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.

First Impressions

Jimmy Herring: Subject to Change Without Notice

by AAJ Staff
November 14, 2012

With his first record since his stunning 2008 debut as a leader, Lifeboat (Abstract Logix), guitarist Jimmy Herring capitalizes on that album's strengths and ups the ante even further on Subject to Change Without Notice (Abstract Logix, 2012), featuring a core group of players with all the chemistry he needs, and some high-powered guest artists to ratchet things up even further. By Alan BrysonMy favorite groups and albums often have this in common: the whole is ...

Album Review

Aaron Koppel: Multiverse

Read "Multiverse" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 13, 2012

The city of Chicago has always been a breeding ground for musicians looking to expand the horizons of their own art and the styles that they represent, so it should come as no shock that guitarist Aaron Koppel was born and raised in this Midwestern musical mecca. Koppel, who made his initial entrée into the world of leader-on-record with The Wild Call Of The Multi-Tasker (Self Produced, 2007), and followed that up with Falling Together Falling Apart (Chicago Sessions, 2009), ...

Profile

Gareth Lockrane: Doing That Grooveyard Thing

by Duncan Heining
November 13, 2012

Few musicians have developed successful careers in jazz playing just flute. You might think of Herbie Mann, Hubert Laws and Bobbi Humphrey, but only Jeremy Steig, Paul Horn and James Newton spring immediately to mind as artists who have achieved credibility with both fans and critics in their work. We can now add 36 year-old British flautist Gareth Lockrane to that brief list.Lockrane hails from Stoke-on-Trent, in Britain's North Midlands. It's not a prepossessing kind of place. Justly ...

Album Review

John Proulx: The Best Thing for You

Read "The Best Thing for You" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 13, 2012

While female jazz vocalists outnumber male jazz vocalists five to one, it would be a fallacy to believe there is not a wealth of talent among the men singers. With Louis Armstrong and Chet Baker now memories, and Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks in twilight, as Kurt Elling ascends their throne, there exists a vocal diaspora of the most refined and sonically appealing voices singing, and they are all men. Andy Bey, Beat Kaestli, Henry Darragh and John Proulx all ...

Album Review

Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier: Travels To The West

Read "Travels To The West" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 13, 2012

Guitar duos may not be quite as rare as hen's teeth in the world of jazz, but they're far from common. Yes, there are classic pairings such as Bucky Pizzarelli and George Barnes, or John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner; but given the instrument's ubiquity it's perhaps surprising that there aren't more such partnerships around. On Travels To The West, a live album recorded during a short UK tour in late 2011, Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier demonstrate the qualities that ...

Live Review

Chick Corea and Gary Burton: Burlington, VT, October 19, 2012

by Doug Collette
November 13, 2012

Chick Corea and Gary Burton with the Harlem String QuartetFlynn Center for the Performing ArtsBurlington, VTOctober 19, 2012The sound itself was absolutely sublime as it emanated from the instruments of pianist Chick Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton on October 19, 2012 at The Flynn Center in Burlington, Vermont. The ringing clarity of the notes pealing from Corea was perfectly in proportion to the warm glowing flow of sound as it arose from Burton. During those ...

Album Review

John Butcher: Bell Trove Spools

Read "Bell Trove Spools" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
November 13, 2012

In saxophonist John Butcher's extensive discography, there are examples of many contexts, from solo through duos--including the recently released Daylight (Emanem, 2012), with drummer Mark Sanders, and At Oto (Fataka, 2012), with pianist Matthew Shipp--and trios, up to larger ensembles including Butcher's own seven-piece group, which recorded Somethingtobesaid (Weight of Wax, 2008). Taken together, they paint a detailed picture of the breadth and depth of Butcher's abilities. Yet, if it were necessary to zoom in on a single ...

Live Review

Belgrade Jazz Festival 2012

by Thomas Conrad
November 13, 2012

Belgrade Jazz FestivalBelgrade, SerbiaOctober 25-28, 2012There are hundreds of jazz festivals around the globe every year, in places like Baku, Azerbaijan, and Sibiu, Romania, and Valletta, Malta. But there may be no more improbable setting for a jazz festival than Belgrade, Serbia.Not that long ago, in the late 1990s, during the horrific, genocidal wars in the former Yugoslavia, Belgrade was famous. So were other place names in Belgrade's general vicinity, like Sarajevo and Mostar ...

Album Review

Van Morrison: Born to Sing: No Plan B

Read "Born to Sing: No Plan B" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 12, 2012

A propitious return to Blue Note Records, Born to Sing: No Plan B is one of the most inspired and accessible albums of singer/songwriter Van Morrison's storied career. It would not be appropriate or accurate to draw direct comparisons to Moondance (Warner Bros., 1970), His Band & The Street Choir (Warner Bros., 1970) or Tupelo Honey (Warner Bros., 1971), but it is fair to say this is comparable work, albeit in a more mature musical and emotional context.In ...

Album Review

Monome: Monome

by Bruce Lindsay
November 12, 2012

Monome, a piano-led trio from Pisa, shares its name with the Monome, a computer interface device popular with makers of electronic music. Whether this is deliberate or coincidental is unclear, but Monome the band makes acoustic music without the need for its electronic namesake. Its eponymous debut album, recorded in late 2011 and early 2012, features German saxophonist Peter Ehwald alongside the core trio of pianist and main composer Piergiorgio Pirro, drummer Gianpaolo Camplese and bassist Matteo Anelli.Monome ...