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

Eddie Daniels / Roger Kellaway: Live at the Library of Congress

Read "Live at the Library of Congress" reviewed by Nic Jones

by Nic Jones
January 7, 2012

This is a wonderfully sympathetic duo. Pianist Roger Kellaway has an identity which brings together Ellis Larkins, Bill Evans and deep knowledge of jazz piano, whilst Eddie Daniels may be the most formidably correct clarinetist in jazz today, without ever letting technique get in the way of expression. Add to this duo's many attributes the fact that they play without a safety net and you have something special--so much so that Kellaway and Daniels even make something ...

Album Review

The Phil Norman Tentet: Encore

Read "Encore" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 7, 2012

Harkening back and reverently genuflecting to the mid-size ensemble format of the 1950s and '60s--especially those on the West Coast such as the Dave Pell Octet, Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool (Capitol 1957) band and other similar-sized ensembles-- the Phil Norman Tentet's Encore delivers the absolute best of all jazz worlds. This is an aggregation and performance that, regardless of size, has everything, including some of jazz's finest players, composers and arrangers, all combining to deliver ...

138

Journey into Jazz

The State of Jazz Education

by John Beaty
January 7, 2012

For my entire childhood, up through the moment I graduated high school, I was told of the importance of the SAT Reasoning Tests and attending college. I believe this was a message my entire generation heard from our parents, teachers, and society at large. While I was in eighth grade, I was introduced to jazz and immediately fell in love with the music of John Coltrane. I shared this passion with my twin brother, trombonist Joe Beaty. We were lucky ...

104

Album Review

Dan Wilensky: Back In The Mix

Read "Back In The Mix" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 6, 2012

Thirteen years separated the release of tenor saxophonist Dan Wilensky's first two albums-- And Then Some (Speechless, 1997) and If You Only Knew (Speechless, 2010)--but the saxophonist wasn't sitting around idly during that stretch of time. Wilensky's work as a session player, touring musician, author, and educator kept him beyond busy, yet his own music suffered as a result. Thankfully, the saxophonist has been focusing his efforts on being a leader since 2009, and the resultant albums released since that ...

100

Album Review

Slivovitz: Bani Ahead

Read "Bani Ahead" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
January 6, 2012

Slivovitz--also the generic name for a type of plum brandy popular throughout the Mediterranean--is a fascinating jazz-rock band that's been around for a decade or so. Bani Ahead, its second recording for the MoonJune label and third overall, is a charming blend of jazz and progressive rock with pronounced Balkan and circum-Mediterranean folk influences. Part of Slivovitz's appeal also has to do with its unusual and highly flexible instrumentation. With a front line composed of saxophone, trumpet, violin, guitar, and ...

Album Review

Steve Coleman and Five Elements: The Mancy of Sound

Read "The Mancy of Sound" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 6, 2012

Although alto saxophonist Steve Coleman's conceptual approach to composition has grown increasingly adventurous, high-brow or esoteric, depending on your viewpoint--with lunar phases and the Yoruba of West Africa's philosophical system providing inspiration here--The Mancy of Sound merely represents Coleman's relationship to the world, which is the font of most music of worth. Retaining the same musicians from Harvesting Semblances and Affinities (Pi Recordings, 2010), Coleman's Five Elements follow-up shares its broad stylistic features, including non-western rhythms and multiple, interweaving voices, ...

128

Year in Review

Eugene Holley Jr.'s Best Releases of 2011

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
January 6, 2012

At a time when Hispanics are the dominant minority in the United States, The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has decided to eliminate the Latin Jazz category. This list is posted in solidarity with those who demand that the category be reinstated. Fabian Almazan Trio Possibilities (Biophilla/Palmetto) Michel Camilo Mano A Mano ...

122

Album Review

Nicole Mitchell: Awakening

by Nic Jones
January 6, 2012

This is could be called flautist Niicole Mitchell's first blowing date, although the rarefied nature of her music renders the term only loosely applicable. It's true that, in working with a quartet, she's created the right circumstances for music more reflective of the tradition to happen, but the results are no mere reiteration of a fading blueprint--thanks, in no small part, to guitarist Jeff Parker, the catalyst which sparks the revolutionary nature of this program There are ...

Album Review

Thad Jones: The Magnificent Thad Jones

Read "The Magnificent Thad Jones" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
January 6, 2012

Trumpeter Thad Jones' greatest notoriety was as a member and leader of large ensembles, including the Count Basie Orchestra and later the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. But as great as his big band work was, it's a shame he didn't dedicate more time to small combos. He recorded a handful of really first-rate dates for Blue Note in the mid-1950s--chief among them, perhaps, 1956's The Magnificent Thad Jones. It's timeless music that reveals a musician with great chops, fine composing ...

Journey into Jazz

Stretch: Interactive Holograms

by John Beaty
January 6, 2012

It feels nice to finally be able to share what I've been up to since I last wrote for All About Jazz more than two years ago. In those articles I chronicled my journey from first learning Jazz, attending Music School and finally life as a touring Jazz musician. Through this process I came to understand some very fundamental problems with the current state of jazz. I also came to realize that there was a great difference between the reality ...