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

SM Quinteto: Stories, Tales and Songs

Read "Stories, Tales and Songs" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 3, 2012

Bassist Sammy Morales may call Puerto Rico his home, but he embraces the entire Latin Diaspora in his music. Born in the Bronx but relocating to San Juan, Morales creates compelling modern jazz built on a pan-Latin platform, ably erasing the boundary lines between Puerto Rico, Argentina, Spain, Brazil and Cuba on this, his longtime-coming debut. Morales maintains an active playing career in Puerto Rico, but his work in education has kept him out of the spotlight. ...

Album Review

Jani Moder 4Tet: Sky High Low Down

Read "Sky High Low Down" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
December 3, 2012

Guitarist Jani Moder brings an array of styles into play on Sky High Low Down, with a sense of accomplishment that never lets the movement or the mode get ahead of his field of vision. He carries his art into bop as easily as he does into a ballad that coaxes a rainbow of soft colors from the song's harmonic folds.The quartet gets off to a lively start with exuberance on “Exhale." The hint of a Latin melody ...

Live Review

Cork Jazz Festival: Cork, Ireland, October 26-28, 2012

by Martin Longley
December 3, 2012

Cork Jazz Festival 2012 Cork, Ireland October 26-28, 2012 Cork is Ireland's second city, but it still doesn't feel like too much of a metropolis. Its jazz festival has been running for 34 years, and is always scheduled to coincide with the national public holiday weekend at the end of October. There is no central location, the weekender operating all around Cork, with performances ranging in scale from big concert halls to ...

Album Review

Kim Kashkashian: Kurtag/Ligeti: Music for Viola

Read "Kurtag/Ligeti: Music for Viola" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 3, 2012

There are more jokes about the viola, perhaps, than any other member of the violin family, but there are also exquisitely written pieces of music that in the hands of virtuosos come alive with vivid emotion and erudite articulation. Boston-based Kim Kashkashian is one of the premier violists in the world and has recorded many fine, edgy and stimulating albums. With Kurtág/Ligeti: Music for Viola, she tackles two of the more challenging composers of the last half ...

Interview

Jacqui Sutton: At the Edge of the Frontier

by C. Michael Bailey
December 3, 2012

Vocalist/bandleader Jacqui Sutton has a vision that was fully realized by the time she started recording. Her vision had a long incubation period, spent in a variety of musical wood sheds all leading to her debut, Billie and Dolly (Toy Blue Typewriter, 2010). And this was only the beginning.All About Jazz: In your press bio, you begin, “Turning 50 and starting a garage band is not the usual vocalist's narrative... “ You are a child of the '70s ...

Album Review

Working Week: Working Nights

Read "Working Nights" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 2, 2012

Many contemporary music and cultural commentators disparage the UK's '80s pop scene as a time seemingly in thrall to new technologies, and whose throwaway commercial hits are long forgotten--and rightly so. Is that really how it was though? Others look far more fondly on the decade's music, remembering its brief dalliance between pop culture and jazz with affection. This is, after all, the decade which saw the emergence of Loose Tubes, saxophonist Courtney Pine and Working Week--and which put those ...

Album Review

Jeremy Long: In Suspension

Read "In Suspension" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 2, 2012

While saxophonist Jeremy Long's lengthy résumé includes work with large ensembles on both sides of the classical-jazz divide, he goes the other way for his jazz debut. Long chose the tried-and-true saxophone-led organ trio format for his first leader session, but doesn't play it completely straight. In Suspension has its fair share of earthy groove moments, but it generally veers slightly left of center with some of its ideas and sounds. Long's chameleon-like ability has allowed him ...

Extended Analysis

Bud Shank: Four Classic Albums

by David Rickert
December 2, 2012

Bud ShankFour Classic AlbumsAvid Records UK2012Bud Shank is typical of the jazz musicians that roamed the West Coast in the fifties in that he was able to work comfortably in a variety of settings: big bands, the studio, and clubs. Like many of the other players, Shank also played more than one instrument, which made him a valuable member of the bandstand and afforded his solo recordings a bit more variety than ...

Album Review

Michael Attias: Spun Tree

Read "Spun Tree" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 2, 2012

Saxophonist Michael Attias seldom rests on his laurels. Always aligning with a superlative support structure, each of his solo outings offer a fluctuating refresher course on routes previously navigated. With nouveau ideologies in place, Attias' expansive cache of weaponry once again comes to the forefront. The band skirts between introspection, aggression, and fiercely driven free bop atop the ever-present avant-garde contingent. No particular slant or proposition dominates on Spun Tree, and the musicians' intrinsic synergy cannot be understated.

Jazz Poetry

Mind

by Gordon Marshall
December 2, 2012

For Yoko MiwaShe knocked me out for a yeartook me to the tombsof Egypt, where she embalmedthe brains of the first tribeof jazz... with kindest careshe put them in their jarslabeled calligraphicallywith multi-colored lettersindicating Duke and 'Tranein a quicksand of sadness they reign,under her sash of silkin all her sweet milk,nursing it all in ...