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

Triosence with Sara Gazarek: Where Time Stands Still

Read "Where Time Stands Still" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 21, 2012

Triosence is a piano trio active on the European jazz stage since making a name for itself in its native Germany in 1999. On When Time Stands Still, the band joins forces with West Coast jazz vocalist Sara Gazarek for a recital of twelve original tunes. The music is mostly penned by Triosence pianist Bernhard Schüler, with Gazarek and Schüler combining their talents to provide the lyrics. Gazarek has penetrated these electrons previously with her well-received release, Yours (Native Language, ...

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Interview

Amir ElSaffar: At Two Rivers' Confluence

by Daniel Lehner
February 21, 2012

There was a point during Amir ElSaffar's study of Arabic music where he almost didn't come back to jazz. He had gone to Iraq to study maqam, the system of melodic modes in traditional Arabic music, in order to bring some of the concepts into jazz. However, the experience proved to be a deepening one for ElSaffar.“I was supposed to spend three weeks in Iraq, but once I had gotten a taste I realized that I wasn't really ...

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Album Review

Jeff Hamilton Trio: Red Sparkle

Read "Red Sparkle" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 20, 2012

When it comes to touch, taste, and a deep understanding of what makes a band swing, drummer Jeff Hamilton has no peers. Hamilton's recordings with everybody from Diana Krall and Rosemary Clooney to his own co-led Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra have marked him as a paragon of class and groove, and his place as the defining brush player of his generation was cemented long ago, but his legacy in jazz may ultimately be related to his trio work. ...

Album Review

Nick Moran: No Time Like Now

Read "No Time Like Now" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 20, 2012

Part of the appeal of the traditional organ trio--Hammond B3 organ, guitar and drums--is the juxtaposition of the guitar's succinct phrasing slicing through the blurry winter breeze of the B3. Another part is the music's straight-up funkiness. This is music of the city, pioneered by organist Jimmy Smith and guitarists Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. The music's heyday ran from the 1950s through the '60s, thriving in urban clubs and bars, incorporating the sounds of R&B and soul music.

Album Review

Carlos Jimenez & Mambo Dulcet: Red Tailed Hawk

Read "Red Tailed Hawk" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 20, 2012

Lively danceable Latin music comes alive on flautist Carlos Jimenez and his Mambo Dulcet band's Red Tailed Hawk, presenting six originals and four covers on a landscape of hot Afro-Cuban rhythms. Jimenez and his group navigate through the high flying winds of the genre, incorporating elements of salsa and jazz in a decidedly shoulder-moving session of Latin beats. Like fellow jazz man Mark Weinstein, Jimenez has become a flautist of note and a new exponent of the genre. With this ...

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Website News

All About Jazz By Design

by Michael Ricci
February 20, 2012

With website traffic on the rise, the question “What is All About Jazz?" is finding its way to my inbox with greater frequency. For long-time readers, the answer is self-evident. For all others, here's the primer... The Big Picture Technically innovative and with a global perspective, All About Jazz is a social enterprise (see mission) that combines elements of a magazine, a blog and an encyclopedia--all integrated with a massive database for the sole purpose of raising the ...

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Interview

Steve Coleman: Symbols and Language

by Ian Patterson
February 20, 2012

Saxophonist Steve Coleman's The Mancy of Sound (Pi Recordings, 2011) was one of the records of 2011. Thematically and structurally challenging on the one hand, dynamic and funky on the other, the music's contrasts reflect Coleman's view of the world, in all its complexity and simplicity. Coleman's fierce intellect carries simple logic, wrapped in many-layered waves of knowledge; so, too, the music on this recording may seem overwhelming at first, until repeated listening gradually unveils the simple truths within. For ...

Album Review

Iskra 1903: Goldsmiths

Read "Goldsmiths" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
February 19, 2012

Iskra is the name of a group comprised of ingenious British improvising musicians on the very edge what is idiomatically modern. Iskra is Russian for “spark," and also happens to have been the name of the paper that Lenin edited before the Russian Revolution. Add to the equation Goldsmiths, a venue for their breathless, expressive music. In a very odd but fortuitous manner, it all seems to come together, to make sense. For here is music that has been mined ...

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Album Review

Michael Lington: Pure

by Jeff Winbush
February 19, 2012

Here is a disclaimer: Michael Lington plays alto and tenor saxophone, and the saxophone is the dominant instrument of the smooth jazz genre, every bit as much the electric guitar is the dominant instrument of rock 'n' roll. This means Lington is trying to stand out in an extremely crowded field.So what is it about Lington that makes him distinctive and unique compared to Eric Marienthal, Euge Groove, Marion Meadows, Kim Waters, Jeff Kashiwa, Boney James, Dave Koz, ...

Live Review

Umbria Jazz Winter, Days 3-5: December 30, 2011-January 1, 2012

by Sara Villa
February 19, 2012

Days 1-2 | Days 3-5 Umbria Jazz Winter #19 Perugia, Italy December 28, 2011-January 1, 2012 Stan Tracey Trio Stan Tracey started the morning of his 85th birthday in the best possible way: playing jazz for an audience which was enthusiastic to share his music in such an iconic moment. Opening “Panama Red" with his impeccable, swinging vibrato and an elegant essentialism, Tracey showed a cheerful sense of happiness throughout his selection, and ...