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

Jazz Faculty Quintet: Wayne, NJ, July 23, 2012

by David A. Orthmann
August 29, 2012

Jazz Faculty QuintetWilliam Paterson University 19th Annual Summer Jazz WeekWayne, NJJuly 23, 2012A tribute to the music of Thad Jones by the summer jazz faculty of William Paterson University encompassed a live performance, as well as lessons in history and mythology. Armed with tenor and soprano saxophones, a wealth of knowledge, and the ability to convey Jones' music, life and times in an accessible manner, Dr. David Demsey, Professor of Music and Coordinator of Jazz ...

Album Review

Jonathan Gee: Dragonfly

Read "Dragonfly" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 29, 2012

50 years ago, modern jazz piano trios would barely be recognizable to the majority of their counterparts--except perhaps Bill Evans' trio. Today, cutting-edge jazz trios require interaction between players and expect both drummer and bassist to be more than just disciples. Trio leaders such as Jason Moran, John Escreet, Matthew Shipp all write and perform their music as a three-way conversation. Add to that list, London-based pianist Jonathan Gee. Gee, a contributor to the UK scene with ...

Album Review

Manner Effect: Abundance

Read "Abundance" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 29, 2012

Manner Effect knits together the jazz aesthetics of The Bad Plus to Kneebody to pianist Robert Glasper and bassist Esperanza Spalding, while forging its own unique and progressive sound. With music, particularly jazz, so highly atomized, it is a hard market in which to distinguish oneself. This quintet's approach is one of total assimilation and immersion in its collective visions and influences, so much so that something completely new, yet naggingly familiar, is achieved. Abundance is the zero-sum result of ...

Album Review

The Rippingtons: Built to Last

Read "Built to Last" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
August 29, 2012

Bandleader, guitarists and songwriter Russ Freeman pulls no stops on the Rippingtons' 25th anniversary release, Built to Last, featuring a full orchestra to complement the sound of his compositions, has he runs the gamut of the sounds that have influenced him throughout the years, moving from movie score-like tunes to heavy metal, country & western and retro-sounding jazz.The album kicks off with the title tune, which sounds as if it belongs in a film soundtrack. Lush strings introduce ...

Album Review

Just Music Trio: Standpoint

Read "Standpoint" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
August 28, 2012

Cross-pollination of music is as old as the hills, but the increasing frequency of such experimentation--the result of evermore sophisticated home recording technologies and file sharing--has obliterated the lines of latitude and longitude that traditionally separated musicians living in different countries/continents. This is leading to an ever greater number of sub-genres in all styles of music, and in jazz terms, may represent the greatest revolution in the music for forty years. It's increasingly futile to hang a name on so ...

Live Review

Azar Lawrence: Long Beach, CA, July 28, 2012

by Chuck Koton
August 28, 2012

Azar LawrenceSeabird LoungeLong Beach, CAJuly 28, 2012The “A Train," saxophonist Azar Lawrence, recently roared into the Seabird Lounge in Long Beach, CA with a burnin' quintet guaranteed to generate a lot of steam power. Lawrence, a native Angeleno, first impacted the jazz scene back in the early '70s while playing with jazz legends Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis. But after a prolonged hiatus from the jazz scene, Lawrence has paid his dues, again. ...

Album Review

Michael Bisio / Matthew Shipp Duo: Floating Ice

Read "Floating Ice" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
August 28, 2012

Although bassist Michael Bisio has performed with pianist Matthew Shipp on occasion over the past few years, very little documentation of their working relationship existed until the formation of Shipp's current trio, which features Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey. Floating Ice, their first recording together as a duo, arrives on the cusp of the trio's live debut, Art of the Improviser (Thirsty Ear, 2011), and studio follow-up, Elastic Aspects (Thirsty Ear, 2012).The locomotive title track opens the date, ...

Album Review

Fish in Oil: Poluostrvo

Read "Poluostrvo" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
August 28, 2012

With the release of Fish in the Oil's debut, Polustrvo, the jazz underground in Belgrade, Serbia climbs closer towards daylight. This eclectic album explores several forms, all at once, as it eschews the easily identifiable and standard structured sounds. It seems Fish in Oil has opted for a multilayered approach, as it uses different sounds, rhythms, and transmissions. On top of that, and beyond what many other groups have attained, the group performs with abundant energy and plenty of interactions. ...

Album Review

Stefano Pastor: Songs

by Eyal Hareuveni
August 28, 2012

Songs is virtuoso Italian violinist Stefano Pastor's attempt to explore song form through his solo violin, aided only by different sound processors and his voice--feeling the sound of his voice as well as his violin physically, inside his body, and directly, without anything but his own body, as Pastor writes in the liner notes. On this album, Pastor deconstructs and reconstructs the melodies of six well-known songs in an attempt to claim their melodies as his own. ...

Interview

Miles Okazaki: Cleaning the Mirror

by Daniel Lehner
August 28, 2012

In the backyard of his home in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, guitarist Miles Okazaki has spent time constructing a multifaceted backyard/garden filled with overhanging plants, stone walkways and a wooden pavilion surrounding a table and benches. The slats of the pavilion's floor seem to have been crafted merely for aesthetic purposes, but there's another process at work: the proportions of the ground structure are 144 in. x 89 in., which are, respectively, the 12th and 13th integer of the Fibonacci sequence ...