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

Johnny Dunn: Cornet Blues

Read "Cornet Blues" reviewed by Andrew J. Sammut

by Andrew J. Sammut
September 15, 2012

In hindsight, it seems natural that trumpeter Louis Armstrong's arrival onto the New York jazz scene of the 1920s would put a lot of players out of work. Yet apparently not every New Yorker was waiting for some guy from New Orleans to show them how it's done. As Mark Berresford's informative liner notes explain, Johnny Dunn was one of the most popular and respected pre-Armstrong trumpeters, performing with W.C. Handy as well as blues singer Mamie ...

Live Review

Gerald Cleaver & Uncle June: Detroit Jazz Festival, September 2, 2012

by Steve Bryant
September 15, 2012

Gerald Cleaver & Uncle JuneDetroit Jazz FestivalDetroit, MISeptember 2, 2012The 2012 Detroit Jazz Fest had one of the best lineups in years, especially for fans of the mainstream headliners. However, for those who like their music adventurous and intrepid, it wasn't that type of party. The one standout act, though, was Detroit drummer Gerald Cleaver, who was part of a crew of young guns from the Motor City who have since gone on to put ...

Live Review

Arturo O'Farrill Sextet: Detroit Jazz Festival, September 2, 2012

by Steve Bryant
September 15, 2012

Arturo O'Farrill SextetDetroit Jazz FestivalDetroit, MISept. 2, 2012This year's Detroit Jazz Festival had so much from the Latin side that one could choose from the genre buffet. If the Puerto Rican plate didn't move you, there was The West Coast flavas and even some Spanish sabor. For the fans of good ol' straight-up Cubop, though, there was pianist Arturo O'Farrill.A scion of Afro-Cuban Jazz royalty, O'Farrill has attained a high status in jazz ...

Album Review

Gato Libre: Forever

Read "Forever" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 15, 2012

The team of pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura produces a lot of music. More often than not, it's Fujii in the leader's chair, in one of her numerous big bands, quartets, trios or in duo outings with Tamura. By normal standards--that is, not in comparison with Fujii--Tamura's output as a leader could be considered rather busy. Though he claims to be lazy in the liner notes of his group Gato Libre's Shiro (Libra Records, 2009), since 2005 he ...

Album Review

SM Quinteto: Stories, Tales and Songs

Read "Stories, Tales and Songs" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
September 15, 2012

There is a positive musical movement coming out of Puerto Rico, with musicians putting a homegrown spin on their formal training, combined with progressive and modern jazz. At the forefront is perennial bassist Sammy Morales who, with his SM Quinteto, has composed and produced a sophisticated compilation of original material on “Stories, Tales, and Songs" , graciously defying categorization yet maintaining sincere creativity.Morales and his group performed these songs in live settings for some time prior to the ...

Live Review

Changing of the Guard: The 33rd Annual Detroit Jazz Festival

by C. Andrew Hovan
September 14, 2012

The 33rd Annual Detroit Jazz FestivalDetroit, MichiganAugust 31- September 3, 2012They don't call it the largest free jazz festival in North America for no reason. Every Labor Day weekend in Detroit, jazz fans try to wrap their brains around the diverse and generous offerings of one of the country's most successful jazz festivals, only to realize that with close to 80 acts performing on four stages over the course of four days, it would take superhuman power ...

Album Review

Mike Nock / Laurenz Pike: Kindred

by John Kelman
September 14, 2012

Despite the lack of major label support--or, perhaps, as a result of it--jazz appears to be in a strange period of ascendancy, where the number of people playing it seems diametric to the industry support it receives. New Zealand-born Mike Nock should know; since relocating to Sydney, Australia in the mid-1980s--after spending a quarter century in the US, co-leading early fusion group The Fourth Way, releasing a series of outstanding records like In Out and Around (Timeless, 1978), and cutting ...

Multiple Reviews

Two Sides of Fred Frith

by John Eyles
September 14, 2012

From the very start of his musical career, guitarist Fred Frith has been equally at home as an improviser, a songwriter or a combination of the two. His first group, the legendary Henry Cow, always featured a balance between songs that were used as a springboard for improvisation and free improvisations. In contrast, his debut solo album Guitar Solos (Caroline, 1974) featured eight tracks of unaccompanied improvised guitar, including prepared guitar; Frith's innovative, experimental approach to his instrument was highly ...

Album Review

Dr. Lonnie Smith: The Healer

Read "The Healer" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 14, 2012

Dr. Lonnie Smith has always addressed organ traditions on his own terms. He seems to intentionally avoid clichés and marketplace trends, preferring instead to chart his own course, so it's beautifully ironic that he's become something of a trendy figure-to-follow for the jazz-meets-jam crowd. While Smith recently attained septuagenarian status, he shows no signs of developing a conservative crust or going musically gentle into that good night. The Healer, culled from material recorded at the 2011 Lamantin Jazz Festival in ...

Extended Analysis

Blackberry Smoke: The Whippoorwill

by C. Michael Bailey
September 14, 2012

Blackberry SmokeThe WhippoorwillSouthern Ground2012 In the same way that Southern Democrats became gentrified Republicans with a cracker patois over the two generations since LBJ's Civil Rights Act of 1964, Southern Rock has become what passes for Outlaw Country Music on the fringe today. Forget Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and the boys, Jimmy Buffett wannabe Kenny Chesney effects the buff bad boy image singing those oh-so-clever and saccharine lyrics churned out ...