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

Lars Jansson Trio: Koan

by Chris Mosey
November 26, 2012

A koan is a Zen Buddhist riddle that cannot be solved by the intellect alone. The best known, portrayed on the cover of Lars Jansson Trio's Koan, is “What is the sound of one hand clapping?" The koan has been described as a form of spiritual dynamite that can propel the mind into satori, or “spiritual equilibrium." Swedish pianist Jansson sees his music as “a kind of koan." He says, “You can of course analyze music in ...

Album Review

Nick Moran Trio: No Time Like Now

Read "No Time Like Now" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
November 26, 2012

Organ trios can be annoyingly conservative. Perhaps the temptation to revisit the heyday of the style--the early 1960s--and recapture the magic that made all of those Blue Note and Prestige LPs so much fun is just too great. Maybe it's because the Hammond B-3 sound evokes so much nostalgia. Don't count Nick Moran among the sentimentalists. The title of his second CD, No Time Like Now, is illustrative of both his fresh approach to the organ trio, and to his ...

Interview

Trevor Rabin: All Colors Considered

by Ian Patterson
November 26, 2012

It wouldn't be the norm, that's for sure, but 23 years between solo albums is just one unusual facet of guitarist/composer Trevor Rabin's career to date. Whether taking a stance against apartheid in the early '70s in his native South Africa or turning down the opportunity to play in super group Asia for artistic reasons, Rabin has always done things his own way and stuck to his principles at every step. Rabin is perhaps best known around the world for ...

Album Review

George Schuller's Circle Wide: Listen Both Ways

Read "Listen Both Ways" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
November 25, 2012

Listen Both Ways is the first studio recording by drummer George Schuller's longstanding Circle Wide quintet to concentrate primarily on his original compositions. The group's previous Playscape releases, 2003's Round 'Bout Now and 2008's Like Before, Somewhat After, paid homage to the seminal efforts of famous post-war bandleaders--trumpeter Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet on the former and pianist Keith Jarrett's American Quartet on the latter.Six of the album's eight tunes are staples of the unit's live sets, with ...

The Moment's Energy

Furthest From "Weather Bird" So Far...

by Nic Jones
November 25, 2012

I've taught jazz history classes where I've made use of the Armstrong yardstick. It's a straightforward thing involving no more than comparing and contrasting two Louis Armstrong performances from the 1920s, the latter of which is always “Weather Bird," a duet featuring Armstrong and Earl Hines, on piano. So pitting, say, “Skip the Gutter," from June of 1928, against the Armstrong-Hines version reveals an extraordinarily accelerated rate of musical development in both players, especially as a mere six months separate ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Continuum

Read "Continuum" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 25, 2012

The Afro-Cuban connection is slightly transformed on nascent pianist David Virelles' inspirational trio set, featuring modern jazz luminaries, bassist Ben Street and drummer Andrew Cyrille. With his second solo outing and first for PI Recordings, the pianist has quickly surged to the forefront since migrating from Cuba to Canada, supporting distinguished saxophonist Jane Bunnett and receiving the first-ever Oscar Peterson Award. On “The Executioner," Virelles commingles traditional Latin jazz values with futuristic ideologies and benefits from Cuban ...

Contributor News

All About You

by Michael Ricci
November 25, 2012

Over the years I've helped shape the editorial direction of the website--placing a strong emphasis on modern jazz while supporting touring bands and musicians worldwide. Add an international mix of writers with their wide-ranging interests and opinions and you have a fascinating tapestry of content that makes All About Jazz an enduring destination online.It's been our policy to give the staff the freedom to write about whatever they feel is important to them--and it's an approach that has ...

Album Review

Chris Crocco: The Chris Crocco Fluid Trio +

Read "The Chris Crocco Fluid Trio +" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
November 25, 2012

An up-and-coming jazz guitarist, whose unadorned, largely effects-free sound belies a truly modernist approach, Chris Crocco's Fluid Trio+ stands out a bit from the gaggle of current jazz guitar recordings by virtue of its sheer stylistic range, and by the virtuosity of the playing therein. Crocco, along with drummer Francisco Mela and bassist Peter Slavov, plays with the sort of urgency that makes jazz really come alive. Though his sound is more akin to the traditional approach of plectrists such ...

Jazz Poetry

The Business of 'Trane

by Gordon Marshall
November 25, 2012

Carlos Santana turned me on to himin an article in Guitar Player magazineI read at the Hingham library,at 14: spiritual centerof his Baja brain,and mine now,for 35 years,in Boston, in the rainafter a storm...the storm--it lasted years,years when I couldn't listen to the fellow,so powerful his song,so powerful the memories of lossand pain, in ...

Album Review

Mwendo Dawa: Mwendo Dawa Music

Read "Mwendo Dawa Music" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
November 25, 2012

The Swedish quartet Mwendo Dawa (in Swahili: the way to a special goal) is co-led by keyboardist Susanna Lindeborg and reed player Ove Johansson, both also working as a duo and running the LJ Records label, which has operated since the late seventies and defined its own means of musical expression. Throughout the years, this quartet has hosted several well known Swedish musicians like bassists Anders Jormin and Lars Danielsson, as well as guitarist Ulf Wakenius. The ...