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

Meeco: Meeco: Beauty of the Night

Read "Meeco: Beauty of the Night" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 2, 2012

Extraordinary songwriter/producer Meeco's Beauty Of The Night comes with a hidden cautionary note which is not visible or audible until the first strains of the music is heard. It is an elementally sad album and a box of Kleenex may be de rigueur. However, this is not to say that the album is not beautiful. After all, in immense sadness there is beauty as well. Meeco should know this. He is smitten with things Brazilian--the incredible vocalist, Eloisia, for one. ...

Album Review

Peter Appleyard And The Jazz Giants: The Lost 1974 Sessions

Read "The Lost 1974 Sessions" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 2, 2012

Canadian vibraphonist, percussionist and composer Peter Appleyard has spent most of his professional career in Toronto. He has hosted his own radio and television programs, and was made an Officer of The Order of Canada in recognition of his musical accomplishments. He drew international acclaim as a member of Benny Goodman's jazz sextet during the early '70s, with whom he performed at Carnegie Hall in 1974. Appleyard saw a once in a lifetime opportunity, and reassembled most of the group ...

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Opinion

The True Language Of Jazz

by David Arivett
March 1, 2012

Recently, there has been an upsurge in sales and interest in jazz recordings from the past--especially the 1970s. In a recent Jazz Times magazine article, “1970 Is Happening (Again)," Lee Mergner points out that “at the time rock and funk were, depending on your perspective, destroying or invigorating jazz." Trumpeter Miles Davis, pianists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, groups including Weather Report, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Return To Forever...the list goes on and on of the extremely gifted and talented jazz ...

159

Album Review

Aaron Goldberg / Ali Jackson Jr. / Omer Avital: Yes!

Read "Yes!" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 1, 2012

The strains of wistful longing are almost palpable right through the length and breadth of Yes!, a remarkable album by a remarkable trio. Pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Omer Avital and drummer Ali Jackson Jr. play with such empathy that they appear of one mind, body and soul. This is the stuff that significant music has been made of for decades, which is why this trio sounds as if it were raising the ghost of those of the great Ahmad Jamal. ...

Gnome Notes

Jacob William Quartet: Secondary Deviations

by Chris Rich
March 1, 2012

Jacob William made his way to the Boston area from Chennai, India. He made the music school rounds well after formative years in the homeland among his peers there. He cites reed multi- instrumentalist Anthony Braxton as an important mentor and makes a fabric of community in Boston over the course of his sojourns through Wesleyan, Berklee and New England Conservatory.He is now extending his participation in higher education with positions at Bridgewater State University and University of ...

Album Review

Oscar Peterson: Unmistakable

Read "Unmistakable" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 1, 2012

The first thing Unmistakable on this recording is the pianist: it can only be the incomparable Oscar Peterson, who, if not the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived, is certainly among the top four or five. This scrapbook, however, is not, strictly speaking, a performance by Peterson but a “re-performance," taken from DVDs of three concerts--one from the mid-'70s, the others from the early '80s--and re-recorded using the Zenph Sound Innovations re-performance system. Peterson's original performances are electronically and digitally ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman / Joe Morris / Gerald Cleaver: Family Ties

Read "Family Ties" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
March 1, 2012

Family Ties is São Paulo-born saxophonist Ivo Perelman's sixteenth release for Leo Records and the sixth named after one of Brazilian novelist Clarice Lispector's intense psychological works of fiction. Each of the record's six pieces is similarly titled after a short story from the aforementioned collection, yet the album's designation offers a broader, more salient interpretation when considering the deep rapport shared between Perelman and his current sidemen.2011's The Hour of the Star (Leo Records) presented the debut ...

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Album Review

Ehud Asherie with Harry Allen: Upper West Side

Read "Upper West Side" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 1, 2012

Wherever tenor saxophonist Harry Allen shows up, there is sure to be a major outbreak of Old School. Along with Scott Hamilton, Allen is a keeper of the flame encompassing saxophone practice from Frankie Trumbauer to Lester Young. Pianist Ehud Asherie is cut from the same bolt as Ralph Sutton and Dick Hyman. His previous Posi-Tone recordings, Look Out (2007), Modern Life (2010), and Organic (2010) all demonstrate that Asherie is well-schooled in stride and modern keyboard styles, as well ...

Album Review

Katie Glassman: Snapshot

Read "Snapshot" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
February 29, 2012

The marriage of jazz and country music has a long and colorful history. In writer Geoffrey Himes' excellent article, “Jazz and Country Fusion: The Searchers" (JazzTimes, December 2008), he explores how this history contains everyone from saxophonist Sonny Rollins, bassist Charlie Haden and guitarist Bill Frisell, to banjoist Béla Fleck and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Defining “country music," however, is probably as difficult as defining “jazz": there are enough subdivisions and original players between the two genres to create any number ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Jonathan Smith

by AAJ Staff
February 29, 2012

Meet Jonathan Smith: Portland, Oregon jazz guitarist, playing in the stylistic tradition of Grant Green. Instrument(s): Guitar.Teachers and/or influences? Dan Balmer, Bruce Forman, and many other great musicians I've had the good fortune to spend time with. A few special influences are: Ingrid Jensen, Benny Green, Randy Porter, Quincy Davis, and Bucky Pizzarelli.I knew I wanted to be a musician when... I have been passionate about ...