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.

134

Album Review

National Park Service: Songs of the Lower Mississippi Delta

Read "Songs of the Lower Mississippi Delta" reviewed by Wade Luquet

by Wade Luquet
January 21, 2012

Park rangers often conjure up images of uniformed guardians of historical monuments or natural resources in national forests. In New Orleans, these same uniformed rangers guard one of the United States' most precious resources--jazz and the music of the American south. The rangers of the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park are musicians and historians who preserve and promote jazz through performances, education, and compilations of music CDs. Songs of the Lower Mississippi Delta is a two-disc set ...

130

Album Review

Adam Cruz: Milestone

Read "Milestone" reviewed by William Carey

by William Carey
January 21, 2012

Inevitably, with the release of any recording done under a drummer's leadership, there is discussion over whether it is a drummer's record or not--understandable in that drummers are the great unsung heroes of most recordings and it is always exciting to have the opportunity to “give the drummer some," in the words of the great Maceo Parker. What this means however, is far from clear. Is it that the drummer has written the tunes or takes a lot of solo ...

Album Review

Art Lande / Dave Peterson: Polar Opposites

Read "Polar Opposites" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
January 20, 2012

Nestled in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado, there is a rare and precious jazz gem: pianist Art Lande. Born in 1947, Lande has had a long and fruitful career, including membership in his Rubisa Patrol quartet, which included trumpeter Mark Isham and drummer Bill Douglass. He recorded for ECM from 1973 to 1987, with players such as saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Gary Peacock and multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless. Since settling in Boulder in 1987, Lande has been an essential force on ...

110

Extended Analysis

Parker / Lee / Evans : The Bleeding Edge

by John Eyles
January 20, 2012

Parker / Lee / EvansThe Bleeding EdgePsi2011 The coming together of American trumpeter Peter Evans, Korean (now New York-based) cellist Okkyung Lee and English saxophonist Evan Parker is a fine example of the trans-continental links that connect improvising musicians across the world. Despite their coming from three continents, it was no surprise when the three finally played as a trio; if anything, there was an inevitability about their coming together to play ...

Album Review

Sara Serpa: Mobile

Read "Mobile" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 20, 2012

Portuguese singer Sara Serpa is what is produced when the talents of Gretchen Parlato, Simin Tander and Tierney Sutton coalesce. Her voice is light and elastic, sporting a fierce intellect. Couple this with a vision/sense of humor of a Nicholas Urie and the result is a radioactive type of 21st Century Beat Poetry. Like Urie and his lyric book sources Excerpts From An Online Dating Service (Red Piano, 2009)--with text from the same--and My Garden (Red Piano, 2011), drawn from ...

323

Album Review

Inaki Sandoval: Miracielos

Read "Miracielos" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 20, 2012

Iñaki Sandoval is a Barcelona-based pianist, composer and educator. Beautiful, affecting and constantly rewarding, Miracielos is his third album as a leader and establishes him as a superb writer and player. Sandoval is backed by the experienced Eddie Gomez on bass and Billy Hart on drums. Both are players of great sensitivity and style, and their contributions are central to the success of an album that alternates between the short “Preludes" and longer compositions. The preludes vary ...

Album Review

Amy Cervini: Digging Me Digging You

Read "Digging Me Digging You" reviewed by William Carey

by William Carey
January 20, 2012

It's funny hearing such signature Blossom Dearie songs as “Dear John" and the Schoolhouse Rock classic “Figure Eight" without that oh-so-identifiable voice and delivery. Funny, but Amy Cervini is a talented enough vocalist that it isn't the slightest bit distracting to not have that adorably individual style and delivery that is unmistakably Blossom Dearie. Cervini claims to be paying homage, not so much to her predecessor's specific work as a pianist or a vocalist, but to the choices ...

139

Book Excerpts

Why it's so easy for jazz musicians to be "bipolar"

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
January 20, 2012

This excerpt is adapted from The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius (Shrinktunes Media, 2011) by its author, psychologist and All About Jazz columnist Judith Schlesinger. It appears in Chapter 3, “Elastic Madness: One Size Fits All," which explains the ongoing backstage controversy over the definition of so-called mental “illness." This shows how easy it is for jazz musicians to be labeled bipolar, according to the standard psychiatric manual, the DSM-IV, although in reality, they may be ...

Album Review

Jacques Pellarin Quartet: Sup Dude

Read "Sup Dude" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 19, 2012

French accordionist and composer Jacques Pellarin has the welcome ability to craft music which is technically challenging, yet immediately accessible and engaging. Sup Dude is a joyous album, filled with refreshingly unpretentious tunes performed with skill and obvious pleasure by his quartet--a pleasure readily communicated to others. Sup Dude follows 2010's self-produced trio date, Karenita, adding to that album's winning mix of jazz, Latin and folk music with another collection of tunes in a similar vein. Pellarin ...

196

Album Review

Elly Hoyt: Elly Hoyt

Read "Elly Hoyt" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 19, 2012

Tasmanian-born Elly Hoyt's self-titled debut catapulted her into the forefront of the jazz scene Down Under, winning the coveted Bell Award for Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album in 2011. Australian jazz is perhaps stronger than ever, with a veritable wealth of young musicians emerging and festivals popping up like 'roos, and this award serves meaningful notice of the 24 year-old's talent. Drawing heavily form jazz standards, these ten selections see Hoyt sympathetically supported by some of Australia's best musicians, but ...