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

Sommer / Yannatou / Floridis / Voulgaris / Kastanis: Songs for Kommeno

Read "Songs for Kommeno" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
October 15, 2012

Songs for Kommeno was recorded between March 2011 and April 2012, as a homage to the village of Kommeno on the west coast of Greece. In 1943, soldiers of the German Wehrmacht massacred 317 of Kommeno's civilian inhabitants and torched the village. A 156-page book accompanies the CD, containing first-person accounts detailing the experiences of a few survivors of the German occupation of Greece who later went to Germany as migrant (or “guest") workers. They reveal the potential for resentment ...

Interview

Duduka Da Fonseca: The Guy From Ipanema

by R.J. DeLuke
October 15, 2012

The 1950s into the early 1960s was a special period in Brazil, the land of beautiful beaches, picturesque mountains and the home of a warm, inviting and sensuous music called samba that was developed during those years. It was also a time when bossa nova, another sumptuous musical style, was spawned. The music invades the senses on many levels and in the early 1960s it invaded the United States, thanks to the likes of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto and ...

Live Review

Scarborough Jazz Festival: Scarborough, UK, September 28-30, 2012

by Duncan Heining
October 15, 2012

Scarborough Jazz FestivalScarborough, UK September, 28-30, 2012Now in its tenth year, Scarborough Jazz Festival is a fixture in the UK's jazz calendar. Situated on the east coast of North Yorkshire, Scarborough's heyday was in the Victorian era, when coaches would pull up outside hotels like The Royal or The Crown to disgorge wealthy patrons wanting to take the waters in the local spa. Unlike other British spa towns such as Bath, Cheltenham and Leamington, Scarborough has ...

Album Review

Chris Flaherty Big Band: Turning Point

Read "Turning Point" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 15, 2012

The city of Leeds, in the northern county of West Yorkshire, has developed a reputation in recent years as one of the UK's hotbeds of contemporary jazz and improvised music. But Yorkshire jazz isn't just about being cutting edge or pushing envelopes: there's also a strong affinity with the music's history and traditions; an affinity that values The Great American Songbook, the craft of the ballad and the sheer joyous thrill of a mainstream big band in full flight. Turning ...

Album Review

Maikotron Unit: Effugit

Read "Effugit" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
October 15, 2012

The maïkotron, invented by multi-instrumentalist Michel Côté, is a woodwind instrument played with the reed and mouthpiece of a saxophone and is made up of trumpet valves, the bell of a cornet and parts of a clarinet and euphonium. The unusual makeup is not only an indicator of Côté's resourcefulness, but of the trio itself, which uses the name as the canopy for its wide range of sounds and style.The three have been together since 1984 and, in ...

Album Review

Negroni's Trio: On The Way

Read "On The Way" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 15, 2012

With its seventh album titled On The Way, Grammy-nominated Negroni's Trio celebrates its ten year anniversary with a live recording of eight originals and two well-known standards, with a little help from saxophonist great Ed Calle and violinist Federico Britos. The father and son team of pianist Jose and drummer Nomar Negroni, has been performing together for a decade and, throughout that time, has included such bassist as John Benitez, Marco Panascia and Jonathan Estes, with Josh Allen joining this ...

Album Review

Glawdys N’Dee: Lyannaj

Read "Lyannaj" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 15, 2012

The term “world music" takes a new meaning with singer Glawdys N'Dee's debut, Lyannaj, which means to connect or unite in solidarity--and unite, she does. The Guadeloupean-born, Parisian-educated and Chicago-based N'Dee brings together, in three languages--Creole, French and English--various musical styles of the African Diaspora, from Caribbean rhythms to jazz, and from gospel to the blues. From the opening title track, with N'Dee's bass and percussion-backed recitation reminiscent of Jayne Cortez, to the closer “Hommage Ala Femme ...

Album Review

Scott McLemore: Remote Location

Read "Remote Location" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
October 14, 2012

A change of scenery is a change of sound. At least, this seems to be case with the Virginia-born drummer Scott McLemore, who has been a vital presence on the music scene in New York, but now is part of the significantly smaller, but nevertheless bourgeoning Icelandic jazz community.When McLemore released Found Music on Fresh Sound New Talent in 2006, he enlisted a group of likeminded musicians who reflected the dynamic pulse of the city. Especially saxophonist Tony ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY!

Read "FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY!" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 14, 2012

83 years old and approaching ninety releases as a leader, pianist Cecil Taylor's place in the history of jazz may already rest assured, but he's more cited than seen these days. He may not come up as a primary influence as often as usual suspects Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner or Herbie Hancock, but in the free jazz realm there are few as distinctive or influential--and who've avoided the lure of compromise. Paul Bley comes close, but while the ...

Live Review

Minus the Bear: New York, NY, September 29, 2012

by Christine Connallon
October 14, 2012

Minus the Bear Best Buy Theater New York, NY September 29, 2012 On a crisp, clear fall Saturday night under an enormous harvest moon, a steady stream of concertgoers filed into the Best Buy Theater on Broadway in the heart of Times Square in New York City to see Seattle-based rock/pop band, Minus the Bear, currently on the road to support its recent release, Infinity Overhead (Dangerbird, 2012). The air was electric with giddy anticipation from ...