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.

Live Review

Enjoy Jazz 2012, Days 1-14, October 2-15, 2012

by Adriana Carcu
November 3, 2012

Enjoy Jazz 2012Heidelberg / Mannheim / Ludwigshafen, GermanyOctober 2-November 10, 2012Expressed in numbers, the 14th edition of Enjoy Jazz, advertized as a “Festival for Jazz and Other Things," brings up an impressive count: 59 concerts performed in 32 locations, with 265 musicians from 24 countries. Put into words the numbers reveal a most festive setup and a wide diversity of choice. These are the true brands of a major European jazz event happening at the crossroad of ...

Album Review

Dizzy Gillespie Quintet: Legends Live

Read "Legends Live" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 3, 2012

The Jazzhaus label has, on its hands, an archive of some 1600 audio and more than 350 video recordings taken from live radio and T.V. broadcasts in post-World War II Germany, featuring some of the most vital jazz artists of the time. These recordings are now being released. The first batch of the Legends Live series included sets by drummer Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. The second wave of releases ...

Book Review

Neil Young: Waging Heavy Peace

by Lloyd N. Peterson Jr.
November 3, 2012

Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace502 pagesISBN: 9780339159466Viking2012An argument can be made that the three greatest artists in the history of contemporary rock music are Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Neil Young, in no particular order. The most controversial amongst the three would be Young. This of course comes from the fact that Young seems to almost purposely take the path that defies commercial success but it's also a ...

Album Review

Tommy Bolin: The Definitive Teaser Collector’s Edition

Read "The Definitive Teaser Collector’s Edition" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 3, 2012

Guitarist Tommy Bolin elevated the role of journeyman to a high art. After leaving his home in Colorado, where he played with Energy and Zephyr, he worked with fusion drummers Billy Cobham and Alphonse Mouzon, joined a post-Joe Walsh James Gang, and went on to Deep Purple when Richie Blackmore left the group. All of this occurred before and during a solo career, which began with Teaser, a remastered, expanded version that confirms Bolin's versatility as guitarist, songwriter and singer. ...

Live Review

The English Beat With the Paul Collins Beat: New York, NY, October 16, 2012

by Mike Perciaccante
November 3, 2012

The English Beat with the Paul Collins Beat B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill New York, New York October 16, 2012 Back in the late '70s/early '80s, there were two groups call The Beat. One group was from Birmingham, England, the other band was from Los Angeles, CA. Both bands had managed to capture the fancy of the concert-going and music-buying public of the time. Soon it became apparent that the name the two bands ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo: Ancestors

Read "Ancestors" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
November 3, 2012

The title of this remarkable album says it all. American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo are two forefathers of modern jazz, innovative musicians who redefined the practices of their instruments and the connections between the Afro-American, African and European jazz legacies-- creative composers and esteemed bandleaders for nearly five decades and role models for generations of musicians. So, this musical meeting between these two masters, their first as a duo, was bound to happen. Thanks ...

Album Review

Yitzhak Yedid: Arabic Violin Bass Trio: Suite In Four Movements

Read "Arabic Violin Bass Trio: Suite In Four Movements" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
November 2, 2012

Australia-based, Israeli composer and pianist Yitzhak Yedid continues his noble endeavor to integrate classical Arabic music, Arabic-influenced Jewish music and contemporary Western classical music, all performed with enough room for improvisation, into a new tradition. Yedid began to work on this inclusive, universal musical concept previously with the extended suite Oud Bass Piano Trio (Between the Lines, 2005). Arabic Violin Bass Trio: Suite In Four Movements does not focus on musical aspects alone, but attempts to reflect and contain the ...

Live Review

Mikolaj Trzaska / Paul Dunmall: London, England, October 15, 2012

by John Sharpe
November 2, 2012

Mikolaj Trzaska / Paul DunmallCafe OtoLondonOctober 15, 2012Three for the price of one? How could you resist. London boasts a sizeable Polish population, and it seemed like a large part of them had braved the cool Monday evening to visit Cafe Oto for a visit by Gdansk-born reedman Mikolaj Trzaska. But in a night of unabashed, spontaneous creation, he wasn't all that was on offer. Trzaska has been featured on over forty recordings, dating back ...

Album Review

Jeff Holmes Quartet: Of One's Own

Read "Of One's Own" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 2, 2012

It's not the job of liner notes to critically appraise the recording for which they were written. Liner notes are supposed to be laudatory, occasionally hagiographic, but they're never meant to critique. That's the job of the review. Reviews don't make good liner notes and vice versa. Exceptions prove rules, however. So congratulations must go to Arturo O'Farrill, because his excellent liner notes for the debut album from pianist Jeff Holmes' Quartet--the equally excellent Of One's Own--could readily serve as ...

Multiple Reviews

New improvised music label Fataka launches

by John Eyles
November 2, 2012

It is always a pleasure to welcome a new improvised music label, particularly when its initial releases give a strong indication that it will be releasing high quality recordings by some of the best improvisers around. That is certainly the case with Trevor Brent's Fataka, the newest label to emerge onto the London scene. As well as American pianist Matthew Shipp, Fataka's first two releases feature four British musicians who are active on the London scene, and each of whom ...