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

Newport Jazz Festival: Newport, RI, August 4-5, 2012

by R.J. DeLuke
August 24, 2012

Newport Jazz FestivalFort Adams State ParkNewport, RIAugust 4-5, 2012Having a celebration for the 70th birthday of an amazing musician--drummer Jack DeJohnette--was an outstanding feature of this year's Newport Jazz Festival. The drummer was featured in two sets in a single day (Saturday), first with a band he has been doing a lot of work with for many months, then with a group of “friends" playing some of his other music.Once again, ...

Live Review

Newport Jazz Festival: Newport, RI, August 5, 2012

by Timothy J. O'Keefe
August 24, 2012

Newport Jazz FestivalFort Adams State ParkNewport, RIAugust 4-5, 2012Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt belted a splitting note that hooked and reeled in the ear of fellow hornster Avashai Cohen. As soon as Cohen heard the sound, he stopped strolling through the Newport crowd, and jerked his head toward the stage. Cupping a hand across his brow, shielding his eyes from the sun, he peered for a better view of the horn happenings. With a ...

Album Review

Jacob Karlzon 3: More

by Bruce Lindsay
August 24, 2012

Pianist/composer Jacob Karlzon--Swedish Radio's 2010 Jazz Musician Of The Year--is difficult to pigeonhole. He's an improviser, a solo artist, a composer and an accompanist, with a longstanding musical relationship with singer Viktoria Tolstoy. In his 20-year career he's released half a dozen albums under his own name and appeared on around 40 others. The Jacob Karlzon 3--the pianist's collaboration with bassist Hans Andersson and drummer Jonas Holgersson--released its first album, The Big Picture (Stunt Records / Sundance Music), in 2011.

Album Review

Kris Berg & The Metroplexity Big Band: This Time / Last Year

Read "This Time / Last Year" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 24, 2012

As Director of Jazz Studies at Collin College near Dallas, TX, award-winning bassist Kris Berg has vast experience teaching the music, directing various ensembles, as well as being founder of the annual Collin Jazz Festival and the Texas All-Star Jazz Camp. However, This Time / Last Year is his first project as bandleader, directing the large, twenty-plus-piece Metroplexity Big Band through nine electrifying orchestrations of originals and rearranged standards in the finest tradition of contemporary big band music.Comprised ...

Album Review

Hot Club Of Detroit: Junction

Read "Junction" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 23, 2012

When the Hot Club Of Detroit's journey began, they followed the road that guitarist Django Reinhardt laid before them. They traveled the highways and byways of so-called “Gypsy Jazz," walking in the footsteps of their forefathers while picking up and exhibiting other influences and sounds along the way, and eventually reached a crossroad. Rather than choose a single path, the group decided to try them all out and Junction is the artistic byproduct of that decision.Personnel adjustments, whether ...

Album Review

Daniel Herskedal and Marius Neset: Neck Of The Woods

Read "Neck Of The Woods" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 23, 2012

Saxophonist Marius Neset and tubist Daniel Herskedal have crafted an unusual and fascinating debut album, combining their chosen instruments and occasionally, the human voice, to create some atmospheric and intriguing sound-worlds on Neck Of The Woods.Although both musicians are Norwegian, the pair met while studying at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, an institution that has played a major role in the development of contemporary jazz in Europe. Both men joined Django Bates' StoRMChaser and recorded with Bates, ...

Extended Analysis

Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble: Hasselt

by John Eyles
August 23, 2012

Evan Parker Electroacoustic EnsembleHasseltPsi2012Although Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble had recorded five albums for ECM since 1997, in 2009 saxophonist Parker's Psi label released SET under his own name; the album was effectively by the Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, sharing its personnel, instrumentation and working methods. At the time, it seemed as if it might have been released under Parker's name for contractual reasons. Now, with the release of Hasselt, the plot thickens; it is ...

Album Review

Tohpati Bertiga: Riot

by Dave Wayne
August 23, 2012

Get used to thinking of Southeast Asia as the new hotbed of fascinating and original guitar players. Indigenous guitar- and mandolin-like stringed instruments and improvisation have played a pivotal role in the native music of the region for centuries. Adaptation and mastery of western styles was inevitable, and a cursory search of YouTube will reveal hundreds of contemporary videos featuring Southeast Asian guitar shredders of every musical persuasion.One of the very finest guitarists in the region is Tohpati ...

Catching Up With

Ben Williams: The Effect of Sound

by Daniel Lehner
August 23, 2012

It's continuously perplexing that Ben Williams did not set out on playing the bass first. Forced to pick the most attractive string instrument amongst the cellos and violins, the 7th grade aspiring guitarist ended up picking the instrument that he, now in his upper twenties, is in massively high demand for and is unsettlingly proficient in. Williams' accolades hit a high peak in 2009 after his win at the untouchably prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition and he currently counts unique ...

Album Review

Fred Hess Big Band: Speak

Read "Speak" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
August 22, 2012

In the liner notes to Speak, saxophonist/band leader Fred Hess makes an important point: although the golden era of traveling big bands is long past, the big band format lives on in school ensembles, as well as through individuals such as himself, whose love for this format plows right through all the logistical difficulties. Anyone seeking proof that big bands are flourishing need only listen to this third CD by the Fred Hess Big Band: all six songs are multifaceted ...