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

Gent Jazz Festival: Days 1-4: July 5-8, 2012

by Martin Longley
August 18, 2012

Gent Jazz Festival Bijloke Gent, Belgium July 5-8, 2012 All parts of northern Europe had already been suffering an intense rainfall throughout the month of June. There was no abating once July was in swing. The forecast was pretty much for a daily downpour, and for once the predictions came true, sadly. This was ultimately no problem when viewing each performance, as the stage was curled under a huge tented space. ...

Live Review

Newport Jazz Festival 2012

by Dan Bilawsky
August 17, 2012

Newport Jazz FestivalFort Adams State ParkNewport, RIAugust 3-5, 2012 While countless jazz festivals have sprung up in all corners of the world, droves of people still flock to the one that's considered the granddaddy of them all. The Newport Jazz Festival has been a testament to the power, possibilities and pure entertainment values inherent in jazz for more than half a century. It sprung to life as a byproduct of high society, but it's ...

Album Review

Ferner/ Juliusson: Undertowed

Read "Undertowed" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
August 17, 2012

The striking artwork on Undertowed serves as metaphor for guitarist Per-Arne Ferner and pianist Per Gunnar Juliusson's musical relationship. A brooding, cloud-heavy sky and a still sea seem like reflections of each other, or a seamless whole. The lone figure juxtaposed against this imposing landscape is at once a part of it, and yet apart. The inner gatefold reveals a snow blizzard on the left and two black birds in a leaf-shorn tree opposite--suggestive of quiet power, melancholy, and evolution. ...

Live Review

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

by Timothy J. O'Keefe
August 17, 2012

Newport Jazz FestivalFort Adams State ParkNewport, RIAugust 4, 2012 “Yeah that's what I'm talking about, Newport!" the bright-smiled Cuban conga player said with enthusiasm, as the crowd he encouraged to dance clapped a beat to his liking. Amid the vortex of sound that is the Newport Jazz Festival--three stages hosting five acts apiece-- Pedrito Martinez's four-piece band played “Ay Amor," and brought the quad stage to life. “Memorias," the second song, saw keyboardist Ariacne ...

Album Review

Jurgen Friedrich: Monosuite

Read "Monosuite" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 17, 2012

Pianist Jurgen Friedrich doesn't play a single note of music on Monosuite, but his personality and cognitive bearing are omnipresent. While Friedrich's piano was at the heart of the sound on the trio-based Pollock, he removes his hands from the ivories on this follow-up date, allowing a cadre of string players and a highly flexible foursome to express his well-crafted thoughts in their own way. This 49-minute opus is as much about sought-after equilibrium as anything else. ...

Live From Philadelphia

July 2012: Mike Cemprola Quintet

by RJ Johnson
August 17, 2012

Mike Cemprola QuintetJose Pistola'sPhiladelphia, PAJuly 30, 2012For his debut as a leader, alto saxophonist Mike Cemprola led a quintet comprised of some of Philadelphia's most in-demand musicians and up-and-coming sidemen for his show at Jose Pistola's on July 30.The band's unique lineup allowed each tune to shift in several different directions, showcasing an aesthetic marked by improvisational individuality and empathetic interplay. Favoring a set of jazz standards, the group seemed ...

Album Review

Noël Akchoté, Jean-Marc Foussat and Roger Turner: Acid Rain

Read "Acid Rain" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
August 17, 2012

This free improvised meeting between prolific French guitarist Noël Akchoté and analog synthesizer wizard Jean-Marc Foussat, and British drummer Roger Turner is unique, and not just because of these experienced improvisers' breadth of the musical language. The trio's collective sound is a multilayered, reflecting on progressive rock in its early experimental days, muscular fusion showoffs and a timbral search in its most sophisticated form, all filtered through these musicians' mature, idiosyncratic articulations. All three are well-versed in ...

Album Review

Miguel Zenon / Laurent Coq: Rayuela

Read "Rayuela" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
August 16, 2012

Inspired by Julio Cortáza's sweeping and influential novel, Rayuela (Pantheon, 1963), pianist Laurent Coq and saxophonist Miguel Zenón transform parts of the Argentinean writer's famous work into a memorable jazz release. Written in Spanish, and published in 1963, the title literally means “Hopscotch." The text has been described as an “introspective stream-of-consciousness" and a “masterpiece of ingenuity and originality," with an astounding 155 chapters that can be read linearly, or without chronological order, leading to multiple thought-provoking conclusions.

Album Review

ATZBE: Zone De Memoire

Read "Zone De Memoire" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 16, 2012

ATZBE is the working title for a duo of master improvisers: German pianist, Hubert Bergmann, and UK-based reeds player, Gilad Atzmon. Zone De Memoire is the duo's first album, a set of seven improvisations recorded in a single afternoon, and Bergmann and Atzmon's first musical collaboration.Bergmann seems to relish the thrill of this first improvisational meeting. A similar collaboration with clarinetist, Lajos Dudas, produced the highly enjoyable What's Up Neighbor? (JazzSick Records, 2011). Atzmon leads the highly-regarded Orient ...

Catching Up With

Marion Cowings: Hey There

by Melanie Futorian
August 16, 2012

Marion Cowings, is often known as Dave Lambert's replacement in vocalese group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, andhas graced many stages internationally and nationally, including the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Blue Note, the Village Vanguard and a myriad more. He can be heard on recordings, radio and television broadcasts, is a winner of the Clio Award and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and has been a lyricist for composer/producer Quincy Jones, and saxophonists Wayne Shorter, ...