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.

Take Five With...

Take Five With Cameron Turner

by AAJ Staff
October 22, 2012

Meet Cameron Turner: Cameron was born in 1975 in Hickory, NC. The son of musical parents, he began an early education in music, learning every bit of information he could about artists, songwriters and every instrument he could get his hands on...Instrument(s): Guitars, basses, keys, drums, percussion, synth programming, rhythm programming.Teachers and/or influences? Any musician and songwriter I've ever known. And I had some great music directors throughout school...

Album Review

Philip Dizack: End of an Era

Read "End of an Era" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
October 22, 2012

Philip Dizack's End of an Era is a resounding album that is solidified by fine ensemble work and composition that breathes emotion and thoughtfulness. Since his 2005 debut, Beyond a Dream on Fresh Sound Records, Dizack has crafted his skill as a trumpeter and composer. This sophomore release is a statement of maturity that is born out of personal life experiences. The music's sweeping and heartfelt themes are realized through two different lineups that include the likes ...

Album Review

Najee: The Smooth Side of Soul

Read "The Smooth Side of Soul" reviewed by Jeff Winbush

by Jeff Winbush
October 22, 2012

It's hard to remember, but there was a time when jazz used to be played in clubs where the audience didn't simply sit in their seats listening attentively and applauding politely; they even got up and danced to the music. Jazz you can dance to? That seems almost as foreign as listening to large round black discs on a device formerly known as a “record player."Well, you can dance to The Smooth Side of Soul if you want ...

Album Review

Ben Thomas' Endless Mountain Region: Ben Thomas' Endless Mountain Region

Read "Ben Thomas' Endless Mountain Region" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 22, 2012

Ben Thomas' Endless Mountain Region, the debut album by this eponymous trio led by bassist Thomas--is dedicated, according to Thomas' rather funky website, “to exploring the freedom of a chordless trio." It undertakes this exploration on a series of original tunes--three each from Thomas and drummer Aaron Staebell, one from saxophonist Tony Malaby--and a version of saxophonist Ornette Coleman's “WRU," all of which were recorded live at Rochester, New York's Contemporary Art Center in November 2010.Thomas and Staebell ...

Extended Analysis

Larks' Tongues in Aspic (40th Anniversary Series Box)

by John Kelman
October 22, 2012

The idea of a 15-disc box set to commemorate the release of what was, in 1973, a single vinyl LP clocking in at a mere 46 minutes might seem a tad excessive, but when you're talking King Crimson and the seminal Larks' Tongues in Aspic, it's a whole other story. Beyond being an important addition to the legendary progressive rock group's 40th Anniversary Series of new stereo and surround sound mixes from Crimson cofounder/guitarist Robert Fripp and guitarist/keyboardist/singer Steven Wilson-a ...

Interview

Dr. Lonnie Smith: But Beautiful

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 22, 2012

Dr. Lonnie Smith-organist, composer, bandleader and now principal of Pilgrimage Records-is the Cheshire cat of jazz. He's been part of the scene for so long that, even though he's there, he sometimes disappears from view; when you do get a glimpse, the last thing you see and the first thing you remember is his warm and wise Buddha smile. Dr. Lonnie Smith smiles like he knows that he knows something that most people don't even know that they don't know. ...

Album Review

Matthew Halsall: Fletcher Moss Park

Read "Fletcher Moss Park" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 21, 2012

In the small market town of Didsbury, a few miles south of the city of Manchester, lies Fletcher Moss Park. It's a little oasis of exotic greenery that contrasts with the history of the area as a heartland of the Industrial Revolution: it's also a place where trumpeter and composer Matthew Halsall finds comfort and relaxation. Halsall's fourth album, Fletcher Moss Park is a fitting acknowledgement of the meditative qualities of the park, an album full of Halsall's beautiful, spacious ...

Album Review

Living By Lanterns: New Myth/Old Science

Read "New Myth/Old Science" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
October 21, 2012

First premiered live at the 2011 Chicago Jazz Festival, the material presented on the studio recording New Myth/Old Science was originally commissioned by Experimental Sound Studio. As one of the Windy City's most prominent scene leaders, drummer Mike Reed was given unprecedented access to audition over 700 hours of tape from Sun Ra's El Saturn Audio Archive. Reed subsequently chose a rehearsal tape labeled “NY 1961" for his Loose Assembly quintet to work from. The reel documents Ra, tenor saxophonist ...

Book Review

Preston Lauterbach: The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll

by C. Michael Bailey
October 21, 2012

The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' RollPreston Lauterbach368 pagesISBN 0393342948W. W. Norton2012Preston Lauterbach's meticulously researched and present The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' Roll turns a bright light on what might be considered the Higgs Field of rock and roll, that is the history that gives indigenous American music its mass (or weight in this metaphor). It is the story of the ...

Album Review

Die Mikronesische Mafia: Die Mikronesische Mafia

Read "Die Mikronesische Mafia" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 21, 2012

Berlin-based Die Mikronesische Mafia, an event-driven nonet, makes a brand of music that is as backward-looking as it is forward-forging. Cinematic and comprehensive, the five fairly brief parts that make up the group's eponymous release conjure visions of classic movies remade in modern parlance (with thoroughly updated soundtracks) or, even better, Weimar-period cabaret evolved into its futuristic counterpart in the 1982 film Blade Runner, were it set in 2050 Berlin. This odd and oddly affecting music is reminiscent, but of ...