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.

Live Review

MeTaL-o-PHoNe: Helsinki, Finland, March 14, 2012

by Anthony Shaw
March 25, 2012

MeTaL-o-PHoNe with Aki RissanenKanneltaloHelsinki, FinlandMarch 14, 2012 Winter in most Scandinavian countries can be a grueling protracted experience, with snow lingering on the streets into May. The conditions in Helsinki's concrete suburb of Kannelmäki in mid-March are witness to the first stage of its retreat, the huge mounds piled along the roadside being no longer pristine and aerodynamic but dirty, grit-spattered and angular. Yet the benefit of the city's stoutly devolved artistic outreach program ...

Album Review

Scott Dubois: Landscape Scripture

Read "Landscape Scripture" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
March 25, 2012

Art inspired by work in another medium can be difficult to successfully resolve--the old adage, “dancing about architecture," comes to mind. In the hands of a truly talented and empathetic artist however, such creative cross-pollination can bear surprisingly fruitful results, occasionally developing new potential for expression beyond the preconceived limitations of each respective form.Landscape Scripture is a highly accomplished and fully realized example of this concept. The fifth album by guitarist Scott DuBois (his third for Sunnyside Records), ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Patrick Specht

by AAJ Staff
March 25, 2012

Meet Patrick Specht: Local jazz kid looking for some bigger opportunities. Baritone players are a rare breed, and I relish being one. I love playing, and every gig is a learning opportunity, and I want to get as many opportunities to improve as I can.Instrument(s): Baritone and alto saxophones.Teachers and/or influences? Taught by Nic Meyer, Dan Nicholson, Jim Warrick, and Doug Rosenberg. My influences are all over the place, as ...

Album Review

Tom Rainey Trio: Camino Cielo Echo

Read "Camino Cielo Echo" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 25, 2012

For its second outing, drummer Tom Rainey's trio establishes itself as a commanding representative of the latest direction in pioneering jazz. By creating (more like co-creating) music with two of today's in-demand players--guitarist Mary Halvorson and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock--Rainey continues his streak of outings with vanguard players.The drummer has been heard in cutting-edge bands since the 1990s, led by such esteemed avant-garde players as saxophonists Tim Berne and Tony Malaby, guitarists Nels Cline and David Torn, and bassist ...

Album Review

Steve Horowitz: New Monsters

Read "New Monsters" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 25, 2012

Despite the suggestion of the title, New Monsters is not actually crawling with legions of denizens from the netherworld. The promise of monsters has more to do with the unleashing of musical forces as diverse as klezmer and Erik Satie. Moreover, far from being a quaint experiment, the album takes a radical road--one that was travelled by Don Byron on Plays the Music of Mickey Katz (Electra, 1993). Whether the influence is direct is a moot point, but the bassist ...

Album Review

Tim Langedijk Trio: November

Read "November" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
March 25, 2012

Guitarist Tim Langedijk formed his first trio in 2006, recording two CDs with bassist Udo Pannekeet and drummer Haye Jellema: 2008's Testimonials (2008) and Inside The House (2010), both on The Sands Records label. Hans van Oosterhout replaces Jellema on November, which also features the exciting pianist Jasper van 't Hof. Langedijk's contemporary compositions not only have a strong melodic sensibility; they also showcase his harmonic concepts. The haunting “Pathway" is a prime example of his craft, the ...

Live Review

Roscoe Mitchell: London, England, March 9, 2012

by John Sharpe
March 24, 2012

Roscoe MitchellCafé OtoLondonMarch 9, 2012 Saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell followed an increasingly well trod path. Dalston's Cafe Oto has a strong track record in bringing great names from the free jazz past to the north London stage, with previous guest artists including trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Ted Daniel, and saxophonists Joe McPhee, John Tchicai, Sonny Simmons and Arthur Doyle. Now added to that illustrious roster was a two-day residency for the reedman and ...

Album Review

Billy Hart: All Our Reasons

Read "All Our Reasons" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 24, 2012

In a career spanning work with saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and trumpeter Miles Davis to pianists Tommy Flanagan and Marian McPartland, drummer Billy Hart has pretty much seen it all, from the most centrist mainstream to the outer reaches of free playing and beyond. But as he approaches 72 later in 2012, there's one thing Hart hasn't done--until now. All Our Reasons represents the first time the veteran drummer has reunited the same band as on a previous recording, in this ...

163

Extended Analysis

Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas

by Nenad Georgievski
March 24, 2012

Leonard Cohen Old Ideas Columbia Records 2012 In an age where being talentless is the new talent it is nice to have a taste of the good old world in the form of a Leonard Cohen record. Moving to the level of being an information or software culture, there are now often great discrepancies and differences between the mind and the heart. For the most part, we live and breathe in a ...

109

Album Review

Ewan Dobson: Ewan Dobson III

Read "Ewan Dobson III" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 24, 2012

Guitarist Ewan Dobson did not so much emerge from the house that Leo Kottke, John Fahey and Peter Lang built as construct his own wing and take command of it. Somewhere in that house, close to the Dobson wing, the spirit of Michael Hedges lurks, speaking from his portrait, encouraging the walls to be more percussive in their guitar playing. The Canadian Dobson is the evolutionary manifestation of all virtuoso acoustic guitarists who came before him. Rightly, Paganini looms large ...