Smoking Barrel

by Ian Patterson
December 6, 2012

With dreadlocks tumbling over his shoulders, Li Gao Yang already cuts a striking figure. When he's on stage blowing his tenor saxophone and leading his quartet with quiet assurance, the impact is all the greater. Chinese jazz stars are few and far between, at home or abroad, but already this unassuming musician from Beijing has appeared on television and made the Chinese press on numerous occasions. He's also had the honor of opening both the Hong Kong international Jazz Festival ...

Bailey's Bundles

Christmas 2012, Part I: Seraphic Fire

by C. Michael Bailey
December 6, 2012

The vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire hails from the warm climes of southern Florida. Brainchild and progeny of Patrick Dupré Quigley, the group assembles a passel of singing smarty pants who have been making their way through the standard vocal repertoire since their founding in the early 2000s. Since that time, the group, recording for the Seraphic Fire recording label has released several notable recordings, two of which (Johannes Brahm's Ein Deutsches Requiem and A Seraphic Fire Christmas) were nominated for ...