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

Soren Bebe Trio: A Song For You

Read "A Song For You" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
September 14, 2012

Danish pianist Søren Bebe has carved a niche for himself with his particular brand of mournful Nordic ballads, which have enchanted not only Europeans, but also a Japanese audience that has embraced the bittersweet nostalgia that imbues many of his compositions. Thus, it is no coincidence that the Japanese label, Spice of Life, picked up the release A Song For You, an album that sees Bebe in the familiar company of his trio with electric bassist Niels Ryde ...

Album Review

Ed Cherry: It's All Good

Read "It's All Good" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
September 13, 2012

Guitarist Ed Cherry has been playing professionally since the early '70s, as a sideman to musicians such as Tim Hardin, Jimmy McGriff, Henry Threadgill and Jimmy Smith. Most famously, he spent over fifteen years in Dizzy Gillespie's band, remaining with the group until the trumpeter's death in 1993. Perhaps because of his busy career as a sideman his discography as a leader is small, with just three albums before It's All Good, the most recent being The Spirit Speaks (Justin ...

Extended Analysis

Threads Orchestra: Ranch

by Dave Sumner
September 13, 2012

Threads OrchestraRanchSelf Produced2012 There is a thriving UK jazz scene that is quickly being redefined by a new generation of jazz musicians, versed in traditional jazz forms, but in possession of an approach that's planted with both feet in the modern day.The Threads Orchestra has now demonstrated over the course of its first two releases that it is a vital part of that new generation.Whereas 2011's Threads was ...

Album Review

The Remote Viewers: City Of Nets

Read "City Of Nets" reviewed by Alex Franquelli

by Alex Franquelli
September 13, 2012

From A to B. The language spoken by The Remote Viewers is one that feeds itself with the interferences caused by lines crossing each other at various speeds in a continuous effort to connect the dots. We, the humans, are the thriving beads forever longing that 'B' we, sometimes, don't even want to reach. City of Nets is a beautiful picture of a random post-industrial environment, of its contradictions and its organized chaos moving at the pace of our routine: ...

Album Review

Magda Mayas: Myriad

by John Eyles
September 13, 2012

Myriad is the second duo recording by German pianist Magda Mayas and Lebanese alto saxophonist Christine Abdelnour, building on the excellent Teeming (Olof Bright, 2010). Recorded in concert at Météo Festival, Mulhouse, France, in August 2011, Myriad features two tracks with a combined running time under 34 minutes. However, that is not an issue as the music is intense and concentrated enough to make up for the relative brevity of the album.As always--whether playing together, with others or ...

Extended Analysis

Organic Music Society

by John Eyles
September 13, 2012

By the early 1970s, trumpeter Don Cherry had moved a long way--geographically and musically--from the music that had earned him a reputation as one of free jazz's great innovators. Resident in Sweden, he had embarked on a pioneering exploration of world fusion music, incorporating a range of influences, notably African, Native-American, Indian and Middle Eastern. During this period, he still retained some links with his roots; in 1971 he was part of the ensemble that recorded Science Fiction with saxophonist ...

Live Review

Quoc Trung / Nguyen Le / Dhafer Youssef / Thanh Lam / Rhani Krija / Kieu Anh: Hanoi, Vietnam, September, 1, 2012

by Ian Patterson
September 12, 2012

Quốc Trung / Nguyên Lê / Dhafer Youssef / Thanh Lam / Rhani Krija / Kiều Anh Hanoi Opera HouseHanoi, VietnamSeptember 1, 2012The Hanoi Opera House celebrated its centenary in 2011, and for most of those first hundred years, Vietnamese traditional and European classical music reverberated within the walls of this elegant venue. However, as the Opera House enters its second century, there are signs--as in Vietnam itself--of gradual openness to more modern tides. This concert--billed as ...

Album Review

Halie Loren: Stages

by Dan Bilawsky
September 12, 2012

The studio is a safe place for musicians looking to birth an album in a controlled environment, but the stage is the real proving ground for performers. These people make their mark when lights are low, nerves are tested and safety nets are removed. This is where the real deal musicians get separated from the great pretenders and vocalist Halie Loren is as real as they come. Loren, who may be the best-kept vocal secret in the ...

Live Review

Papo Vasquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours: Detroit, MI, September 1, 2012

by Steve Bryant
September 12, 2012

Papo Vasquez Mighty Pirates TroubadoursDetroit Jazz FestivalDetroit, MISeptember 1, 2012When a musician decides to play Latin,, it is easy for him to get pigeonholed into the Salsa circuit with a little instrumental mambo disguised as Latin jazz thrown in. This isn't the case for trombonist Papo Vasquez who, for the last 20 years produced some of the most creatively eclectic and innovative music in the Afro-Latin Jazz genre. For one, the Puerto Rican Vasquez grew ...

Album Review

Travis & Fripp: Follow

by John Kelman
September 12, 2012

The potential of the improvising duo has been tremendously extended thanks to the seemingly limitless possibilities of technology. King Crimson co-founder/guitarist Robert Fripp has always been on the cutting edge of that technology, whether in the context of his now-deserted flagship group, on his groundbreaking duo recordings with Brian Eno or alone, with his series of “guitar as orchestra" solo recordings, first with the tape loop-driven Frippertronics, and now, for nearly the past quarter century, with his Soundscapes recordings. Saxophonist/flautist ...