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

Deep Blue Organ Trio: Wonderful!

Read "Wonderful!" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 1, 2012

Wonderful! presents the Deep Blue Organ Trio's jazz take on nine Stevie Wonder hit songs that span Talking Book (Motown, 1972) to Songs in the Key of Life (Motown, '76), plus Wonder's 1969 hit single “My Cherie Amour" and “Tell Me Something Good," Chaka Khan's breakout from Rags to Rufus (MCA, '74) by Rufus (and which Wonder never recorded).Guitarist Bobby Broom, drummer Greg Rockingham, and Hammond B-3 organist Chris Foreman have played together for two decades and formed ...

Album Review

Phil Grenadier / Bruno Raberg Duo: Plunge

Read "Plunge" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 1, 2012

Trumpeter Phil Grenadier and bassist Bruno Råberg have collaborated for over ten years, including on Råberg's Ascensio (2003) and Chrysalis (2004), both on Orbis Music. For this intimate duo session, Råberg had a different vision: short, immediate and busy improvisations. Soundacapes, most of them were manipulated afterwards with different effects and three were “double duo" improvisations that interacted with first versions of the improvisation. Still, the melodic element invariably surfaces, with Råberg symbolizing this process as a lonely person's inner ...

Album Review

Marc Copland: Some More Love Songs

Read "Some More Love Songs" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 31, 2012

Seven years and a handful of albums under his own name separate pianist Marc Copland's Some Love Songs (Pirouet, 2005) and this winning sequel session. Copland reconvened the same trio from the original date--with ever-busy bassist Drew Gress and on-the-rise drummer Jochen Rueckert--and followed a similar programming formula, opening with a Joni Mitchell tune, closing with a Victor Young classic, giving a nod to Richard Rodgers along the way and hitting a trio of other songs that fit the thematic ...

Extended Analysis

Allan Harris & Takana Miyamoto: Convergence

by C. Michael Bailey
May 31, 2012

Allan Harris & Takana MiyamotoConvergenceLove Production Records2012 A nostalgic trend that has gained traction in the last decade is that of bands (generally jam bands) performing “classic" rock albums live in their entirety, typically on Halloween or New Year's Eve. Some of the more notable examples of this include Phish's recent covers of the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. (Self Produced, 2009), Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus (Self Produced, 2010), ...

Album Review

Eddie Gomez: Per Sempre

Read "Per Sempre" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 31, 2012

Taken as a cohesive statement--a one-hour piece of art in a world of downloads and diminishing attention spans--bassist Eddie Gomez's Per Sempre stands out, with the minor and enviable disadvantage of opening with the set's loveliest tune, “Arianna." Good news/good news: the rest of this superb outing is just a notch--a small one--below that level of excellence.Gomez surely learned something from his eleven-year tenure as pianist Bill Evans' bassist. Evans was a master at assembling excellent trios that ...

The Mort Report

Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry Once Blew Us Away Under LA’s Big Top

by Mort Weiss
May 31, 2012

Los Angeles/Hollywood, California, in the late 1940s through the early 1960s was a happening place for jazz and jazz musicians. There was always a place to play a jam session, or more correctly session(s)--mostly in beer bars. (I'm not counting the ones that went on all night in some one's pad, if they were lucky enough to live up in one of the many canyons in the Hollywood hills) I've seen many a sunrise from the Laurel and Topanga canyons, ...

Album Review

Brandon Wright: Journeyman

Read "Journeyman" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 31, 2012

Posi-Tone Records is known for showcasing nascent talent, often aligned with proven jazz warriors. With his sophomore release for the label, young tenor saxophonist Brandon Wright garners sympathetic and dynamic support from his ensemble, comprising time-honored vets, such as pianist David Kikoski and bassist Boris Kozlov. Drummer Donald Edwards transmits a holistic rhythmic stance with his acute penchant for toggling between soft and accenting accompaniment or when kicking matters into tenth gear. Possessing a big, blustery sound, Wright executes a ...

Album Review

Bio Ritmo: La Verdad

Read "La Verdad" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 31, 2012

In September 2011, Bio Ritmo, the ten-piece salsa band from Richmond (Virginia), celebrated twenty years together, no small accomplishment for a band originally formed (says its official company bio) “as a percussion ensemble brought together by two misplaced Puerto Ricans who met at art school, combined with a local punk rock drummer."Communally led by Tobias Whitaker (trombone and composer), Marlysse Simmons (pianist and composer), multi-instrumentalist and arranger Guistino Riccio (who's been onboard for eighteen of those twenty years) ...

Album Review

Tessa Souter: Beyond The Blue

Read "Beyond The Blue" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
May 31, 2012

Vocalist Tessa Souter is deservedly becoming treasured among jazz fans and musicians alike. She combines the sonority, vocal range and discipline of a classical lieder soprano with subtle and sultry jazz inflections. Everything she sings is meaningful, well thought out and in good taste. She works with the best instrumentalists and has a consummate grasp of both swing and the modern jazz idiom. All these elements are manifest in her newest album, Beyond the Blue, where Souter takes familiar themes ...

Album Review

Jherek Bischoff: Composed

Read "Composed" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 30, 2012

The touring life isn't the one to which every musician aspires. Sometimes the call of the home, fireside and comfy slippers is stronger than that of the road. Seattle-based Jherek Bischoff--lately of Parenthetical Girls and The Dead Science--prefers working on music at home, producing and arranging as well as composing and playing. Composed, his debut under his own name, is filled with stylish, lushly-orchestrated, songs that readily affirm his preference.Bischoff's inventive compositions combine with the voices of his ...