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

Bojan Z: Soul Shelter

Read "Soul Shelter" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 9, 2012

In twenty years as leader, pianist/composer Bojan Z has been judicious with the frequency and quality of his releases. Soul Shelter is his ninth CD in that time, and his first solo outing since Solobsession (Label Bleu, 2001). A new release by the pianist is always an event, and the wait, as always, has been worth it. The music on Soul Shelter covers wide stylistic territory and marks another significant milestone in Z's captivating career to date. Ten ...

Album Review

The Warren Haynes Band: Live at the Moody Theater

Read "Live at the Moody Theater" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
June 9, 2012

Like Warren Haynes' Man in Motion (Stax 2011), Live at the Moody Theatre contains a single performance that transcends virtually all the remaining tracks of its two CDs and one DVD. On “Your Wildest Dreams," Haynes' singing is as fiercely restrained as his guitar work and all the more powerful for that discipline.Close to the longest cut on the set at 11-plus minutes, there is nevertheless not a wasted note in the creation of an emotional impact that ...

Extended Analysis

Janis Joplin: The Pearl Sessions

by C. Michael Bailey
June 9, 2012

Janis JoplinThe Pearl SessionsLegacy Records2010 Pearl was vocalist Janis Joplin's valedictory and most fully realized recording. She never lived to see it released, dying of a heroin overdose the October previous to the album's release on January 11, 1971. Sadly, the recording was made with Joplin's last, and most empathetic group, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, a quintet led by the singer. It was a tight and precise funk-soul combo, scaled ...

Live Review

Brandino and Friends Live at Seven Grand

by Anthony Polis
June 9, 2012

Brandino and FriendsSeven Grand Whiskey BarLos Angeles, CAMay 21, 2012When people talk about jazz venues in Los Angeles, downtown's Seven Grand Whiskey Bar doesn't usually come to mind. That's unfortunate because this popular bar has featured jazz and blues Monday through Wednesday for over a year. It's a classy yet hip spot to sip a cocktail and hear great music without the formality and tightness of a typical jazz venue. It's nice to have an ...

Album Review

Gavin Harrison & O5Ric: The Man Who Sold Himself

Read "The Man Who Sold Himself" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 9, 2012

Controversy usually sparks insightful arguments, and the third effort by this duo, including a DVD 5.1 surround sound mix, will assuredly summon disparate opinions. A largely experimental progressive rock endeavor, perennial poll-winning drummer Gavin Harrison (King Crimson, Porcupine Tree) and touch guitarist/vocalist O5Ric present a storybook-like presentation, abetted by existential lyricism and a throng of jarring themes. Harrison is true to form, these pieces primarily designed with complex rhythmic structures, blithe treatments, and 05Ric's rangy guitar implementations. However, ...

Album Review

Alexandra Grimal: Andromeda

Read "Andromeda" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 9, 2012

French saxophonist Alexandra Grimal composed this symphony of minimalist chamber music while watching a starry night at the MacDowell Colony, the United States' oldest arts enclave. For this ambitious composition, she enlists guitarist Todd Neufeld, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, the trio that recorded Sorey's majestic Koan (482 Music, 2009) three years ago. Similar to Koan, Grimal's Andromeda resists categorization. It is an intimate exploration of the relation between time, sound and space that tends ...

Extended Analysis

Sweet Billy Pilgrim: Crown and Treaty

by John Kelman
June 9, 2012

Sweet Billy Pilgrim Crown and Treaty Luxor Purchase 2012 Leaping onto the scene overnight might appear to have its advantages, but there are plenty of disadvantages, too. Building an audience incrementally, over a period of time, often allows an artist to evolve without the same degree of mass expectation that comes from instant stardom. Sweet Billy Pilgrim's We Just Did What Happened and No One Came (2005), may have been released independently on the group's ...

Extended Analysis

Unity Band

by John Kelman
June 8, 2012

In a time when compressed music is the norm—often removing the details an artist has worked so hard to capture in recording—it's great to have someone like guitarist Pat Metheny still paying attention to the very minutiae that can make a very, very good record great. Unity Band would be a very, very good record under any circumstance. It's Metheny's first recording to prominently feature a reedman since 1985's collaboration with Ornette Coleman, Song X—tremendously remixed and remastered in a ...

Album Review

Rich Halley 4: Back From Beyond

Read "Back From Beyond" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 8, 2012

Tenor saxophonist Rich Halley can be relied upon to rip it up, either live or in the studio. His forte is free jazz that always seems to threaten to power into some steroidal bebop. He has released a string of fine records on the now-dormant Louie Records--including, perhaps the best of these, the no-holds-barred The Blue Rims (2003), with a piano-less quartet that included cornetist Bobby Bradford, who also played on saxophonist/free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman's considerably expanded reissue of ...

Album Review

Niklas Barno / Joel Grip / Didier Lasserre: Can't Stop Snusing

Read "Can't Stop Snusing" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 8, 2012

The sophomore release of this Swedish-French trio is powerful as its excellent debut from two years ago, Snus (Ayler, 2010). Can't Stop Snusing, named after the Swedish moist-powder tobacco, is an infectious, raw and direct set of free jazz improvisations by fearless musicians. The trio is comprised of Swedish trumpeter Niklas Barnö and bassist Joel Grip, who also collaborate in the Swedish sextet Je Suis!, and French autodidact drummer Didier Lasserre. From the first seconds of the ...