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.

Live Review

Wadada Leo Smith: London, England, August 27, 2012

by John Sharpe
September 12, 2012

Wadada Leo SmithCafé OtoLondonAugust 27, 2012As if searching for the perfect setting, for the second night of his two-day residency at north London's Café Oto, legendary AACM trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith was pitched against two contrasting ensembles drawn from the capital's reservoir of improvising talent. First up was a brass trio, supplemented by the electronics and melodica of Spring Heel Jack impresario, erstwhile guitarist John Coxon, while the second was a percussion threesome. Although Smith's ...

Album Review

Fred Hersch Trio: Alive At The Vanguard

Read "Alive At The Vanguard" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
September 12, 2012

Pianist Fred Hersch's Alone at the Vanguard (Palmetto) was chosen by many as one of 2011's best, and rightfully so. Now, following up that solo album, is Alive at the Vanguard, a double album which finds the pianist with his current trio. Playing together since 2010, Hersch has settled in comfortably with bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson, veteran musicians of estimable talent who both can drive hardily and swing delicately. This recording puts the three on ...

Album Review

Brad Mehldau Trio: Where Do You Start

Read "Where Do You Start" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
September 11, 2012

Hot on the heels of Brad Mehldau's Ode (Nonesuch, 2012)--the pianist's first all-original set with his current trio--comes Where Do You Start, culled from the same recording sessions but, with the exception of one Mehldau tune, all cover material. This isn't the first time Mehldau has split a particularly fruitful session down the same compositional line: Anything Goes (Warner Bros.) and House on Hill (Nonesuch) were both same from the same sessions, recorded with original drummer Jorge Rossy before he ...

Live Review

Bill Frisell: Helsinki, Finland, August 29, 2012

by Anthony Shaw
September 11, 2012

Bill FrisellHelsinki FestivalHelsinki, FInlandAugust 29, 2012 It's hard to find a summer festival that is not critically dependent on the weather for that essential vibe. As such, August's Helsinki Festival stands as good a chance as any for success, with the main stage located a half-mile from the central station on a bank beside an inlet of the Baltic, where 600 people can sit in relative comfort under a 40 foot high, custom built ...

Album Review

Mahlis-Panos Project: Protoleia

Read "Protoleia" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
September 11, 2012

Incorporation of non-traditional instruments into jazz can produce mixed results. It takes a gifted player to either apply jazz traditions to an unusual instrument or in reverse integrate the traditions and unique sounds of an instrument with the structures and conventions of jazz. In the wrong hands, or deployed for the sake of exoticism, the effect can be trite; when done properly, the outcome can open up new horizons. With Protoleia, the Mahlis-Panos Project accomplishes the latter, using oud, drums ...

Album Review

Asgeir & Mo: Danza de Andalucia

Read "Danza de Andalucia" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 11, 2012

In the same manner that jazz is a musical genre not only because of its origins in the Afro-American cultural legacy but more important due to its liberating spirit, so, too, can flamenco music not just be bound to its southern Spain, Andalusian borders. Stavanger, Norway-based flamenco guitarist Asgeir Aarøen and classical violinist Bjarte Mo suggest, on their debut album, that flamenco music is already a universal musical language that draws inspiration and reference musical traditions from all over the ...

Interview

Georgia Mancio: ReVoice!

by Bruce Lindsay
September 11, 2012

When the road offers two possible paths, the decision to turn left or right can have major consequences. If Georgia Mancio had taken the left-hand path, then she might now be carving out a career in movie production. She took the other route, thanks to a part-time job and a box set of albums, to become one of the UK's most innovative singers and lyricists. The cinema's loss was the music world's gain. Fast-forward to 2010 and another ...

Album Review

Richard Andersson: UDU

by Jakob Baekgaard
September 10, 2012

The word “udu," which is the title of Danish bassist Richard Andersson's second release as a leader, has several connotations. Its primary meaning in Danish is something that is broken. A chair can be in “udu," which means it doesn't work and needs to be repaired. However, the sound of “udu" also closely resembles the pronunciation of the word “voodoo," something magical and mysterious.As it turns out, the word, with its different shades of meaning, is an apt ...

Interview

Simin Tander: Softly, As In A Morning Dew

by Ian Patterson
September 10, 2012

For many people around the world, the word jazz evokes a singer in a bar, club, restaurant or hotel, reworking the standards of yore. Vocal jazz has such a high profile, relatively speaking, because radio stations and TV stations largely balk at the idea of instrumental music, and, easy listening-as a lot of vocal jazz tends to be-doesn't scare the punters off. Few are the established singers who haven't visited the songs made standards by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Anita ...

Album Review

Django Bates Beloved: Confirmation

Read "Confirmation" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
September 10, 2012

In the jazz world, groups often convene for special projects, though, more often than not, the participants then usually go their separate ways, even if the underlying concept- -or, even, just the band's chemistry--suggests further continuance. When Django Bates put together Belovèd Bird (Lost Marble, 2010), it seemed likely that the maverick British pianist, composer and foundation shaker's off-the-wall tribute to bebop progenitor/saxophonist Charlie Bird" Parker would be a one-off. Now, two years later, Confirmation finds the same trio back ...