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.

Opinion

Bridges vs. Walls

by J. Scott Fugate
April 17, 2012

If you ask ten Americans “what does it mean to be an American?" you might well get 10 different answers.So it goes with America's only original, indigenous art form.Wait... we have one of those?Yes indeed--although it's rarely given the National respect or attention it deserves.Thus, if you ask ten Americans what our only original, indigenous art form may be, the correct answer might not even make the list.Baseball, hot dogs ...

Album Review

Todd Bishop Group: Little Played Little Bird

Read "Little Played Little Bird" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 17, 2012

Fans of alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman have had to sit through a long wait since the free jazz pioneer's last recording, Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar Records, 2006), a marvelous set that garnered the artist a Pulitzer Prize. Those fans are still waiting, though the iconic jazz man has teased them with his bits and pieces (non-album length) of his distinctive playing on bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma's For the Love of Ornette (Jam All Productions, 2011) and saxophone legend Sonny Rollins' Road ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Aidan Carroll

by AAJ Staff
April 17, 2012

Meet Aidan Carroll: Originally from Oklahoma, now living in New York and on the road, Aidan Carroll is an acoustic/electric bassist, composer, and educator. He attended the University of Central Oklahoma on full jazz scholarship, attended the Banff Workshop following college, and subsequently moved to New York for a Masters Degree at City College of New York where he studied with mentor John Patitucci. He's shared the stage with the likes of John Abercrombie, Adam Cruz, Ben Monder, ...

Album Review

Lucio Capece: Zero Plus Zero

Read "Zero Plus Zero" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
April 17, 2012

His Potlatch debut, Zero Plus Zero is the first solo recording from Berlin- based, Argentinean Lucio Capece. Recorded in Berlin between 2009 and 2011, it chronicles the ongoing evolution of his music, an evolution that has seen him move from focusing solely on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet to increasingly adding preparations to his instruments and employing the drones of the harmonium-like Indian sruti (or shruti) box. While soprano saxophone and bass clarinet are featured here on one track each, ...

Album Review

Nobuyasu Furuya Quintet: The Major

Read "The Major" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 17, 2012

Japanese born reedman Nobuyasu Furuya splits his time between his native country and Portugal, where The Major was captured. Furuya first came to prominence in the free jazz big band, Shibusa-Shirazu Orchestra, before moving to Lisbon, where he recorded two previous sets with musicians from his current band: the well-received Bendowa (Clean Feed, 2009) and Stunde Null (Chitei, 2010). Furuya takes an unusual approach. The sleeve of this limited edition LP states both that all tracks were composed and conducted ...

Album Review

Eivind Opsvik: Overseas IV

Read "Overseas IV" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
April 16, 2012

For the past decade, Norwegian-born, New York-based bassist Eivind Opsvik has been leading his venerable Overseas ensemble through a variety of musical terrain, first heard on their self-titled 2003 Fresh Sound New Talent debut. Overseas IV, the second Overseas album to be released on Opsvik's own Loyal Label, features a stripped-down version of the original line-up, albeit one more expansive in its range of musical expression. Inspired in part by Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette, this fourth recording from ...

Extended Analysis

Jazz Punks: Smashups

by Franz A. Matzner
April 16, 2012

Jazz PunksSmashupsSelf Produced2012As its name and debut album title suggest, the Los Angeles-based Jazz Punks seeks to “smash up" the jazz, punk and rock genres. But let's face it, jazz and punk hate each other, right? Jazz: all brain and no balls. Punk: all balls no brain. Nothing in common.On the one hand, we have punk. Blistering pace; overtly political; born out of the hard times and cross-cultural cauldron of ...

Album Review

Kidd Jordan: On Fire

by John Sharpe
April 16, 2012

Incendiary similes have always proven popular as descriptors of free jazz. Indeed, “Fire Music," has been used as a label for the whole genre. New Orleans-based saxophonist Kidd Jordan's 2006 outing, the superb Palm of Soul (AUM Fidelity), essayed a meditative calm, music which couldn't be more different from the accurately named 50-minute studio session On Fire. While bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Warren Smith would be eminently suited to a contemplative, even melodically inclined date, here they too pursue ...

Album Review

Chris Madsen: Pop Art

Read "Pop Art" reviewed by Thomas Carroll

by Thomas Carroll
April 16, 2012

Freedom of musical form is one of the many beauties of jazz. Jazz musicians express themselves through improvisation over musical structures that they can alter at any moment, shifting through different meters, timbres and harmonic landscapes. However, musicians run the risk of becoming too self-invested when they engage in long-form improvisation. In those unfortunate instances when improvisers begin to neglect the audience or their fellow band mates, the freedom that makes jazz such a potent musical product becomes a nuisance, ...

Album Review

Aaron Novik: Secret of Secrets

Read "Secret of Secrets" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 16, 2012

Secret of Secrets is the most ambitious project to date by Bay Area composer and clarinetist Aaron Novik. This dark and epic, deeply personal composition draws its inspiration from the writings of the late 12th century mystic Rabbi Eleazar Rokeach, known as Rabbi Eleazar of Worms. The Rabbi's masterwork, the five-book Secret of Secrets, deals with different mysteries of the spiritual realm, delving into these hidden worlds and divulging the true names of god, the secrets of the divine chariot, ...