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

Kidd Jordan: On Fire

Read "On Fire" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 22, 2012

Tenor saxophonist Edward “Kidd" Jordan is one those rare musicians who is able to imbue the freest, most advanced improvisations with extreme lyricism and build complex harmonies out of dissonant notes. On Fire showcases his sublime musicianship to the fullest. On “Officer, that Big Knife Cuts My Sax Reeds," Jordan's breaths fire on an emotionally cathartic and furious solo, replete with honks and shrieks that grow more quietly contemplative yet also more elaborate as the piece progresses. ...

Cymbalism

Don Alias and Miles Davis

by Melanie Futorian
March 21, 2012

[Editor's Note: Cymbalism is an All About Jazz column featuring excerpts from an upcoming autobiography on the late, great percussionist Don Alias, co-written by Melanie Futorian, his companion for the last seven years of his life. This installment covers Alias' work on trumpeter Miles Davis' iconic Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970)]It was [drummer] Tony Williams who actually called me for that unforgettable Bitches Brew session. Man, when I walked into the studio and I saw the Bitches Brew personnel ...

Extended Analysis

Piet Verbist: Zygomatik

by Dave Sumner
March 21, 2012

Piet VerbistZygomatikOrigin Records2012Zygomatik has the fiery groove of classic hard bop, but it's not that simple. There is a rock attitude to this album, and it's got a Motown sway. This is the kind of album that can be pointed to as a celebration of jazz and an album that will be liked by people for whom jazz really ain't their thing. It's an album with complex elements and modulating sounds, but ...

Album Review

Jacques Pellarin Quartet: Sup Dude

Read "Sup Dude" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 21, 2012

The world of Jacques Pellarin's music, especially on his Sup Dude, is brimming with the ecstasy of his ancient Bayan, that superb button accordion that swings and swerves as Pellarin coaxes the most extraordinary, absolutely joyful sounds out of it. His playing is reminiscent of both harmonicist Toots Thielmans and Hammond B3 organist Jimmy Smith at once. These may sound like strange bedfellows, but Pellarin plays with a sublime sense of chromatic ingenuity when he etches out single note lines ...

Album Review

Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Bahrami Fard: I Will Not Stand Alone

Read "I Will Not Stand Alone" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 21, 2012

Iranian kamanche virtuoso and innovative composer Kayhan Kalhor is known for his international collaborations with cellist Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the Persian-Indian ensemble m: Ghazal = 23569, and the Brooklyn Rider string quartet . I Will Not Stand Alone, is a spellbinding meditation on one of the most difficult stages in his life. Kalhor was part of the Green Movement civil uprising in Tehran, which was later squashed by the Iranian regime after disputed national elections. ...

Album Review

Hristo Vitchev / Weber Iago: Heartmony

Read "Heartmony" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 21, 2012

Surprisingly few piano and guitar duos have been recorded in the jazz genre. Perhaps it is that the instruments work together best when the music is highly nuanced and, frankly, nuance can be boring. Bulgarian guitarist Hristo Vitchev and Latin Grammy-nominated pianist Weber Iago have managed to avoid the abyss of ennui very nicely on Heartmony, a collection of original pieces that are both urbane and appealing.The two opening ballads, “Under Trees of Color, Over Fields of Grey" ...

Album Review

Ahmad Jamal: Blue Moon

Read "Blue Moon" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
March 21, 2012

In 1958 Pianist Ahmad Jamal burst on the scene with At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Argo Records), which contained the runaway hit “Poinciana." The song's impact was such that it remains Jamal's signature tune to this day. As sometimes comes with popular success, some jazz critics pulled back, but his championing by other musicians, such as trumpeter Miles Davis in 1955—citing the pianist as one of his big influences—subdued their effect. Over the decades, Jamal has made many ...

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Album Review

Brad Mehldau Trio: Ode

by John Kelman
March 21, 2012

The Art of the Trio: Recordings 1996-2001 (Nonesuch, 2011) provided an opportunity to reassess Brad Mehldau's rapid trajectory, though the trio that established him as one of the past two decades' most important pianists was long gone. If Jorge Rossy's replacement in 2005 seemed to open the trio up more, it's perhaps because drummer Jeff Ballard is a more assertive conversationalist, as demonstrated from the get-go on “Knives Out," the first track on Mehldau's debut with this updated incarnation, Day ...

Album Review

Steve Lehman Trio: Dialect Fluorescent

Read "Dialect Fluorescent" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 20, 2012

Decoding the music of saxophonist Steve Lehman has become a diversion for many a jazz listener (and critic). Sometimes composed with the help of programming software, his harmonies are meshed with mercurial rhythms. When played by his octet, his music gives the impression that it requires a scorecard to keep tabs on its perplexing complexities. Then, come to think about it, a frustrated Cab Calloway in the 1940s described Dizzy Gillespie's invention bebop as “Chinese music." While ...

Album Review

Tribal Tech: X

by John Kelman
March 20, 2012

It's been more than ten years since Tribal Tech's last release, and if this uncompromising fusion group was beginning to show signs of wear and tear by the time of Rocket Science (ESC, 2000), its return to recording proves that sometimes a hiatus can be a healthy thing. After working through a number of personnel shifts, guitarist Scott Henderson and bassist Gary Willis--who introduced the group with Spears (Passport, 1985), releasing eight more albums and one compilation between 1986 and ...