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.

Interview

Stian Westerhus: The Existential Dimension of Music

by Adriana Carcu
July 5, 2012

Guitarist Stian Westerhus holds a singular position in the Nordic musical landscape. His involvement with bands like Puma and Monolithic--as well as his projects together with trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer and drummer Erlend Dahlen, and vocalist Sidsel Endresen--are a prolongation of his solo performances, which impress through a tremendous output of musical energy. His guitar voice, of superb roughness and exquisite inner pacing, goes beyond genre boundaries to address the existential dimension of musical perception. The immediacy of the sound ...

1,680

Interview

Eivind Aarset: Guitar Anti-Hero

by John Kelman
July 5, 2012

In a time when the interactive video game Guitar Hero is selling in the millions, Eivind Aarset is, in many ways, the Guitar Anti-Hero. Despite making music that could easily lend itself to the kind of guitar pyrotechnics that are so often the litmus test of a good player, Aarset's emphasis is on texture, on melody, on groove, and on a kind of collective improvisation that's been reshaping and redefining what jazz can be since he released his first album ...

Album Review

Towner Galaher: Uptown!

by Dan Bilawsky
July 4, 2012

Uptown!, like drummer Towner Galaher's two previous releases, relies on multiple horns to flesh out the leader's melodies and some choice covers, but it's still a departure from his earlier work. Piano, bass and drums with some added percussion was served as the rhythmic nucleus at the center of Panorama (Self Produced, 2007) and Courageous Hearts (Self Produced, 2009), but Uptown! is all about an organ-drum relationship at the heart of the music. Galaher enlisted rising star ...

Album Review

Steve Davis: Gettin' It Done

Read "Gettin' It Done" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 4, 2012

Calling trombonist Steve Davis a veteran is probably inappropriate--after all, he was a mere 44 year-old when he recorded Gettin' It Done in October, 2011. However, he has such a wealth of experience, such a command of his instrument and such a rich back catalog of recordings that based on his body of work rather than his birthday such a soubriquet is not so out of place. Gettin' It Done is a worthy addition to the Davis discography: a swinging, ...

Extended Analysis

The Black Butterflies: Rainbows for Ramon

by Matt Marshall
July 4, 2012

The Black ButterfliesRainbows for RamonSelf Produced2012Judging by its title alone, some might expect Rainbows for Ramon, the sophomore release by The Black Butterflies, to be a flighty affair that trills off into flowery musical fields fit for skipping unicorns. It is not this (thankfully), even though joyful melodic lines feature prominently on the disc. In this case, the album's cover might better serve those looking to make quick adjudication: painter Ima Montoya's ...

Behind the Lens With...

Behind the Lens With Mark Robbins

by Mark Robbins
July 4, 2012

Meet Mark Robbins: I have been shooting for 53 of my 62 years. My college career consisted mostly of avoiding the draft (Viet Nam was hot and heavy) which I successfully did, by luck. Two years after graduating I became engaged and went into the family furniture business, which I ran until selling it in 1996. A new profession (insurance) and a new wife followed, and all the while I was still shooting. Then in 2008 I left ...

784

Album Review

Arve Henriksen: Cartography

Read "Cartography" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
July 4, 2012

Increasingly well-known to ECM fans for his work with Christian Wallumrod, Trygve Seim and Jon Balke, Cartography is Arve Henriksen's debut as a leader for the label. A logical successor to his impressive Rune Grammofon discs--Sakuteiki (2001), Chiaroscuro (2004) and Strjon (2007)--it's also the Norwegian trumpeter's most ambitious release to date.Post-production has always figured in Henriksen's work, but his previous releases have been either solo or with small, consistent line-ups. Recorded over three years in the studio and ...

447

Interview

Thomas Stronen: The Tin Drum

by Adriana Carcu
July 4, 2012

One of Norway's most prolific drummers, sampling percussionists and composers, Thomas Strønen is the co-founder of Food, along with British saxophonist Iain Ballamy. The group--which, since 2005, has whittled down from an original quartet that also featured Norwegians Arve Henriksen on trumpet and Mats Eilertsen on bass--released its most recent record, Quiet Inlet, in 2010 (its first for the German ECM label), and regularly includes guests that vary from one show to the next. It is this special element that ...

The Moment's Energy

The Fire, Regardless

by Nic Jones
July 4, 2012

If considered together a couple of recent archival releases (The 100 Club Concert 1979 (Reel Recordings, 2012), by saxophonist Elton Dean's Ninesense and Mike Osborne Trio The Birmingham Concert (Cadillac, 2012), by the Mike Osborne Trio) and one reissue (Wilderness of Glass ((Awake, 2012), by Triton) remind us of how creative improvised music happens, regardless of the state of the world in which it's made. Dean, Osborne and the Triton trio were all stalwarts of the British and European jazz ...

Interview

Romain Collin: Unearthing A Sound

by Ian Patterson
July 3, 2012

The environment one grows up in is undoubtedly hugely influential in a person's life. Pianist Romain Collins grew up just stone's throw from the site of the Antibes Jazz Festival, and his exposure to some of the greats of jazz there as a youngster may have had a lot to do with his later decision to leave France and pursue jazz studies in America. Eight years after arriving in New York Collin released his debut recording as leader, the beautiful ...