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

Slumgum / Hugh Ragin: The Sky His Own

Read "The Sky His Own" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 2, 2012

The third release of the young Los Angeles-based, Cal Arts-educated Slumgum attempts to expand its musical universe. This inventive quartet already defined its rich aesthetic, drawing from diverse influences like jazz, free improvisation, world music and modern classical music, stressing a vivid sense of exploration and adventure with close and supportive interplay. On The Sky His Own, the quartet hosts veteran cornetist Hugh Ragin, who has collaborated with such important musicians as Roscoe Mitchell, Clark Terry, David Murray and Sun ...

Multiple Reviews

Catching Up With Guitarist John Russell

by John Eyles
December 2, 2012

2012 has been a memorable year for guitarist John Russell. It marked the twenty-first anniversary of his concert series Mopomoso which meets monthly at The Vortex jazz club in Dalston, London, making it the city's longest-running improvised music series. The year was also the thirtieth anniversary of Fete Quaqua, his annual festival of improv. Both Mopomoso and Fete Quaqua have an international feel, with musicians from across the globe regularly visiting them, Russell always making them very welcome. London has ...

Film Review

Woody Herman: Blue Flame - Portrait Of A Jazz Legend

by Dan Bilawsky
December 1, 2012

Woody HermanBlue Flame: Portrait Of A Jazz LegendJazzed Media2012 Innovation and boundary pushing is often seen as a young man's game, so the obvious question is, how did clarinetist/saxophonist/vocalist/bandleader extraordinaire Woody Herman manage to keep things fresh for virtually his entire half-century run? The answer is so simple that it almost belongs in the common sense category: Herman continued to tap young musicians to shape his groups' sound from the time ...

Album Review

Katherine Young's Pretty Monsters: Pretty Monsters

Read "Pretty Monsters" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
December 1, 2012

Rarely used in jazz and creative improvised music (except by individualists like Karen Borca), the unwieldy bassoon is commonly relegated to the role of a doubling horn, sparingly employed by eclectic multi-instrumentalists like Joseph Jarman and Yusef Lateef for its unusual tonal color. Brooklyn-based bassoonist Katherine Young transcends the instrument's reputation with a shrewd combination of talent and technology; she employs extended techniques and effects pedals to subtly expand the horn's range, as previously revealed on her acclaimed solo debut, ...

Album Review

Samo Salamon Trio: Eleven Stories

Read "Eleven Stories" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 1, 2012

Guitarist Samo Salamon never treads on the same ground twice, but that doesn't mean his bands continually rotate personnel. A quick look at his recorded output, which includes approximately a dozen dates over the past decade, indicates that he does have a fondness for mixing, matching and mingling with different musical associates, but he also has his go-to guys; on Eleven Stories, he opts for familiar faces over fresh ones. Bass-and-tuba man Michel Godard and drummer Roberto ...

Extended Analysis

Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique: Live at Carnegie Hall--Beethoven Symphonies 7 & 5

by C. Michael Bailey
December 1, 2012

Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Sir John Eliot GardinerLive at Carnegie Hall: Beethoven Symphonies 7 & 5Soli Deo Gloria2012 Why return to this tired, old repertoire? Twenty years ago, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his period instrument band, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, produced the leader of a deluge of Beethoven Nines performed on period instruments, or by period practices, or both. The Deutsche Grammophon Archiv Produktion imprint even managed to perfect the ...

Album Review

The Peggy Lee Band: Invitation

by Ted Harms
December 1, 2012

This is the fifth album, and second on Drip Audio, of Vancouver-based cellist Peggy Lee's ensemble. The Peggy Lee Band members are all solid players, and each has their turn taking the lead through this 11-song recording. The strong tunes occasionally evoke the feel and vibe of guitarist Bill Frisell's early '90s sextet classics This Land (Nonesuch, 1994) and Have a Little Faith (Nonesuch, 1993).The songs range from the vaudeville-esque “Why Are You Yelling," with its spiky yet ...

Book Review

The Rolling Stones - 50 Years

by Nenad Georgievski
December 1, 2012

The Rolling Stones--50 godinaHrvoje Horvat and Darko Glavan226ISBN: 978-953-313-079-8Profil knjiga d.o.o.2012Taking into consideration the short lifespan of a rock band, the longevity of the Rolling Stones can be counted as a miracle in an almost biblical sense. The question also arises of how many years are bands relevant through their careers? Not many, but the Rolling Stones are not the usual rock band. On July 12, 2012, the ...

Album Review

Jacinta: Recycle Swing

Read "Recycle Swing" reviewed by Ana Francisca Gonçalves Pereira

by Ana Francisca Gonçalves Pereira
December 1, 2012

Singer Jacinta's Recycle Swing is a tribute to Broadway's Golden Era, when cabaret music abounded and the likes of the Gershwins and Leonard Bernstein were getting increasingly popular. Indeed, Broadway had “the world on a string," and so does the jazz vocalist in this remarkable homage which includes, coincidently, the Ted Koehler/Harold Arlen masterpiece “I've Got The World On a String" (1932).Singer Jacinta's ethereal baritone is the perfect vessel for these iconic songs, accurately conveying the compositions' message ...

Album Review

Natsuki Tamura/Satoko Fujii: Muku

by Hrayr Attarian
November 30, 2012

The restlessly innovative husband and wife team of trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii have produced some of the most intriguing and invigorating music to come out of Japan. Although rooted in the jazz idiom, their explorations are on universal themes, drawing upon a variety of inspirations. Their work is primarily improvised, but not in the sense of a blowing session and more within the permissive construct of melodic and unconventional compositions. More often than not, ...