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

Simetrio: Simetrio

Read "Simetrio" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
August 4, 2012

Chile, the country of sensuous poetry and visceral prose, is not well known for its jazz. Over the past two decades, however, the nation has been home to a growing improvised music scene. Three musicians who honed their skills in this relatively new environment have come together as Simetrio, releasing an eponymous CD of intellectually intense yet emotionally charged music. Pianist Lautaro Quevedo is the nominal leader of this collaborative group and the composer of seven out ...

Album Review

Duduka Da Fonseca Quintet: Samba Jazz

Read "Samba Jazz" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
August 4, 2012

Throughout his four decade-plus career, drummer/percussionist/composer Duduka Da Fonseca has successfully bridged the gap between the samba of his native Brazil and jazz, either when performing as the co-leader of Trio da Paz or as a sideman with the likes of pianist Kenny Barron, guitarist/vocalist Antonio Carlos Jobim and bassist Rufus Reid. On this second release with his quintet, Da Fonseca brings together a collection of tunes culled from his vast experience on the road and in the ...

Film Review

Searching for Sugar Man: The Musical Mystery of Rodriguez

by Christine Connallon
August 4, 2012

RodriguezSearching for Sugar ManSony Pictures Classics2012Sometimes truth is indeed more fascinating than fiction. A perfect example is the story of Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, a quietly powerful musician whose politically charged songs rivaled those of Bob Dylan in a similar era but who fell into the abyss after his early work tanked in the United States. It took a bootleg of an early album being brought into a country brimming with its own ...

Album Review

Connie Evingson & The Hot Club of Sweden: Stockholm Sweetnin’

Read "Stockholm Sweetnin’" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 4, 2012

After the release of the top-drawer Sweet Happy Life (Minnehhaha Music, 2012), it was worth pursuing the All About Jazz review archives to see if there were any recent Connie Evingson releases we neglected to consider. Imagine our luck that a significant recording has been overlooked, one that appeals directly to Evingson's Scandinavian heritage: 2006's Stockholm Sweetnin'. Recorded with The Hot Club of Sweden, Evingson settles into an uncommon comfort level that allows her to relax and ...

Reassessing

Welcome

by Jeff Winbush
August 4, 2012

Once upon a time there was a guitar god who had grown bored with all his fame, riches and glory. He longed for something more than another multi-platinum selling record. He desired not simply acclaim, but respect. He knew to get it he would have to walk away from the distinctive style that made him popular and wealthy. It was a risk to confuse his band and his fans by making a radical change in his musical direction. But he ...

Album Review

Veronneau: Jazz Samba Project

Read "Jazz Samba Project" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 3, 2012

Musical revisionists often view the outstanding Getz/Gilberto (Verve, 1963) as the point of ignition for the stateside bossa nova explosion of the early '60s, but those in the know are fully aware that Jazz Samba (Verve, 1962) is the album that actually lit the fuse. While saxophonist Stan Getz's classic recordings with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto have taken their rightful place at the top of the heap, his earlier, trailblazing collaboration with guitarist Charlie Byrd is ...

Live Review

Jakob Bro / Thomas Morgan / Jakob Mielcke: Copenhagen, Denmark, July 9, 2012

by Henning Bolte
August 3, 2012

Jakob Bro / Thomas Morgan / Jakob MielckeA Culinary Tribute To The Art Of ImprovisationRestaurant Mielcke & Hurtigkarl, FrederiksbergCopenhagen Jazz FestivalCopenhagen, DenmarkJuly 9, 2012The Copenhagen Jazz Festival, with its more than 1,000 concerts in 10 days, spread over more than 100 venues and stages in all parts of the Danish capital, is like a musical monsoon cloudburst. The concerts range from big international stars to up-and-coming Danish artists and the avant-garde, ...

Extended Analysis

Sabu Toyozumi: Kosai Yujyo

by John Eyles
August 3, 2012

Sabu ToyozumiKosai YujyoINaudible2012This double album puts the spotlight on one-time AACM member, the widely-travelled veteran Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi, capturing him in a variety of live settings across Europe in 2010 and 2011. For its nine tracks, Toyozumi was recorded at four different venues with eight different line-ups, ranging from a duo to an octet. This variety gives the album a shifting, kaleidoscopic quality and puts the focus on a wide range ...

Album Review

Gloceknspiel: Dupleix

Read "Dupleix" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 3, 2012

This UK-based duo presents an anarchistic overture, spanning vintage Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, avant psychedelic, free-metal, and a host of other genre-busting maneuvers on the artists' largely, high-impact second effort. With guerilla tactics, edgy drones and heavily fuzzed-out electric guitar voicings, the duo turns up the heat via knotty time signatures and fractured rhythms. They paint a broad soundscape on the title track. Marked by swarming electronics and linear momentum, the music comprises densely populated sub-themes with variances ...

Album Review

EAOrchestra: Likeidos

by Dave Wayne
August 3, 2012

The worlds of avant-garde classical music and avant-garde jazz mingle seamlessly on Likeidos, by Italy's Electro Acoustic Orchestra. Also known as the EAOrchestra, the ensemble is co-led by trumpeter Mirio Cosottini and bassoonist Alessio Pisani, who also composed most of the music. The preponderance of double reeds--an oboist and four bassoonists--is highly unusual, especially for improvised music of any kind, and gives the EAOrchestra some truly distinctive and unusual sonorities. Though Likeidos has a particularly strong emphasis on composition, there ...