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

Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats: Live Meat and Potatoes

Read "Live Meat and Potatoes" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 30, 2012

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith spreads his wings on this Pristinely recorded, high-impact jazz fusion outing captured at the Baked Potato in North Hollywood, CA. From a technical perspective, the members of the Chili Peppers were always cited as serious-minded musicians, possessing the goods to delve into various musical formats or genres. Smith, nascent guitar hero, Jeff Kollman, and the remaining band members initiate a kinetic performance, transferring radiantly to disc. The press materials indicate that ...

Album Review

Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up: The Air is Different

Read "The Air is Different" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
October 30, 2012

Drummer Tomas Fujiwara inhabits the fertile Brooklyn scene alongside guitarist Mary Halvorson, a frequent collaborator who is part of his band, The Hook Up; alongside cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, both are also featured on collective The Thirteenth Assembly's outstanding Station Direct (Important, 2011). So it's not surprising that similarly smart multifaceted compositions, delivered through tight but sufficiently loose arrangements that allow space for left field solos, are high on the agenda on the band's sophomore effort. With only the bass ...

Interview

Alex Machacek: Fat Beyond Belief

by Ian Patterson
October 30, 2012

Alex Machacek is back with a tremendously exciting new record and a wonderful new trio. Well, not quite. Drummer Harold Pirker and bassist Raphael Preuschi have been playing with the Austria-born/California-based guitarist on and off for the guts of a decade and both contributed significantly to Machacek's [sic] (Abstract Logix, 2006). A trio recoding by FAT (Fabulous Austrian Trio) has been a while coming, but Machacek is already thinking about its next recording. Clearly, the chemistry between the three musicians ...

Extended Analysis

Carta de Amor

by John Kelman
October 30, 2012

It's sure been a banner year for fans of the ECM label, with a slew of fine new releases from artists including guitarist John Abercrombie (Within a Song), bassist Arild Andersen (Celebration), pianist Tord Gustavsen (The Well), and saxophonist Tim Berne (Snakeoil). Previously out-of-print or never-before-in-print studio recordings from saxophonist Jan Garbarek (Dansere) and pianist Jon Balke (Magnetic Works: 1993-2001 ) are now back in circulation. And, for the first time since bassist Charlie Haden's duet record with pianist/guitarist Egberto ...

Album Review

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

Read "Helping The Heroes" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 29, 2012

Helping The Heroes, from singer Todd Gordon and the Royal Air Force Squadronaires, has the authentic, swinging, sound of a great big band. The guest singers showcase the range of vocal talent on the UK scene, and the album has its heart fairly and squarely in the right place, too, having been recorded in support of Help For Heroes, a charity which provides support for wounded UK Armed Services personnel and their families.The repertoire on Helping The Heroes ...

Extended Analysis

Joe Harriott Quintet: Movement / High Spirits

by Duncan Heining
October 29, 2012

Joe Harriott QuintetMovement / High Spirits Dutton Vocalion2012 (1963/1964)The acquisition, ownership and handling of a back catalogue of classic British jazz from the sixties by first Polygram and then Universal is a story of meanness and incompetence. It meant that key recordings by the likes of saxophonists Joe Harriott and John Surman, pianists Mike Westbrook and Stan Tracey, the Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet and quite a few others have either never been ...

Album Review

Markus Burger / Joe LaBarbera / Bob Magnusson: Accidental Tourists: The L.A. Sessions

Read "Accidental Tourists: The L.A. Sessions" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 29, 2012

Sometimes a definite connect exists between cover art and the music. German-born pianist Markus Burger's Accidental Tourists: The L.A. Sessions features a glossy cover photo full of reflections and right angle geometry, a sleek car with rounded contours. The music on this trio offering has a well-crafted geometry of its own, and a bright sheen brought out by Burger's clean, crisp touch and engagingly cerebral melodic sense, along with an exquisite feel for deep harmonies.Burger's first recorded piano ...

Album Review

Alisha's Quartet: Along for the Ride

Read "Along for the Ride" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 29, 2012

Alisha Pattillo's tenor saxophone case sports an impressive variety of destination stickers, real and metaphorical, where the young artist has visited in her life. Anglo-Australian, Patillo was raised in Singapore and proceeded to woodshed throughout Southeast Asia before receiving a first-rate schooling at Australia's Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, majoring in jazz saxophone and education preparation. So, after completing her studies in 2006, where does Pattillo finally land? Well, in Houston, Texas, of course, where she has become a ...

Album Review

John Butcher: Bell Trove Spools

Read "Bell Trove Spools" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 29, 2012

British saxophonist John Butcher is one of the most innovative and influential saxophonists to emerge in recent decades. Butcher introduced a new conception of the saxophone--not just a horn instrument but a resonant metallic tube in which the properties of air moving through are investigated in relation to amplification devices as a microphone positioned inside the bell; using it as a device for controlling and modifying feedback; and in relation to the unique acoustic spaces in which he plays.

Album Review

Manu Katche: Manu Katche

Read "Manu Katche" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 29, 2012

Since joining ECM for Neighbourhood (2005), Manu Katché has carved out a very specific niche for himself at a label whose purview continues to broaden--with this French-Ivorian drummer, perhaps surprisingly so. Contemporary? Yes, Katché has fashioned a nearly four-decade career as a superb groove-meister, whether in the rock world with artists Sting or Peter Gabriel, or with more decidedly jazz-centric artists like saxophonist Jan Garbarek, on Dresden (ECM, 2009), or keyboardist Herbie Hancock, on his (admittedly more pop-oriented) The Imagine ...