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

Dudley Owens / Aaron Wright Band: People Calling

Read "People Calling" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 23, 2012

Dudley Owens / Aaron Wright Band's People Calling, in the best possible sense, doesn't settle into any category. The title tune, introduced early and reprised at the end of the disc, walks a line between the spirituality-steeped sound of saxophonist John Coltrane's classic sixties quartet and the soulful and catchy style of vocalist/songwriter/producer Curtis Mayfield. The result is stirred with social consciousness, with drummer Clif Wallace's low-in-the-mix vocals repeating “Oh, the people calling" much in the manner of the chant ...

Album Review

Charles Gayle Trio: Streets

Read "Streets" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
March 23, 2012

The cover of Streets shows saxophonist Charles Gayle in his titular clown persona, the look on his face conveying a multitude of emotion. And that is precisely what Gayle is all about--a musician who parlays love, joy, happiness, laughter and sadness into his music.Gayle packs a wallop in his playing. His approach drives a myriad shades, high registers dipping into soft contours, probing and dissolving into an all-out attack. The moment is defined in the instant, with surprise ...

Catching Up With

Robert Glasper: Temptation Redux

by Anthony King
March 23, 2012

"Hello world, peace and love--I wish you the best, and now for the next" are the first words uttered with the cadence of a street corner preacher-come poet by Shafiq Hussein, only two bars into Robert Glasper's Black Radio (Blue Note, 2012). As if to lay down the essence of his latest record right off the top, Glasper's piano dances mercurially over Hussein's musings like a skater creating abstract art on glistening ice. The effect is beguiling, sexy and urban ...

On and Off the Grid

Transitions: Musician To Artist, or Finding Your Own Voice

by Dom Minasi
March 22, 2012

Professional and amateur musicians come in all hats and sizes. There are classical, blues, jazz, country, rock musicians and musicians that specialize in all kinds of music. There are musicians from every corner of the world. If your definition of a musician is someone who: 1. Is a master of his/her instrument;2. Can play in any key;3. Can read music well;4. Can transpose music;5. Has a good understanding of harmony and ...

Album Review

Michael Wollny's [em]: Wasted & Wanted

Read "Wasted & Wanted" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
March 22, 2012

Michael Wollny's sleeve notes for Wasted & Wanted are emphatic: “MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN RULES. This is Jazz." Back in the day, this German piano trio used to be plain old [em]. Some re-branding has taken place, and now it's Michael Wollny's [em]. According to Wollny, the change is intended to help people who have been confused by the name [em], and to follow the well-worn tradition of naming a piano trio after the pianist. Hmm. Rather a strange approach, ...

Extended Analysis

Various Artists: Wan Fambul / One Family

by James Nadal
March 22, 2012

Various ArtistsWan Fambul / One FamilyFambul Tok2012 Music has the power to heal if not on the physical form, then surely in the spiritual and psychological levels of human nature. At the other end of human activity are wars, which are evil, horrific and leave deep scars on the survivors--principally the children, who suffer the most through no fault of their own. Wan Fambul / One Family has been released to raise ...

Album Review

Joel Harrison 7: Search

by John Kelman
March 22, 2012

Over the past decade, Joel Harrison has created a body of work distinct in its eclectic and multifaceted reach. Compositionally, the guitarist has worked in a variety of contexts, from the ambitious five-movement suite for string quartet and jazz quintet of The Wheel (Innova, 2008) and the pan-cultural, genre-busting Harbor (HighNote, 2007), where he found a particularly strong foil in Parisian guitarist Nguyên Lê, to his very personal and irrefutably modern homage to the emergent electric music of the early ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Jan Wouter Oostenrijk

by AAJ Staff
March 22, 2012

Meet Jan Wouter Oostenrijk: Virtuoso Dutch guitarist Jan Wouter Oostenrijk completed his professional jazz guitar studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in 1995. He was part of successful Moroccan Rai formations. After this period he developed his own crossovers, where he combines North African music culture with his own roots. His music possesses energetic and strong roots-oriented rhythms and melodic improvisations on guitar that moves from bebop lines to screaming blues and Rock and Oriental “Maqama"-like playing.

Album Review

Marshall Gilkes: Sound Stories

Read "Sound Stories" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 22, 2012

Lyrical strains and muscular machinations are a counterintuitive combination, but trombonist Marshall Gilkes is living proof that they need not be mutually exclusive methods of musical dissemination. Gilkes has made a name for himself through his work with Colombian harp hero Edmar Castaneda, the Maria Schneider Orchestra and many others, but the full scope of his talents is better observed on his own albums.Gilkes first gained wide recognition with “Puddle Jumping," from his 2004 debut, Edenderry (Alternate Side). ...

Album Review

Ehud Asherie with Harry Allen: Upper West Side

Read "Upper West Side" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 22, 2012

Upper West Side is as fine a duet album as has been made by a pianist with another instrumentalist. This declaration may very possibly include the albums made by Hank Jones with Tommy Flanagan and Oscar Peterson with Dizzy Gillespie. It is a credit to pianist Ehud Asherie that he made this album at such a young age in comparison to the masters who have been mentioned in the same breath, perhaps with seeming blasphemy. However, considering Asherie's instrumental mastery, ...