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

Ari Erev: A Handful of Changes

Read "A Handful of Changes" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 6, 2012

On his previous recording, About Time (CDBABY, 2008), Israeli pianist Ari Erev led a jazz piano trio in a blend of standards featuring the music of Bill Evans. In continuing his exploration of jazz, Erev engineers A Handful of Changes, affirming what he once stated: “My music has evolved during the past few years." With this extraordinary outing, Erev changes the dynamics of his music, featuring Latin elements and establishing an assertive bop-ish flair in a dramatic departure from the ...

Album Review

Taylor's Universe: Kind of Red

Read "Kind of Red" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 6, 2012

Danish multi-instrumentalist Robin Taylor is something of a musical polymath who's recorded extensively in a number of disparate musical arenas, including free improvisation (with his group Taylor's Free Universe), hard rock (with Art Cinema), electronic soundscapes, and jazz-rock fusion. With Kind of Red, Taylor's stylistic focus is firmly in the general area of instrumental progressive rock.Taylor's appealing, evocative, minor-key compositions typically have a somber demeanor that is offset by driving, often odd-metered rhythms. Though he plays all the ...

Album Review

Kate McGarry: Girl Talk

Read "Girl Talk" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
May 5, 2012

There are many reasons to like vocalist Kate McGarry's Girl Talk.There's the lively set list, first of all--a mix of all-too-well-known and too-little-known standards, with a fine Brazilian number thrown in. There's the uniform excellence of the band: witness Gary Versace's idiomatic organ accompaniment on “Girl Talk"; guitarist Keith Ganz--sensitive throughout, but especially on the forlorn folk tune “Looking Back"; the stately Brazilian duet “O Cantador," with Kurt Elling; and bassist Reuben Rogers' nice feature on “I Just ...

Nite & Disk

Kate McGarry: Beauty and the Bus

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
May 5, 2012

The BusI recently drove into the Big Apple to see singer Kate McGarry's band celebrate the release of their Girl Talk CD (Palmetto, 2012) at the Jazz Standard. It was a stressful drive, given the rush-hour timing and need to watch for idiots steering two tons of metal with their knees as they text “Wassup?" to their friends.But when I finally reached the club, I came upon a legal parking place, right there on the street. ...

Live Review

Yanna Fabian: Los Angeles, CA February 3, 2012

by Chuck Koton
May 5, 2012

Yanna Fabian MiMoDa StudioLos Angeles, CAFebruary 3, 2012A decidedly European vibe permeated the MiMoDa Studio in LA's creative La Brea district on February 3, 2012. Spanish, Russian, French and even English tongues could be heard mingling prior to the presentation of the Thea Project, Yanna Fabian's multimedia creation. Fabian, who relocated to Hollywood from her native Czech Republic in the summer of 2011, is an accomplished, award-winning vocalist, songwriter, dancer and actress who has released ...

Album Review

David Basse: Uptown

Read "Uptown" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 5, 2012

West Coast singer Mark Winkler (Sweet Spot [Cafe Pacific Records, 2011]) heard David Basse and immediately signed him to his Cafe Pacific Records. Uptown is the first product of this partnership and, for the sake of the male jazz singer, does not come a moment too soon. There exists a huge disparity between female and male singers singing “serious" jazz. For the sake of context, the serious male jazz singers include Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks (both in the autumn ...

Album Review

Gary Husband: Dirty & Beautiful Volume 2

Read "Dirty & Beautiful Volume 2" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 5, 2012

Drummer and keyboardist Gary Husband follows up Dirty & Beautiful Volume 1 (Abstract Logix, 2010) with a second volume, consummated by a star-studded aggregation of progressive rock, jazz-rock and jazz fusion instrumentalists, most of whom are Abstract Logix recording artists. Husband draws upon disparate frameworks; jazz improvisation, electronica, and other facets seed a fertile underpinning in concert with the musicians' signature styles.A drummer possessing gargantuan chops, these days Husband has been manning the keyboards for guitarist John McLaughlin's ...

Album Review

Brad Mehldau Trio: Ode

by Ian Patterson
May 5, 2012

Seven years separate Ode from this trio's last studio recording, the outstanding Day is Done (Nonesuch, 2005), which has come to mark a before-and-after in Brad Mehldau's trajectory. Previously, the pianist had recorded in a traditional trio setting with few exceptions. Since Day is Done, however, Mehldau's projects have covered much more diverse terrain: setting poetry to music with classical soprano Renée Fleming; rubbing shoulders with guitarist Pat Metheny; and blending classical and popular song with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von ...

Album Review

Ro Sham Beaux: Ro Sham Beaux

Read "Ro Sham Beaux" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
May 4, 2012

Most jazz tunes are arranged in a certain way: head, solos, head. It's a valid and useful way to present improvised musical ideas based on a theme or chord progression. The head can be a simple melody or a convoluted riot of contrasting harmonies and tempi. Rock or pop songs are constructed differently: verse, chorus, verse, plus an intervening bridge and perhaps a short instrumental solo. Ro Sham Beaux plays around with both of these archetypes in an amusing and ...

Live Review

Suunta: Helsinki, Finland, April 18, 2012

by Anthony Shaw
May 4, 2012

Suunta: An Exploration of Image and Imagination. Helsinki Music Center Helsinki, Finland April 18, 2012 The very title of this project suggests that it is more than just a concert put together by three jobbing musicians, a musical experience with higher goals than just entertainment. The name of the ensemble, Suunta, means “direction" and was inspired by a visit to a planetarium and an introduction to interplanetary navigation. From this grew the idea of ...