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.

174

Year in Review

Ian Patterson's Best Live Shows of 2011

by Ian Patterson
January 8, 2012

Sandwiched between The Thailand International Jazz Conference held in Bangkok in January and the Penang Island Jazz Festival held in Malaysia in December, there were also visits to Borneo Jazz, the Hong Kong International Jazz Festival, and a visit to Belfast, Ireland, to see guitarists Martin Taylor and 14-year old sensation Andreas Varady, and the London Jazz Festival to see Nik Bärtsch's Ronin. Out of around 70 gigs seen this year, many stood out for their originality, including, guitarist Scott ...

138

Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Quavers! Quavers! Quavers! Quavers!

Read "Quavers! Quavers! Quavers! Quavers!" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 8, 2012

Since 2003, guitarist Jon Lundbom and his Big Five Chord unit have been crashing and slashing through the jazz-rock idiom, often lying on the perimeter of the avant-garde spectrum. With a support band comprised of solo artists and first-call session aces, the music is often hard-edged and chockfull of off-kilter innuendoes and ballsy soloing excursions. Lundbom's intense phrasings and mind-altering solo spots can exude a semblance of systematic paranoia or command the ensemble like a diesel-powered automaton, ...

103

Album Review

Jamie Ousley: A Sea of Voices

Read "A Sea of Voices" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
January 8, 2012

Jamie Ousley is not only a renowned recording artist and producer, he is an educator by profession at Florida International University in Miami, and an environmentalist and person of deep, abiding faith. A Sea of Voices is the South Florida bassist's most humbling musical work to date, in essence a labor of love inspired by a commitment to the environment and his respect of religion. After a series of concerts performed in churches over the past few years, Ousley seeks ...

103

Album Review

Ferit Odman: Autumn in New York

Read "Autumn in New York" reviewed by William Carey

by William Carey
January 8, 2012

Autumn in New York comes via Turkish drummer Ferit Odman--who leads this session featuring an all-American band playing straight-ahead tunes--but this is a far cry from a “drummer's date." Both members of the frontline--trumpeter Terell Stafford and alto saxophonist Vincent Herring--were referred to as “young lions" early in their careers, and sound very much at home throughout the set, their ensemble playing a testament that, by this point, they are clear mainstays of the scene. Stafford's tone is warm and ...

108

Album Review

Eric Reed: Something Beautiful

Read "Something Beautiful" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
January 7, 2012

Eric Reed's Something Beautiful is well-named: a collection of mostly standards, delivered with sensitive hands and unerring taste. The pianist shows a knack for choosing great material, mostly staying away from jazz's grossly overplayed warhorses in favor of lesser-known material that is, nonetheless, classic and elegant. The album offers a unified atmosphere of down- and mid-tempo melodies--sometimes melancholy, sometimes bouncy, and occasionally even uplifting. Jesse Tabish's “Black Tables" is almost hymn-like, with deep left-handed chords creating gravity under ...

101

Album Review

The Ames Room: Bird Dies

Read "Bird Dies" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 7, 2012

Encompassed by the 48-minute marathon title track, the live performance captured on Bird Dies is irrefutably exhilarating. Featuring French alto saxophonist Jean Luc Guionnet's lead voice, The Ames Room embarks on a splintered approach to free-bop, propelled by drummer Will Guthrie's penetrating beats and bassist Clayton Thomas' pumping bottom. Perhaps the album title serves as an antithesis to the “Bird Lives" maxim ascribed to bop's troubled genius Charlie Parker, where the hustling, pawning of saxophones, and recurring substance ...

122

Book Review

Clark Terry with Gwen Terry: Clark - The Autobiography of Clark Terry

by Florence Wetzel
January 7, 2012

Clark: The Autobiography of Clark TerryClark Terry with Gwen TerryHardcover; 344 pagesISBN: 9780520268463University of California Press2011There are many sad stories in jazz. Cornetist Joe Oliver lost his embouchure and ended up working as a janitor in a pool hall, singer Billie Holiday was arrested on her deathbed, trumpeter Lee Morgan was killed on stage by his enraged common-law wife--and that's just the tip of the iceberg. In contrast ...

101

Album Review

John Leighton: Dramatic Life

Read "Dramatic Life" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 7, 2012

John Leighton's debut is a collection of poetic, pop-laced jazz that often downplays the pianist's own performance skills in favor of Anna Stott's easy-on-the-ears vocals and saxophonist Michael Buckley's engaging saxophone work. While Leighton's name rests high atop the cover of the album, he chooses to use his piano to serve the songs instead of himself, while allowing the songs themselves to serve as an indication of his talent. Born and based in Ireland, Leighton has assembled ...

Live Review

Greg Abate Teaneck, NJ December 10, 2011

by David A. Orthmann
January 7, 2012

Greg AbateTeaneck, NJDecember 10, 2011 “Capitalism Sucks," a mural by Mike Alewitz which graphically depicts the anti- democratic nature of capitalism, hangs on a wall behind the performance space at The Puffin Cultural Forum. An all-powerful puppet master and a host of minions from the clergy, academia and the media, all exploit the wealth created by a proletariat held in abject servitude by police, prisons, and the military. Alewitz's mural, part of an exhibition entitled “The ...

Live Review

Birdland Big Band, New York, NY. December 28, 2011

by Ernest Barteldes
January 7, 2012

The Birdland Big Band directed by Tommy IgoeBirdlandNew York, NYDecember 28, 2011 On a chilly Wednesday night in December, drummer and bandleader Tommy Igoe directed the fifteen-piece Birdland Big Band as part of its weeklong headlining residence at the club the group has been calling home since its inception in 2005. The ensemble kicked off the set with an intriguing piece that shifted tempos, going from swing to blues, depending on who was soloing. ...