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

Nikki Iles: Hush

by Bruce Lindsay
April 2, 2012

The transatlantic band that created Hush--British pianist Nikki Iles, and American bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Jeff Williams--had never played together as a trio before their single rehearsal session on the night prior to recording at Dave Bennett's New Jersey studio in September 2010. That the album sounds like the product of years of collaboration is a testament to the trio's skills, and to these three musicians' mutual understanding, for Hush is a beautiful and affecting record.The overall ...

Live Review

Pharoah Sanders Quartet: New York, March 20, 2012

by Bob Kenselaar
April 2, 2012

Pharoah Sanders QuartetBirdlandNew York, NYMarch 20, 2012Tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders has long embodied the tradition, the musical voice, and the spirit of John Coltrane. He is arguably among the most truly authentic of Coltrane's disciples, considering that he was a member of the saxophonist's band during the last two years of his life. At the same time, Sanders offers an exuberant, inspired kind of expression that is all his own.Joining Sanders at Birdland ...

Album Review

Matthew Bourne: Montauk Variations

Read "Montauk Variations" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
April 2, 2012

Still on the shy side of 40, British pianist Matthew Bourne has accomplished more, in a relatively short time, than many do in a lifetime. Bourne has leaned farther to the left for most of his career, experimenting in both acoustic and electric environs with a free-thinking approach informed, to some extent, by Annette Peacock, that unclassifiable singer/writer responsible for some of pianist Paul Bley's most compelling composition-based music, and who was the subject of a two-disc tribute by pianist ...

Album Review

Lola Danza: The Island

Read "The Island" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 2, 2012

Singer/composer Lola Danza is not a multicultural artistic presence, she is a pan-cultural artistic presence. This is fully exploited on her ensemble recording, Janya (Evolver, 2011). Her singing and songwriting hover in the neighborhood of jazz because terms like “new age" and “world music" don't seem to quite cover it. Live Free (Evolver, 2009) was exactly that, a freely expressed vocal recording taped live with a quartet at Boston's Ryles' Club. Danza demonstrated amply the depth and breadth of her ...

Album Review

Lauren Kinsella & Alex Huber: All This Talk About

Read "All This Talk About" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 2, 2012

In the thirty minutes of improvised vocals and drums (a daring premise to begin with) on All This Talk About, Lauren Kinsella and Alex Huber-- from Ireland and Switzerland, respectively--forge a rare and exotic partnership. The high-wire acrobatics of Kinsella--emitting a Joycean stream of consciousness with all manner of articulations, both syllabic and non-syllabic--will prove challenging to those who prefer their vocal jazz, well, unchallenging. Her unique, edgy improvisations are peppered sparingly, however, with more traditional and quite beautiful lyrical ...

Album Review

Gene Ess: A Thousand Summers

Read "A Thousand Summers" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 2, 2012

In a rare departure for Gene Ess, who has always favored original music and instrumentals, the veteran jazz guitarist has partnered with acclaimed vocalist and bassist Nicki Parrott for A Thousand Summers, a refined album of familiar jazz standards and love songs. When Ess began developing the project, he naturally focused on new material. One day he performed with a singer at New York's renowned Blue Note jazz club. As he so aptly puts it, the experience “seemed to have ...

173

Interview

Nikki Iles: Meditation and Collaboration

by Bruce Lindsay
April 2, 2012

Pianist and composer Nikki Iles describes herself as one of the “not-so-young-anymore generation" of British jazz musicians--a fair comment, in chronological terms, from a musician born in the mid-'60s. But more importantly, she's a musician of experience, expertise and talent, viewed with great respect by players across the world. Iles' self-description does seem to be typical of her modest and slightly self-deprecating approach, though: she's not one for ego trips or grandiose claims. In fact, she is more likely to ...

Album Review

Kyoko Kitamura: Armadillo In Sunset Park

Read "Armadillo In Sunset Park" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
April 1, 2012

In a genre-defying debut, vocalist/pianist Kyoko Kitamura releases what she terms a mini album, collecting nine pieces, many written for a dance collaboration. It might be termed a solo effort, except that the electronics and sound effects provided by George Walker Petit play such an integral role. A former journalist with a Gulf War stint on her résumé, Kitamura has previously graced the ensembles of cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's SpiderMonkey Strings on Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12, 2009) and Go-Zee-Lah at ...

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

April 2012

by Mr. P.C.
April 1, 2012

Dear Mr. P.C.:I've noticed that when a lot of the younger groups rearrange a standard or pop song, they take out a beat here and there. It keeps me off guard and if I don't count I lose track of the downbeat. But that's fine. What I'm wondering is: Where do those beats go? Beats Are Missing

Dear BAM:It's horrible to say, but this is simply the thinning of the species; natural selection ...

Album Review

Hugh Masekela: Jabulani

Read "Jabulani" reviewed by Thomas Carroll

by Thomas Carroll
April 1, 2012

At the age of 72, South African vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Hugh Masekela is still making music with as much energy and passion as he did in the days of “Grazin' in the Grass" at the height of his international fame in the 1960s and 1970s. Historically, Masekela has used his music as a form of social and political activism to combat issues like Apartheid. Jabulani strays from this trend of defiance and instead focuses on the joys and drawbacks of ...