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

Allan Holdsworth: Hard Hat Area

Read "Hard Hat Area" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 4, 2012

Allan Holdsworth is one of the most heralded guitarists of modern times, namely among the progressive rock and jazz elite. Vastly influential and maintaining an active touring schedule, the artist's craft is often imitated yet never duplicated. Originally released in 1993, Hard Hat Area looms as one of the guitarist's premier solo outings. Holdsworth demands the utmost from his drummers. Here, Gary Husband--a legend in his own right--tenders the polyrhythmic vehicle on the blithe, yet torridly gravitating “Low ...

Album Review

The Susan Krebs Band: Everything Must Change

Read "Everything Must Change" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 3, 2012

Appraising a jazz singer, male or female, is never easy; there are so many variables to consider. First, of course, is the voice, which must be lucid and pleasing to the ears. Respect for a lyric is important, as is articulation, which is bound closely to emotion; too little can be seen as tedious, too much as contrived. This, apart from choice of material, blending of tempo and mood, and the size and composition of the singer's backup group. When ...

Bailey's Bundles

Allman by Any Other Name: Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks

by C. Michael Bailey
June 3, 2012

The post-millennial Allman Brothers Band has given birth to numerous side projects--often multiple side projects--for almost all of the current members. Both guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks have have led multiple bands outside of the Allman Brothers and both have live recordings of these side projects released within months of one another. Warren Haynes BandLive at the Moody TheaterStax Records2012 Guitarist Warren Haynes is best known as ...

Album Review

Melissa James: Day Dawns

Read "Day Dawns" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 3, 2012

It's obvious to even a casual observer of Britain's jazz scene that there is a resurgence in the art of the song and the craft of the vocalist. Singer/songwriter Melissa James is set to be one of the finest of this new breed: her unique approach to her craft is immediately apparent on Day Dawns, a strikingly beautiful debut from a vocalist with a deep emotional connection to her music.James identifies Bessie Smith, Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell ...

Extended Analysis

Davy Graham: Anthology - 1961-2007 Lost Tapes

by John Eyles
June 3, 2012

Davy GrahamAnthology: 1961-2007 Lost TapesLes Cousins2012In the sixties, English guitarist Davy Graham acquired near-legendary status as a guitar hero in the folk and blues clubs of Britain, being credited with single-handedly inventing the folk-guitar instrumental, in a way that parallels similar work in America by John Fahey. Although Graham never achieved (or sought) the fame and fortune his music deserved, he was hugely influential on a generation of musicians that included such ...

Album Review

Philippe Baden Powell: Piano Masters Series, Volume 2

Read "Piano Masters Series, Volume 2" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 3, 2012

Philippe Baden Powell's first solo piano date (and second record as a leader) is the second volume in Adventure Music's Piano Masters Series. The label sought to realize “the dream of the intimate experience of solo piano music between artist and audience" by putting fine pianists in a room with a high-end Fazioli Concert Grand Piano and recording the results; but they do much more than that. By presenting artists like Powell, Benjamin Taubkin--who kicked the series off with his ...

The Mort Report

Let’s Compare Your Average Jazz Cat To Those With Classical Gas

by Mort Weiss
June 3, 2012

This question goes way back, but is still relevant in 2012: Who's the better musician--a jazz or classical player? I remember talking to someone, about someone, and the cat asking: Is he jazz or legit?For those of you who don't know what Mort Weiss is about, I will restate that when I use the word jazz, I'm talking about America's only indigenous art form (sorry, baseball isn't) circa 1900-1960. I also recommend the reading of my previous article: ...

Album Review

Kay Grant / Alex Ward: Fast Talk

Read "Fast Talk" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 3, 2012

It is not often that the human voice is pitted against another human voice expressed through the vibrations of a moist and well-shaven reed of any instrument that has one, let alone a clarinet, which is made of seasoned wood and has the ability of being made to cry and wail just as naturally as another human voice. Yet this is exactly what can be experienced on the extraordinary Fast Talk, featuring vocalist extraordinaire Kay Grant and clarinetist Alex Ward. ...

Album Review

John Butcher / Mark Sanders: Daylight

Read "Daylight" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 2, 2012

There is a visceral energy that drives the music on Daylight and all of this has to do with the wonderful musicality of saxophonist John Butcher and drummer Mark Sanders. From the sense of moist breath that courses through Butcher's horn--as interspersed with breathy growls, guttural smears and sensational squeaks and wails, depending on the emotional prompts of the improvised score--to the primordial echo of Sanders' drums, the music turns a whole palette of colors and hues as it unfolds ...

Film Review

The Jeff Healey Band Live in Belgium

by C. Michael Bailey
June 2, 2012

The Jeff Healey BandThe Jeff Healey Band Live in BelgiumEagle Rock Entertainment2012The early 1990s were the height of Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey's popularity, particularly spurred by his conspicuous appearance in the 1989 Patrick Swazye film Roadhouse (United Artists). Healey, who passed away in 2006 at age 41, was noted for his novel guitar playing technique, developed possibly in response to his childhood blindness caused by familial retinoblastoma. Healey played the guitar flat ...