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.

152

Album Review

Nheap: Clouds Under The Table

Read "Clouds Under The Table" reviewed by Lawrence Peryer

by Lawrence Peryer
December 29, 2011

Nheap is the nom de guerre of Italian drummer/composer Massimo Discepoli. The projects he puts out as Nheap are ethereal, mostly mellow electronic excursions accompanied by his own live acoustic drum work. Clouds Under The Table marks his third collection as Nheap. “Ambient" might begin to describe this music, but the presence of Discepoli's relatively straightforward drumming gives the compositions more of a rootedness and energy than that to which most typical electronic ambient music lays claim. ...

138

Album Review

Dennis Rollins Velocity Trio: The 11th Gate

Read "The 11th Gate" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 29, 2011

Some dates, like Cinco de Mayo or the fourth of July, are cause for celebration year-after-year because of historical context within specific cultures, while others--like 11/11/11--are global, party-worthy phenomena that celebrate a numerical oddity that will only occur once. This specific date marked the 47th birthday of British trombonist Dennis Rollins and served as the prime inspiration for The 11th Gate, which is notable for a variety of reasons. For starters, this album marks the beginning of his relationship with ...

145

Extended Analysis

Shorty Rogers: Four Classic Albums

by David Rickert
December 28, 2011

Shorty RogersFour Classic AlbumsAvid Group 2011 Trumpeter Shorty Rogers was one of the few jazz musicians to embrace the big band sound long after the commercial appeal for the genre was over, and despite the lack of commercial viability, he produced a series of terrific albums in the 1950s. Part of his success was due to the large pool of studio musicians on the West Coast who also happened to be ...

121

Album Review

Joe Harriott: The Joe Harriott Story

Read "The Joe Harriott Story" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 28, 2011

Almost 40 years after his death in 1973 at just 44 years of age, Joe Harriott's talent, imagination and impact on the development of jazz in Britain are gaining greater recognition than ever. Indeed, The Joe Harriott Story, an exceptional 4-disc box set of music from the alto saxophonist, is both a reflection of this belated recognition and, hopefully, another step towards increasing his reputation as a master musician. Harriott spent his formative years in Jamaica's famed ...

145

Live Review

Convergence Quartet: Cambridge, UK, November 9, 2011

by John Sharpe
December 28, 2011

Convergence QuartetChurchill CollegeCambridge, UKNovember 9, 2011 What began as a one-off invitation, requiring no little chutzpah, shows all the signs of developing an enduring life. Following by multi-instrumentalist/composer Anthony Braxton's >quintet at the 2004 London Jazz Festival, British pianist Alexander Hawkins and bassist Dominic Lash invited cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum--a key member of Braxton's group--along with Canadian drummer Harris Eisenstadt, already familiar from a sojourn in London, to join them in a transatlantic congregation. And ...

179

Album Review

Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet: Apparent Distance

Read "Apparent Distance" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 28, 2011

Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's craft and expansive ideological stance is firmly implanted within a modern day who's who list of cutting-edge stylists, where preconceived boundaries are slashed into fragments. With his long-running affiliation with famed multi-reedman and composer Anthony Braxton, the artist abides by a no-holds-barred belief, immersed in semi-structured musical persuasions. Bynum plays tricks with one's psyche throughout this commissioned four-part suite. On “Part III: Source," the sextet pulls out the proverbial stops, highlighting Bynum's fertile imagination ...

106

Live Review

Havana Plaza Jazz Festival 2011: US Interests Section Jazz Party

by Louis Heckheimer
December 28, 2011

27th Havana Plaza Jazz FestivalHavana, CubaDecember 15-18, 2011 [Note: The Havana Plaza Jazz Festival took place in Havana, Cuba from December 15th through the 18th, 2011. This is the first of a series of articles reporting on concerts and other activities that took place as well as profiles of Cuban musicians that took part.] Jazz has found a home in Cuba due to the close proximity of Havana to New Orleans; documentation suggests ...

Album Review

Kieran Hebden / Steve Reid / Mats Gustafsson: Live At The South Bank

Read "Live At The South Bank" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 28, 2011

If abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock could be asked how his instant drip paintings reflect the entire history of modern art, he might have replied that his body movements, splatters, flinging, flipping and pouring of paint act as a channel for all this painterly knowledge--and that of his forefathers and contemporaries. Likewise, this two-disc set of music by electronic artist Kieran Hebden, drummer Steve Reid and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson transmits music from the free jazz experiments of the 1960s ...

Album Review

Michael Campagna: Moments

Read "Moments" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
December 28, 2011

Michael Campagna may be one of the newest ambassadors of modern jazz on the scene today, and Moments--his debut on the Netherlands' Challenge Records--highlights his talent as an improviser and composer, as well as showcasing his chops as a saxophonist and flautist. A follow-up to his debut as leader--Passionate Nature (CDBY, 2006)--Moments is a personal representation of the many challenging circumstances and moods during his life leading to and inspiring the musical moments captured here. That said, not ...

122

Take Five With...

Take Five With Edmund Sobczak

by AAJ Staff
December 28, 2011

Meet Edmund Sobczak: Edmund Sobczak--trumpeter, composer, originally from Poland where, he studied trumpet performance at the University of Music in Poznan, one of the best Universities in the country. For the last six years he's lived in Oxford (UK). After 18 years of playing the trumpet and being involved in countless music projects, in 2008 he decided to start his own solo career.Now he's also known as EDolutionary (stage name), which is a mixture of his ...