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

Mina Agossi: Red Eyes

Read "Red Eyes" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 12, 2012

The French Classical Naive label continues its campaign into jazz with Mina Agossi's Red Eyes. Her second recording for the label after 2010's Just Like A Lady, Red Eyes finds the French singer staking out her rightful claim on what only can be described as the furthest molecule on the cutting edge of jazz vocals, before everything turns to infinity. While it is true that Agossi's vocal style still colors within the lines of conventional jazz wisdom, she erases those ...

Live Review

Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland 2012: Days 6-12

by Matt Marshall
May 11, 2012

Days 1-5 | Days 6-12 33rd Annual Tri-C JazzFest ClevelandCleveland, OhioApril 16-29, 2012 Chapter Index April 24: Ernie Krivda's Thunder From the Heartland April 25: Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts April 26: The Jack DeJohnette Group April 27: David Sanborn Trio / Trombone Shorty April 28: Diana Krall April 26: TCJF SoundWorks April 24: Ernie Krivda's Thunder From the Heartland Well-travelled tenor saxophonist Ernie Krivda is a Cleveland ...

Album Review

Busnoys: By Tapering Torchlight

Read "By Tapering Torchlight" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 11, 2012

Busnoys is named after 15th century French composer Antoine Busnoys (or Busnois). Not that this gives much away about the music on By Tapering Torchlight, the trio's follow up to its debut, San Angelo (Tall Guy Records, 2010). The fact that the band is based in Bristol in the west of England, home to Massive Attack and Portishead (whose ex-member Jim Barr, Busnoys' original bassist, recorded the album at his J&J Studios), might give more of a clue to fans ...

Live Review

Teresa Salgueiro: Belgrade, Serbia, 18 April 2012

by Nenad Georgievski
May 11, 2012

Teresa SalgueiroDom SindikataBelgrade, SerbiaApril 18, 2012There is a secret love affair between Teresa Salgueiro and the city of Belgrade that has been happening for many years. For the past several years, with her former band Madredeus or with her many solo projects, this city has been a regular stop on the renowned Portuguese singer's many tours. Nevertheless, this accomplished singer--with a voice and charisma that have been enchanting audiences around the globe for many years--has ...

Album Review

Cristina Morrison: I Love

by Dan Bilawsky
May 11, 2012

Vocalist Cristina Morrison is as worldly and well-traveled as they come. She was born in Miami and spent time living in Rome, Quito, the Galapagos Islands and Los Angeles before landing in the Big Apple, from whence she recorded this fine debut. Morrison possesses a voice that's alternately soothing, sassy, straightforward or sly, and she brings it to bear on a diverse array of original and oft-covered offerings. Six of the nine tunes on this date were ...

Album Review

Bol / Westerhus / Snah: Numb, number

Read "Numb, number" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 11, 2012

Norwegian trio Bol has always been a melting pot of untimely sound worlds, poetic texts and fearless, improvising character. Vocalist Tone Åse experiments with live electronics and subtle interpretations of poems, as she did on her recent collaboration with drummer Thomas Strønen, Voxpheria (Gigafon, 2012). Keyboardist Ståle Storløkken evokes progressive rock symphonies with his usage of vintage synthesizers, while drummer Tor Haugerud explores original grooves. On this recording, four years after Skylab (NORCD, 2008), Bol is joined ...

Album Review

Jerome Sabbagh: Plugged In

Read "Plugged In" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 11, 2012

New York City-based tenor saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh has made the rounds by performing with a who's who of modern jazz artists amid his flourishing career as a solo artist. Possessing a stout tone and commanding presence, the artist's lyrically resplendent phraseology is often a good fit for a variety of jazz settings, including mainstream and the outside realm. With his acoustic-electric quartet, Sabbagh enjoys a notable affiliation with Belgian keyboard virtuoso Jozef Dumoulin, who spawns a polytonal, electronics vista, complete ...

Album Review

FAS Trio: Chimeco

Read "Chimeco" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
May 11, 2012

Saxophonist Remi Álvarez explores the horizons of free improvisations through six different combinations. He plays solo, collaborates in a duo setting with drummer Gabriel Lauder and has led four trios. FAS Trio is his Mexican band, one that balances composition with freedom for often arresting results. The trio takes chances but does not defy logic, and in doing so, brings about a deeply satisfying sense of accomplishment. Álvarez is a robust player whose thick phrasing darts and ...

Extended Analysis

Wayne Krantz: Howie 61

by John Kelman
May 10, 2012

Wayne KrantzHowie 61Abstract Logix2012He's long been a musician's musician and a guitarist's guitarist--there's a reason Steely Dan's Donald Fagen recruited him for his last solo disc, Morph the Cat (Reprise, 2006), and saxophonists David Binney and Chris Potter called him up for Graylen Epicenter (Mythology, 2011) and Underground (Sunnyside, 2006), respectively. Krantz's instantly recognizable, head-cocking idiosyncracies, combined with his distinctive harmonic language and effortless ability to groove, even at his most oblique, ...

Album Review

Ablaye Cissoko / Volker Goetze: Amanke Dionti

Read "Amanke Dionti" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 10, 2012

Amanké Dionti is the most curiously beautiful record to hit shelves in the first half of 2012. Senegalese kora master Ablaye Cissoko and German trumpeter Volker Goetze have created a warm, engrossing, transcendent album that's glazed over with stark beauty and slight reverb, making it sound like a meeting of West African ideals and ECM-style production values. Goetze and Cissoko first crossed paths while performing in the African-European Jazz Orchestra, opening shows for Youssou N'Dour in 2001. ...