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.

170

Mix Tape

Ted Dunbar's Bebop List

by Rick Stone
January 23, 2012

Yeah, I know I went WAY over the 10-20 song, 70 minute limit, but this is a VERY important list. These are the tunes I practiced EVERY day (in this order) for several years from a list given to me by my teacher Ted Dunbar in 1990. TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1 Confirmation5:53Charlie ParkerThe Charlie Parker Story2 Donna Lee2:32Charlie “Bird" ParkerThe Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes3 Four7:14Miles DavisWorkin'4 Little Willie Leaps2:50Charlie “Bird" ParkerThe Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes5 Freedom ...

149

Interview

Lars Danielsson: Love is the Message

by James Pearse
January 23, 2012

Saturday night in an unusually mild December 2011 at Stockholm's premier jazz venue, Fasching, could only mean one thing: the place was heaving. As well as the unseasonable weather and the looming Christmas period, the reason so many festive Swedes were crammed in like tinned herring was to catch a rare glimpse of national hero Nils Landgren and his quartet in a club setting. Landgren allowed ample opportunity for his other musicians to show off their breadth and depth. Bassist ...

124

Live From New York

Sean Noonan, Richard Bona & Sugar Pie DeSanto

by Martin Longley
January 22, 2012

Sean Noonan & Pavees Dance The Douglass Street Music Collective December 15, 2011 It might seem as though drummer/composer Sean Noonan was enjoying a quiet year in 2011, playing fewer gigs than usual. The reality is that he's been busy scribing new works, in preparation for a twin album onslaught in 2012. He's also planning an extensive reissue drive for his existing catalogue. Six months ago, Noonan played at The Stone with his ...

Album Review

Alan Leatherman: Detour Ahead

Read "Detour Ahead" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
January 22, 2012

Two tracks into Alan Leatherman's Detour Ahead and the phrase “sweet soul music" comes to mind. But this isn't the rarified realm of Sam Cooke or Otis Redding with ballads. Rather, Leatherman resides--and comfortably so--in the role of classic torch singer Careful phrasing, perfect breath control and deep emotion earmark the title song, “Blame it on My Youth" and Detour Ahead's nine other cuts. Recorded with a trio featuring pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Steve ...

Album Review

Gary Smulyan: Smul's Paradise

Read "Smul's Paradise" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 22, 2012

While the tenor saxophone is no stranger to organ group gatherings, its big brother rarely comes to the party. It's hard to say whether a lack of interest amongst baritone saxophonists, insufficient opportunities for such combinations, or a paucity of players capable of pulling it off is responsible for this issue, but Gary Smulyan won't stand for it any longer. Smulyan, best known for his work with the legendary Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, has never been one to ...

Album Review

Attab Haddad Ensemble: Days Distinctive

Read "Days Distinctive" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
January 22, 2012

It is rare to find a musician who, on his debut recording, is already confirming his stature as one of best ones in his field. London-based/Iraqi-descended oudist Attab Haddad is such a musician, honing his knowledge of the traditional Arabic legacy with oud masters including Iraqi Ahmed Mukhtar and Egyptians Nihad El-Sayed and Nasseer Shamma. He is also a member of violinist Sabina Rakcheyeva's neo-classical ensemble and a founding member of the flamenco-Arabic-Indian group Alcazaba. But it ...

Album Review

ReDiviDeR: Never Odd or EveN

Read "Never Odd or EveN" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 22, 2012

ReDiviDeR was born in 2007, when drummer Matthew Jacobson gathered some of Ireland's finest creative musicians to give voice to his compositions. Its debut, recorded live, has an undeniably visceral impact. Jacobson's compositions are like fine sketches around which the musicians add their own bold colors, seeking collective form and harmony. Improvisation of a post-modern and thoroughly urban bent is at the root of the music. Eschewing chords and conventional jazz rhythms, ReDiviDeR references the broad aesthetic of innovators like ...

Album Review

Evan Parker / Wes Neal / Joe Sorbara: At Somewhere There

Read "At Somewhere There" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 21, 2012

Why, you might ask, does Evan Parker perform free jazz in trio, a format more identified with rhythm-based jazz? The answer is quite evident on At Somewhere There, a 40-minute improvisational interaction with two new partners.This trio's rhythm is supplanted by energy, animation, and a certain verve; but then, Parker has been at this for many years. Beginning with late-1960s noisy free jazz, he has developed his own language of saxophone virtuosity that includes circular breathing and extended ...

103

Extended Analysis

Keith Rowe and John Tilbury: E.E. Tension and Circumstance

by John Eyles
January 21, 2012

Keith Rowe & John Tilbury E.E. Tension and Circumstance Potlatch2011 It happens every year. Just as the old year is drawing to a close, after the best-of-the-year lists have been compiled and published, a release arrives just too late to make those lists but deserving to feature in their upper echelons. For 2011, E.E. Tension and Circumstance was the one. Pairing Keith Rowe on guitar and John Tilbury on ...

Album Review

Ahleuchatistas: Location Location

Read "Location Location" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 21, 2012

This band with the tongue-twister moniker used to be a three-piece but these days experimental and progressive-rock guitarist Shane Perlowin and drummer Ryan Oslance execute the whole shebang as a duo. With recordings for venerable cutting-edge record labels such as Cuneiform and Tzadik amid self-produced ventures, critics and fans of the band's legacy use the term math-rock as an indicator, largely relating to geometric patterns that are designed with impossibly complex time signatures. In previous times, the musicians moved about ...