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

Karen Johns & Company: Peach

Read "Peach" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 15, 2012

Singer/actress/dancer Karen Johns flirts hard with novelty on Peach, stopping at the point of faithful historiography. Her third recording features songs from her swing-jazz musical Once There Was a Peach, songs that emphasize swing era girl-group vocal chops flavored with a splash of mint julep. Johns sings most of the lead and harmony parts, a nifty trick that, if done with less talent, would have ended in hallow novelty rather than preservation or innovation. These are digitally close harmonies that ...

Album Review

Leni Stern: Sabani

by James Nadal
March 15, 2012

The West African country of Mali is positively identified as a primordial source of the stringed instrumentation of American popular music rooted in blues and jazz. Renowned guitarist Leni Stern first sought out Mali's rich musical culture years back, and now comes full circle with the release of Sabani--composed, performed, and recorded entirely on African soil.Though Stern has been leaning towards a strong African influence since releasing Africa (Self Produced, 2007), she states that Sabani is the result ...

Album Review

FAB Trio: History of Jazz In Reverse

Read "History of Jazz In Reverse" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 15, 2012

The air is full of a dark menace at the opening movements of Billy Bang's violin in “Homeward Bound," suggesting that music of overwhelming sadness will follow. However, all of this soon dissipates as bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul--and Bang as well--guide the music from turmoil and grave fear, loathing and gloom to the strains of brightness, hope and glory. The sense of catharsis at the end of the piece is palpable and portends well for the rest ...

Album Review

The Landrus Kaleidoscope: Capsule

Read "Capsule" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 15, 2012

Brian Landrus is a striking baritone saxophonist and appears to have become a full-time bass clarinetist as well. Landrus is unique and unlike anyone else in his tribe because he appears to have a genuine and very deep passion for the bass registers of the world. For all that is known he hears sounds that most people cannot--growls and grumbles and earth-shaking rumbles that most would require a Richter Scale to know even exist. Landrus hears all this with large ...

Album Review

Steve Horowitz: New Monsters

Read "New Monsters" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 14, 2012

The Posi-Tone label has positioned itself as a distinguished dealer in modern jazz and classy throwback sounds, demonstrating catholic tastes and a willingness to invest in artists of the established and unknown variety. New Monsters, however, doesn't fall firmly into either category. San Francisco bassist Steve Horowitz oversees this outing that features free blowing fantasias and avant-garde musings, yet he understands the importance of finding cohesion in ensemble stability, grooves and repetitive riffs.While Horowitz plays producer/puppet master, he ...

Multiple Reviews

The Free-bassing Ingebrigt Håker Flaten

by Mark Corroto
March 14, 2012

Devotees of jazz bassists also tend to enjoy cycling's domestiques, baseball's infielders, and football's (both European and American) defensive players. The timekeeper's fans appreciate craftsmanship over the flamboyance and flash of the leader. So a musician such as Norway's Ingebrigt Håker Flaten often finds his role has been overshadowed by his bandmates. In the free jazz/quasi-rock band The Thing, the outrageousness of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson dominates. Same for Raoul Björkenheim's Scorch and his pairing with saxophonists Joe McPhee and Evan ...

Album Review

Raoul Bjorkenheim / Bill Laswel / Morgen Agren: BLIXT

Read "BLIXT" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 14, 2012

Few musicians are more aware that music has no borders, and--more than anything else--that the word “genre" is anathema, than Bill Laswell. The bassist has been uncompromising in this regard throughout his career and was not about to be undone for this musical adventure. Consequently, on the brilliantly crafted BLIXT, Laswell has partnered with an old cohort, guitarist Raoul Björkenheim, and a slightly newer one, drummer Morgen Ågren. Together, they are involved in the creation of some of the finest ...

Album Review

Bob Lark and his Alumni Big Band: Reunion

Read "Reunion" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 14, 2012

Veteran jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn master Dr. Bob Lark has directed many big bands in more than 20 years as Director of Jazz Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. With Reunion, Lark reunites 22 musicians from those bands as his Alumni Big Band, debuting the group on a monster collection of powerful orchestrations. While the teacher provides the eleven original pieces, the class assignment was to pen the arrangements, as six of the alumni do so well here.

Album Review

Regals: The Double-Duo Sessions

Read "The Double-Duo Sessions" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 14, 2012

It's been six years since guitarist Wayne Eagles released Milligan-Eagles Project (TetraArtist, 2005), a groove-heavy record that also featured Canadian bassist Mike Milligan and drummer Billy Kilson. Looking to try something a little different this time, the Ottawa, Canada-based musician turns to drummer T. Bruce Wittet--a long-time fixture on the Ottawa scene and an intuitive player with particular attention to tone--for one-half of the titular The Double Duo Sessions. The second half goes Los Angeles-based guitarist Ken Rosser (Smokey Robinson, ...

Album Review

Hristo Vitchev / Weber Iago: Heartmony

Read "Heartmony" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 14, 2012

Guitarist Hristo Vitchev is a musician of a rare type: one who makes music composition sound easy. As evidenced by his intricately complex The Perperikon Suite (First Orbit Sounds, 2011), it isn't as easy as it seems. On Heartmony, Vitchev teams with his regular collaborator, pianist Weber Iago, for a suite of duets that are as challenging as they are sumptuous and beautiful.“Prelude to Crepuscular Rays/Crepuscular Rays" does not so much blur the genre lines between jazz, world ...