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

Jeff Parker: Bright Light in Winter

Read "Bright Light in Winter" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 9, 2012

Chicago-based guitarist Jeff Parker has cut his proverbial teeth with the Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and remains an active member of that group. His own work is very much in the spirit of the AACM's musical philosophy, but enhanced by his unique vision that draws from all sources of improvised music including but not limited to jazz. His third release as a leader, Bright Light in Winter, finds the guitarist in a lean setting ...

Catching Up With

Catching Up With e.s.t.'s Dan Berglund and Magnus Ostrom

by Renato Wardle
May 9, 2012

The tragic death of pianist Esbjörn Svensson in the summer of 2008 brought to a close the 12-year run of one of the most prolific and brilliant piano trios in recent years. The enigmatically hypnotic tapestries that the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (which came to be known as e.s.t.) wove simultaneously eschewed and venerated the jazz tradition. This magnificent juxtaposition resulted in a unique musical world dealing as much with the piano trio lineage of Keith Jarrett as with the intoxicating ...

Album Review

Allan Harris & Takana Miyamoto: Convergence

Read "Convergence" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 8, 2012

The eternal bond between piano and voice in jazz was cemented long before pianist Bill Evans and vocalist Tony Bennett ever took to the studio together, but they elevated this union of sounds to artistic heights ne'er before attained. Bennett and Evans erased the notions of vocals on top and pianist-as-mere-accompanist with The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (Fantasy, 1975) and its less glorified follow-up, Together Again (Improv, 1977). They created a synergy in song craft that few before or since ...

Book Excerpts

Vince Guaraldi at the Piano

by Derrick Bang
May 8, 2012

This article appears in the prologue of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano by Derrick Bang (McFarland Books, 2012).Prologue: “The Sound of Surprise" Saturday, October 4, 1958: shortly after midnight, at the first-ever Monterey Jazz Festival.It had been a busy day; indeed, it was already a long three-day weekend. Headliner Louis Armstrong--introduced by emcee Dizzy Gillespie--had helped lure a crowd of roughly 5,000 jazz fans to Friday evening's opening-night performances, although one critic was much ...

Album Review

Mike Reed: People Places and Things: Clean On The Corner

Read "People Places and Things: Clean On The Corner" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 8, 2012

The fourth installment of drummer Mike Reed's People, Place & Things project departs from his original modus operandi of paying tribute to the Chicago jazz and improvised scene circa 1954-1960. Despite this, Reed could not divorce himself of his heritage; Clean On the Corner bristles with the legacy of Chicago's broad sounds and the inspiration of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians).As with his previous discs--Stories And Negotiations (482 Music, 2010), About Us (482 Music, ...

Big Band Caravan

Bob Lark Alumni Band / Bob Curnow / JazzMN Big Band

by Jack Bowers
May 8, 2012

Bob Lark and His Alumni Big BandReunionJazzed Media2012 As director for more than two decades of DePaul University's superb Jazz Ensemble, trumpeter Bob Lark has seen an endless parade of outstanding musicians pass through the ranks, which makes the first-ever Reunion of his Alumni Big Band a more than special occasion. Simply convening these eminent graduates in a recording studio for two red-letter days must have been a Herculean task, as ...

Album Review

Brandon Wright: Journeyman

Read "Journeyman" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 8, 2012

Beware of album titles that seem to damn with faint praise. Although saxophonist Brandon Wright takes inspiration for the title of his second album from the words of novelist Cormac McCarthy, Journeyman is a term that usually conjures up an image of a reliable, hard-working, solid but uninspiring type of person. All admirable qualities, of course, but hardly earth shattering or applicable to the playing talent of the New York based musician. It's clear from Wright's opening phrase on “Shapeshifter" ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith's Mbira: Dark Lady of the Sonnets

Read "Dark Lady of the Sonnets" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 8, 2012

Trumpet and drums--a truly primal combination--are joined by the delicately trilling, archaic and arcane sounds of the Chinese lute or pipa on Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Wadada Leo Smith's musical venture with a new trio, Mbira. At age 70, Smith's torrid creative pace is matched only by the forged-steel strength of his trumpet playing. Percussionist Pheeroan AkLaff has been working with Smith since the early 1970s. Their musical connection is telepathic, and the two move almost as one throughout ...

Album Review

Andrew Swift: Swift Kick

Read "Swift Kick" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 8, 2012

Currently the drummer for saxophonist Sharel Cassity and her quintet, the Matt Garrison Project as well as being the drumming voice for many nationally syndicated television commercials, Australian drummer Andrew Swift unveils his debut with Swift Kick, a remarkably engaging piece of musical mastery. There's no doubt about this outing, critics and audiences alike will devour this with pleasure--and why not? The compositions and arrangements are sophisticated, the cast of all-star veterans first rate, and the artist himself, gifted with ...

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Catching Up With

Ben Jaffe: Preserving the Hall

by Wade Luquet
May 8, 2012

Preservation Hall was founded fifty years ago in a small art gallery in New Orleans' French Quarter by Allan and Sandra Jaffe as a place to preserve traditional jazz. Seven nights a week, tourists and locals enjoyed the best of this jazz style in the small performance space for just a few dollars collected at the door in a basket. Today, the lines still stretch down the block and the dollars are still collected in a basket. And while Allan ...