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

Soule Monde: Soule Monde

Read "Soule Monde" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 23, 2012

Soule Monde was borne from a musical partnership between percussionist Russ Lawton and keyboardist Pay Paczkowski, that blossomed as both were co-members of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio's solo band. Staples of the Burlington, Vermont music scene, both Lawton and Paczkowski kept busy with their various individual projects while playing live improv shows as a duo for months prior to formalizing their original pieces into compositions that make up this, their first recorded collaboration. In both conception and execution, ...

Album Review

The Royal Air Force Squadronaires And Todd Gordon: Helping The Heroes

Read "Helping The Heroes" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
November 22, 2012

One of the UK's premiere big bands, the Royal Air Force Squadronaires' roots date to 1939 when some of London's top jazz and dance band musicians were recruited to form the Royal Air Force Dance Orchestra, more popularly known as the Squadronaires. The band toured war-torn Europe to raise troop morale following the Allied Normandy Landings in 1944, and though it seems like fiction, it was heading for Germany before a German counter-offensive pushed the Allied forces--and the Squadronaires--back to ...

Album Review

Dave Ferrato: Later, On Decatur

Read "Later, On Decatur" reviewed by Wade Luquet

by Wade Luquet
November 22, 2012

Dave Ferrato is a musician's musician who has been buried deep in the New Orleans club scene for the last 30 years. The guitarist/songwriter has developed a keen eye for the underside of the Crescent City and is able to share this world through simple and elegant tunes that have been well orchestrated on Later, On Decatur by a few musical friends he has met on this journey. He is joined on this CD by numerous New Orleans icons including ...

Catching Up With

Jonathan Kreisberg: From Shadowless to One

by Marta Ramon
November 22, 2012

Jonathan Kreisberg has filled a gap in the international jazz scene. This New York-based guitarist started with both rock and classical music, but from the beginning he paid attention to his father's great jazz music collection. For Kreisberg, jazz is a pure music based on feelings. He says that he first experienced the creative part of music by ear until J.B Dyas, his teacher in the New World School of the Arts, showed him how jazz worked.His charismatic ...

Live From Philadelphia

October 2012: Fresh Cut from the Vine, Re: Trio

by RJ Johnson
November 22, 2012

Philly Jazz: Fresh Cut From the VinePainted Bride Art CenterPhiladelphia, PAOctober 20, 2012Philadelphia is a city filled with abundant talent and artistic potential, especially when it comes to the city's vibrant music scene. However, Philadelphia-based musicians often find themselves faced with a lack of opportunities to showcase their original works.The Painted Bride has been presenting jazz through its Jazz on Vine series for over 20 continuous years. Though not a ...

Album Review

Marshall Gilkes: Sound Stories

Read "Sound Stories" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
November 22, 2012

One thing evident from the outset of Marshall Gilkes' Sound Stories: this is a band that impresses with the sheer force of its Herculean chops and unbridled, ceaseless energy. Juilliard-educated and currently residing in Cologne, Germany, Gilkes is one of the most impressive young jazz trombonists to emerge in the last few years. Given the crop of amazing young trombonists on the scene these days--Joe Fiedler, Robert Bachner, Samuel Blaser--that's really saying something. Gilkes' solos combine uncanny pinpoint control with ...

Album Review

The Gaddabouts: Look Out Now!

Read "Look Out Now!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 22, 2012

Steve Gadd is the subject of much adoration and nerd-like obsession in drum circles. Several years ago, the drummer embarked on a clinic tour--dubbed Mission From Gadd--where he got up, spoke, and played a bit for his eager fans. At one of these appearances, at a Long Island high school, Gadd became the drum equivalent of William Shatner at a Star Trek convention. Audience members threw out absurdly specific questions about random fills from songs that Gadd had recorded decades ...

Record Label Profile

Fresh Sound Records and the Legacy of Recorded Jazz

by Bruce Klauber
November 22, 2012

If the importance and the contributions of jazz are measured by its recorded legacy, then Fresh Sound Records--and its founder, Jordi Pujol--must be duly recognized for rescuing a legacy that might otherwise be lost or nearly impossible to find, and for making it available to the public. Specifically, this legacy includes recorded works by saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, bandleader and composer Duke Ellington, and literally hundreds of other major, semi-major and lesser known jazz artists who ...

Album Review

Allen Vizzutti: Ritzville

Read "Ritzville" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 21, 2012

There are very few trumpeters that can do it all and do it all well, but Allen Vizzutti is one of them. His storied career has included stints with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd, pianist Chick Corea, and trumpeter Doc Severinsen's Tonight Show Band. When he wasn't busy playing with one of these top-tier artists, he could often be found delivering master classes, acting as a guest soloist with various groups, or working in the studio, lending his trumpet work to ...

Interview

John Seman: The Story of Monktail

by Jack Gold-Molina
November 21, 2012

The director and cofounder of Monktail Creative Music Concern with drummer Mark Ostrowski, bassist/composer John Seman has spent much of his childhood and his entire adult life defining this band and his musical direction. A highly educated player with the kind of street sense that can only be gained through constant performing, recording and touring, he is also a skilled producer and organizer. This is most recently evidenced in his efforts to bring the first ever improvised music event to ...