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

Beka Gochiashvili: Beka Gochiashvili

Read "Beka Gochiashvili" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 19, 2012

Those who toil in the jazz trenches often spend a lifetime trying to develop their own sound and acquire a high-level understanding of this music, but a select few seem to be born into the fold. Drumming innovator Tony Williams, guitar sensation Julian Lage and pianist Eldar Djangirov were playing at an über-proficient level as children and each brought something unique to this art form; pianist Beka Gochiashvili can now be added to this list. Gochiashvili, who ...

Live Review

RDV De L'Erdre 2012

by Martin Longley
September 19, 2012

RDV De L'Erdre 2012 Nantes, France August 31-September 2, 2012 The Rendez-vous de l'Erdre might be one of Europe's lesser-known festivals, but it has grown up over 26 years and now involves what seems to be the entire city's populace. Spread over multiple, simultaneously programmed stages, its essential concept is that everything happens along the banks of the River Erdre. This is the less famous sibling of the Loire, and there are ...

Album Review

Lee Konitz / Bill Frisell / Gary Peacock / Joey Baron: Enfants Terribles: Live at the Blue Note

Read "Enfants Terribles: Live at the Blue Note" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
September 19, 2012

At almost 85 years old Lee Konitz can play whatever he damn well pleases on his alto saxophone, and it's a good thing he does. He may currently be making some of the most interesting music of his long career. Enfants Terribles: Live at the Blue Note teams Konitz with three first-rate musicians--all jazz stars in their own right--for an album of standards so loosely interpreted that finding the recognizable melody is a bit like a “Where's Waldo" puzzle. It's ...

Future Jazz

Jamming For Dollars

by Bruce Klauber
September 19, 2012

The History, Care, Feeding and Booking of the Jazz Jam Session“Fusion and the new stuff? It doesn't offend me, but a lot of the soloists sort of sound alike, like they all learned the same licks from the same school. When I was coming up in the 1940s, it seemed that every corner bar had a piano, a set of drums and some kind of jam session happening. That's how I learned to play, and that's what I think is ...

Album Review

Kat Parra: Las Aventuras de Pasion!

Read "Las Aventuras de Pasion!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 18, 2012

Kat Parra's voice may be the ultimate manifestation of the entire Latin music diaspora. While countless singers dabble in bossa nova or wander far and wide atop Afro-Cuban grooves, few people tackle the scope of music that Parra takes on. Engaging the totality of the entire Latin spectrum is no easy feat, but she seems willing and able to make it a reality. Salsa sounds, Middle Eastern music, Sephardic traditions, Afro-Peruvian passion, Puerto Rican grooves, chamber ideals, ...

Album Review

Lee Konitz / Bill Frisell / Gary Peacock / Joey Baron: Enfants Terribles: Live at the Blue Note

Read "Enfants Terribles: Live at the Blue Note" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 18, 2012

Super groups are, by their very nature, either bright shining stars or catastrophic exploding supernovae. Dream team basketball lineups get beat by upstarts, and the new Stallone/Schwarzenegger/Van Damme movie is sure to be a nonstarter. The reasons for the flops are usually chemistry and vision, both essential requirements.Same can be said for jazz groups. Listen to a longstanding unit work and its affinity is obvious. Assemble a quartet for a night, or fortnight and evidence of its chemistry ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Scott McLemore

by AAJ Staff
September 18, 2012

Meet Scott McLemore: Born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1973, Scott McLemore spent over a decade in New York where he was equally at home playing in the trios of saxophonist Tony Malaby, guitarist Ben Monder, pianist Michael Kanan and George Colligan. Although he is best known for his work with Icelandic pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs (who is also his wife), Scott's own efforts as a leader have resulted in two recordings: Found Music (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006) and ...

Album Review

Kurt Elling: 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project

Read "1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 18, 2012

Where female jazz vocalists are plentiful, male jazz vocals exist in vast minority. With Mark Murphy in twilight, Kurt Elling has few peers in the realm of male jazz vocals where sheer inventiveness and muscularity are concerned. Elling's facility is one so great and his musical vision so clear that, at least for the time being, no one can touch him. He further establishes himself as the preeminent vocalist with the ambitious and successful 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project. ...

Catching Up With

Medeski, Martin & Wood: Sound Sculpting

by Thomas Carroll
September 18, 2012

Progressive keyboard trio Medeski, Martin & Wood has helped redefine the boarder where musical genres meet since the group's inception over 20 years ago. MMW has experimented with everything from song structure to acoustic-electric instrumental blends, all while appealing to both jazz-specific and mainstream audiences. Free Magic (Indirecto, 2012) is a fine example of MMW's exploratory spirit.Free Magic is five tracks of extended play taken from performances in 2007, when the band was on its first ever all-acoustic ...

Album Review

Lee Konitz / Bill Frisell / Gary Peacock / Joey Baron: Enfants Terribles: Live at the Blue Note

Read "Enfants Terribles: Live at the Blue Note" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
September 18, 2012

The idea of going into a club and playing a set of standards without any plans, preconceptions or pre- arrangements ain't exactly new; it's what plenty of jazz musicians do, each and every night. But it's one thing to go in and run down some Real Book charts, head-solo-head style, and give everyone a chance to stretch out and solo on some familiar material; it's another thing entirely to be at a level where the material is reinvented, set after ...