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

Laura Jurd: Landing Ground

Read "Landing Ground" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 15, 2012

Laura Jurd calls her debut Landing Ground, but it's the references to flight and cross-Atlantic antics in her song titles that seem a more appropriate reflection of the young composer/trumpeter's musical vision. Still a student at London's Trinity College Of Music and just 21 at the time of its recording, Jurd has already won major awards including the Dankworth Jazz Composition Award and the Worshipful Company Of Musicians' Young Jazz Musician Of The Year 2012. She's also the cofounder of ...

Album Review

Monome: Monome

Read "Monome" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
November 15, 2012

The Italian innovative jazz group Monome (not the be confused with Spanish rock band The Monomes) makes a reserved yet vigorous statement with its eponymous debut. The session comprises of seven, modal and atmospheric tracks that have strong, western classical influences. The collaborative trio opens the disc with “Scales"; an almost theatrical piece that sets the theme for the rest of the disc. After Piergiorgio Pirro's brief sonata fragment, Gianpaolo Camplese's fervent drums and Matteo Anelli's angular ...

Album Review

Saga: 20/20

by Glenn Astarita
November 15, 2012

20/20 marks the popular Canadian ensemble's 20th release. Here, original vocalist Michael Sadler rejoins the unit, and adds melodious overtones to its stylish, cross-functional melding of pop-rock, progressive rock and progressive metal. Enamored by a first-rate production and a largely memorable track mix, the artists go for the gusto, synchronizing technical veracity with surging rock anthems. On an album short on filler material, Saga divulges high-caliber musicianship with thrusting pulses, climactic crescendos and tricky time signatures. “Anywhere You ...

Profile

Nick Waterhouse: In The Nick of Time

by John Coltelli
November 15, 2012

A young rocker out and about in Los Angeles at 10 am may be an odd sighting, akin perhaps to seeing a polar bear in the sweaty Congo, but nevertheless here is 25 year old Nick Waterhouse, approaching a downtown diner on a sunny weekday morning to discuss his new album, Time's All Gone (Innovative Leisure, 2012). Looking as though he's just jumped from the pages of GQ (specifically the June 2012 issue), with a crisp new short-sleeved shirt tucked ...

Album Review

Kurt Elling: 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project

Read "1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 14, 2012

The Brill Building holds a special place in popular music history, not just because of the songs crafted within its walls, but also because of what it has come to represent. The ideal of the Brill Building is associated with songs that soundtrack the lives and loves of millions of people around the world. Singer Kurt Elling's tribute to that ideal, 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project, crackles with life as it connects with the emotions these songs engender.

Album Review

1982 + BJ Cole: 1982 + BJ Cole

Read "1982 + BJ Cole" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
November 14, 2012

For its third album, following 1982 (NORCD, 2009) and Pintura (Hubro, 2011), the trio now known as 1982 decided, after much discussion, to invite a guest musician to join the recording. A few years earlier, the group had met pedal steel guitarist B.J. Cole at a BBC radio program, and so decided to enlist him, even though the four had not played together previously. As drummer Øyvind Skarbø comments, “We thought this was a good and, not least, unusual choice." ...

Album Review

Greg Duncan: Chicago, Barcelona Connections

Read "Chicago, Barcelona Connections" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 14, 2012

Trumpeter Greg Duncan's Chicago, Barcelona Connections is a spicy dish with duende to spare, but it's not to be mistaken for generic Latin jazz; this is flamenco jazz in a fairly pure form. The Chicago-based horn man experienced his flamenco awakening during a stay in Spain between 2009 and 2010, and the music on Chicago, Barcelona Connections can be seen as an outgrowth of that sojourn. While Duncan rightly acknowledges the work that piano giant Chick Corea ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Francesco Lo Castro

by AAJ Staff
November 14, 2012

Meet Francesco Lo Castro: Italian born Francesco Lo Castro is a UK-based jazz guitarist and composer known for his personal and melodic approach to improvisation. Style well showcased in his latest album, Songs for Duke.Instrument(s): Guitar.Teachers and/or influences? Gianni Cataleta. He has been my teacher not only with regards to theory and technical things but, more important, he prepared me for the road life, shaping my personality and pushing me ...

Album Review

Johnny Hodges: Yeah...About That

Read "Yeah...About That" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
November 14, 2012

The funky, jazz-focused Yeah.....About That brings to mind the sounds of the early Brecker Brothers. Groove seems to be the primary focus of this nine-song CD from the mind of Oklahoma City native, Johnny Hodges. Hodges started playing the trumpet by the end of his fifth grade year, going on to help his high school jazz ensemble win the state competition three out of the four years he was in high school which enabled him to attend Central State University ...

Talkin' Blues

Jimmy Herring: Talkin' Blues, Bluegrass and More

by Alan Bryson
November 14, 2012

The spark of bringing together unusual combinations, like a classically trained bluegrass fiddler, a Cameroonian bassist, and a high energy guitarist, could have resulted in a musical culture clash, but for Jimmy Herring the bet paid off. While he might be modest and deferential on a personal level, his latest album is bold and expansive. It reveals a musician and composer comfortable tackling a wide array of styles and moods. “I thought of the studio itself an instrument, ...