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

Nils Landgren: Christmas With My Friends III

Read "Christmas With My Friends III" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 27, 2012

The test of a great Christmas album is simple: will it sound good in August? Christmas With My Friends III should ace that particular test. Even those who derive most festive fun from repeatedly grunting “Bah, Humbug" at passing kindergarten children will be drawn into the spell of this music. Beautifully performed by some of the European jazz scene's finest singers and musicians, the gentle grace of the music comes to the fore and serves as a reminder of Christmas' ...

Catching Up With

Tianna Hall: Sid, Barney, Duke & Billy

by C. Michael Bailey
November 27, 2012

Jazz vocalist Tianna Hall calls Houston, TX home. At first blush, one might consider Houston a hub for the oil industry, barbecue, and country music, but not one for jazz. However, Houston has a long history with the music dating to the age of the territory bands and the “Chitlin' Circuit" existing between the late '20s and early '50s, a period ruled by the infamous impresario Don Robey. The modern Houston jazz scene is dominated by a ...

Live Review

Exit Zero International Jazz Festival: Cape May, NJ, November 9-11, 2012

by Sandy Ingham
November 27, 2012

Exit Zero International Jazz FestivalCape May, NJNovember 9-11, 2012After the beating the Northeast took from Hurricane Sandy and a snowy nor'easter, people were ready for something positive, and for some it came in the form of the first Exit Zero International Jazz Festival in Cape May, New Jersey.Pianist Ramsey Lewis, bassist Christian McBride, singer Mark Murphy, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and dozens of other musicians were ready to party, and so were the nearly 1,000 people ...

Album Review

Richard Nelson Large Ensemble: Pursuit

by Dave Wayne
November 27, 2012

Brooding, ECM-like soundscapes and thick, tense harmonies predominate on Pursuit, from Maine-based guitarist Richard Nelson. A student of avant-garde composers Donald Erb and Mario Davidovsky, and a core member of Mark Harvey's Boston- based Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Nelson takes a few cues from these experiences, and adds more than a few of his own, to come up with a distinctive synthesis of modern jazz, and contemporary orchestral music.Not surprisingly, Nelson is an ambitious and daring composer and there's ...

Album Review

Dave King with Bill Carrothers and Billy Peterson: I've Been Ringing You

Read "I've Been Ringing You" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 27, 2012

Drummer Dave King's major fame and fortune--though mostly fame; this is, after all, jazz we're talking about--comes from his work with The Bad Plus. That particular modern piano trio can go loud, combining elements of pop and rock while delving into the avant-garde side of jazz. TBP has been described as bombastic, but King doesn't limit himself to his main gig. He works in several side projects, and for his I've Been Ringing You, he joins up with fellow Minnesotans, ...

Live Review

Abe Ovadia Trio: New York, NY, November 6, 2012

by Daniel Lehner
November 27, 2012

Abe Ovadia TrioCornelia Street CafeNew York, NYNovember 6, 2012The night of the 2012 U.S. presidential election happened to be a few days into the slow return of many West Village jazz clubs, back to regular operation after Hurricane Sandy. Thus, Cornelia Street Café and many other clubs like it were eager, even in spite of all of the recovery from the previous week and the hubbub of the election results, to get acts back on ...

Album Review

Timo Lassy: In with Lassy

Read "In with Lassy" reviewed by Anthony Shaw

by Anthony Shaw
November 27, 2012

Timo Lassy is one of the not-quite-so-young generation of Finnish musicians to have risen thru the ranks of the generous local system of music education, starting out as a toddler on piano, and gravitating in his early teens to saxophone. He cut his teeth in Amsterdam at the end of the old century and since returning home has been involved in the front line of modern Finnish jazz, first with the U-Street All Stars and more spectacularly with the Five ...

Album Review

Jason Kao Hwang: Burning Bridge

Read "Burning Bridge" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 26, 2012

Featuring the members of his quartet EDGE, violinist Jason Kao Hwang slashes through preconceived perimeters and bridges a cultural gap via his thoroughly modern vision on this concentrated effort, sparking innovation from a 360-degree stance. The complex premise for these intersecting works emanates from the passing of his mother, his Chinese heritage and life's experiences, all amalgamated into an album that breathes life anew. Dissonance and unorthodox phrasings opaquely coalesce with Hwang's thick staccato phrasings and sophisticated risk-taking ...

Live Review

Enjoy Jazz Festival: Heidelberg / Mannheim / Ludwigshafen, Germany, October 30-November 7, 2012

by John Kelman
November 26, 2012

2012 Enjoy Jazz FestivalHeidelberg/Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, GermanyOctober 30-November 7, 2012After a week in northern Sweden covering the 2012 Umeå Jazz Festival--where the were days shortening and the temperature dropping--moving south to Heidelberg, Germany was a welcome respite from the oncoming onslaught of winter that's also approaching back home in Canada. For this year's coverage of the fourteenth edition of the Enjoy Jazz Festival, a festival unique in a world of thousands of jazz festivals in its approach--as a general ...

Album Review

Westbrook Trio: three into wonderfull

Read "three into wonderfull" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 26, 2012

The Westbrook Trio celebrates thirty years of music making with three into wonderfull, a retrospective covering the years from 1983 to 2012. Pianist and composer Mike Westbrook, vocalist Kate Westbrook and saxophonist Chris Biscoe have pursued an uncompromising path through the three decades since forming the Trio, crafting music that can be both beautiful and challenging. Mike Westbrook has long been one of the UK jazz scene's most impressive composers, working equally successfully with small ensembles and big bands