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

Andy Clausen: The Wishbone Suite

Read "The Wishbone Suite" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 8, 2012

Nineteen year old trombonist Andy Clausen started his music studies at The Julliard School in the fall of 2010. He did not wait to finish his studies before releasing, in March of 2012, his debut CD, The Wishbone Suite. Apparently the music was in him and it had to be recorded.The music on The Wishbone Suite is, in Clausen's words, “a collection of simple melodies, themes and chord structures that chronicle a childish romance I had in the ...

Album Review

The Alex Goodman Quintet: Bridges

Read "Bridges" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 8, 2012

Canadian guitarist Alex Goodman builds bridges between mainstream and modern jazz. On Bridges, the artist shuns convention while merging disparate forces into a harmonious union. Unlike similar ventures that wind up in the dreaded oil and water milieu, Goodman produces an au naturel feel.A superb technician, Goodman fuses difficult time signatures into bop and swing vamps amid curvy abstractions and linear progressions, and his band follows suit. Contrasts abound throughout as the leader projects an effervescent soundscape in ...

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Album Review

Andrew Swift: Swift Kick

Read "Swift Kick" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 8, 2012

Drummer Andrew Swift belongs to a new generation of jazz artists that includes trumpeter Ryan Kisor and multi-instrumentalists Sharel Cassity and Michael Dease, all of whom join Swift on his debut recording, Swift Kick. These young artists are all well trained and steeped in tradition. However, tradition does not own their collective souls. All compose with a bright edge of intelligence and perform in the same way. This is smart jazz that does not brag or indulge in over composition ...

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Album Review

Georg Breinschmid: Fire

by Hrayr Attarian
April 8, 2012

Austrian bassist Georg Breinschmid's Fire is a collection of live and studio recordings, in a variety of genres, all served with a healthy dose of refreshing irreverence and exuberant humor.This in no way means that Breinschmid and his band mates are only about fun and games. On the contrary, their high quality musicianship and immense talents are evident throughout. For example, on “Suite 7" Breinschmid plays the complex melody with extreme agility while simultaneously keeping time on his ...

Album Review

George Duke: The Complete 1970s Epic Albums Collection

Read "The Complete 1970s Epic Albums Collection" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 8, 2012

The George Duke Band: The Complete 1970s Epic Albums Collection compiles the six albums that keyboardist, bandleader, composer, arranger and producer George Duke released on Epic Records between 1977 and 1979, accompanied by extensive and reflective notes on each album personally written by Duke, who wrote, arranged and produced just about every track. As an instrumentalist, Duke strongly resembles one of his most famous employers, soul-jazz saxophonist and bandleader Cannonball Adderley: Duke plays in an enthusiastic and compelling ...

Live Review

The Allman Brothers Band: New York, NY, March 24th, 2012

by Doug Collette
April 7, 2012

The Allman Brothers BandBeacon TheatreNew York, New YorkMarch 24th, 2012 On this next-to-last night of their 2012 run at The Beacon Theatre, as they have done so often in the past during their 40-year plus history, The Allman Brothers Band proved themselves redoubtable. They not only continued to push themselves out of their comfort zone musically, they responded to the unexpected absence of figurehead Gregg Allman with absolute aplomb. The namesake of the ...

Album Review

Lama Trio: Oneiros

Read "Oneiros" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
April 7, 2012

From the seeds of invention planted at a conservatory in Rotterdam in 2008, through experimentation and fruitful hard work, the Portuguese-based trio LAMA delivers a wild ride with Oneiros , their debut album and one of the best releases in 2011. The music is equal parts avant-garde and modern jazz, mixed by trumpeter Susana Santos Silva [Devil's Dress (TOAP, 2011)], bassist Gonçalo Almeida--both of whom provide electronic embellishments--and Greg Smith on drums.From the onset of “Alguidar," the trio's ...

Book Review

Greil Marcus: The Doors - A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years

by Doug Collette
April 7, 2012

The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean YearsGreil Marcus224 PagesISBN: 978-1586489458Public Affairs2011In The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, Greil Marcus challenges preconceptions of what form a book devoted to a band and its music can take. We can usually assume an author enjoys the work) of his subject, even if, with some healthy but polite objectivity, the writer can highlight the shortfalls ...

Album Review

Zanussi 13: Live

by Mark Corroto
April 7, 2012

Don't let anyone tell you that size doesn't matter. It does. For a large jazz ensemble, size often dictates sound: its suppleness or lack of. This is not a problem for the malleable Zanussi 13. This live recording from a 2001 performance in Oslo displays an unpretentious big band that deals with size by exploiting its forcefulness, but also by not getting caught up in the trappings of size.Norwegian bassist Zanussi was first noted as a member of ...

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Album Review

Leslie Lewis: Midnight Sun

Read "Midnight Sun" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 7, 2012

Jazz singing does not so much require an obedient voice as a directed but free-spirited one. There are few vocalists who can pull off the elastic fireworks of a Betty Carter, Lisa Sokolov or Tierney Sutton and fewer still who should even try. East Coast-West Coast vocalist Leslie Lewis has a beautifully perfect alto voice for singing jazz. By tone alone, she can claim a well deserved corner of the jazz vocal map for herself, much in the same way ...