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

Iris Ornig: No Restrictions

Read "No Restrictions" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 8, 2012

Intrepid bassist Iris Ornig's second release follows the thematic structure of her remarkable debut, New Ground (Self Produced, 2009), but is more polished and coherent, hence more engaging. This is a hard goal to achieve, as the first was a thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating album. If New Ground was a collection of short stories sharing a common thesis then No Restrictions is a novel, exploring a similar leitmotif and expanding on it. The emphasis is more on ...

Interview

Charlie Hunter: Roots, Hard Work & Inspiration

by Doug Collette
October 8, 2012

A self-proclaimed boutique artist, guitarist Charlie Hunter could not be more proud of his work or the audience that enjoys it. He is ultimately modest about his achievements, such as they are, emphasizing the work he's put in over the years in a variety of formats, honing a craft he honestly and rightly believes represents his own unique voice on a very unique instrument: the seven-string guitar.Charlie Hunter used an eight-string instrument for a number of years, though, ...

Big Band Caravan

Bob Mintzer Big Band / Bob Wilber and the Tuxedo Big Band / Joe Chambers Moving Pictures Orchestra

by Jack Bowers
October 7, 2012

Bob Mintzer Big BandFor the MomentMCG Jazz2012 Anyone who has followed Bob Mintzer's career knows that the multi-talented saxophonist / educator has always had a special place in his heart for music from south of the border (he even recorded a big-band album, Latin from Manhattan, back in 1998). While perhaps best known as a member of the Yellowjackets, Mintzer has overseen his own big-band since 1983 (when he was asked by ...

Album Review

Ken Silverman: Visionaries

Read "Visionaries" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 7, 2012

Multi-string instrumentalist Ken Silverman's first solo outing, Visionaries, is a collection of intimate sketches dedicated to those musicians (and other artists) who have inspired him. Silverman penned these abstract, tonal portraits first, and then named them after these iconic individuals. The result is the ultimate homage to eleven trailblazers. Each piece has, within it, diverse influences. “Hamza" is a multifaceted oud improvisation that fuses breathtakingly unrestrained musical expression with hypnotic vamps. It also melds distinctly western harmonic ...

Album Review

Yusef Lateef: Roots Run Deep

Read "Roots Run Deep" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
October 7, 2012

Roots Run Deep forms a further installment in the ongoing strand of investigation into the marriage of words and music, which has found a home on the Paris-based Rogue Art label, that also includes Maison Hantee (2009). It's unusual in that though issued under the name of veteran multi instrumentalist Yusef Lateef, the work was actually conceived by filmmaker Nicolas Humbert and engineer Marc Parisotto. The two Frenchmen are credited with composition; having assembled the 34-minute program by matching the ...

Extended Analysis

I Carry Your Heart: Alexis Cole Sings Pepper Adams

by Larry Taylor
October 7, 2012

Alexis ColeI Carry Your Heart; Alexis Cole Sings Pepper AdamsMotema Music2012I Carry Your Heart; Alexis Cole Sings Pepper Adams is a stunning piece of work. The lyrics, pure poetry; the music, cerebral and swinging. This creation is even more amazing when seen as part of a five-volume production covering all of baritone sax legend Pepper Adams' work. Producer Gary Carner got the idea for a digital box set, Joy ...

Album Review

Zweiton: Form

by Glenn Astarita
October 7, 2012

Alexander Dowerk maximizes the capabilities of the touch guitar, along with expert drummer Alexis Paulus, on this quality outing, where classic progressive rock inclinations align with a nouveau twist. The duo is a multitasking machine, as both artists employ electronics and programming within the mix. Highlighted by memorable themes and a few doses of lament, the duo goes barnstorming via high-impact off-center grooves, highly melodic content amid sweeping clusters of electronics. Strategically counterbalanced with ethereal passages and massive walls of ...

Live Review

The Offspring with Neon Trees and Dead Sara: Huntington, NY, September 20, 2012

by Mike Perciaccante
October 7, 2012

The Offspring with Neon Trees and Dead Sara The Paramount Huntington, New York September 20, 2012 On a pleasant late-September evening, the Offspring set Long Island's Paramount concert hall on fire with its metal-influenced punk rock brand of musical mayhem. The Southern California band performed a set mostly comprised of its classic songs and some choice new offerings from Days Go By CD (Columbia, 2012). Because of the disparity in both age, and ...

Album Review

Trish Clowes: And In The Night-Time She Is There

Read "And In The Night-Time She Is There" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 6, 2012

Shortly after the release of And In The Night-Time She Is There, her second album, saxophonist Trish Clowes became a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, an honor that goes to the most talented young musicians from the worlds of classical and jazz music. Clowes is a worthy recipient, not least because she crosses the increasingly blurred line between the genres, as a player and composer, with a maturity of thought and a breadth of imagination that belies her relative ...

Live Review

Leonard Cohen Live in Istanbul

by Nenad Georgievski
October 6, 2012

Leonard CohenUlker Sports ArenaIstanbul, TurkeySeptember 19, 2012Singer Leonard Cohen does not play songs--he plays feelings. Besides being blessed with the “gift of a golden voice," he is blessed with the power to communicate with huge crowds of people. Only a handful of performers have that ability to grab people's attention with a handful of words and then hold it for hours. This can be best seen on the recently released DVD Leonard Cohen at the ...