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

Randy Johnston: People Music

Read "People Music" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
December 9, 2011

Perhaps more than any other musical instrument, the guitarists of today come drenched in the music of highly diverse musical genres. The instrument has been a fulcrum of expression, from folk, country and blues to jazz and rock--with a smidgen of classical thrown into the mix as well. Thinking about it, the task of developing as a guitarist has got to be daunting, with all of those musical bases to cover. With People Music, celebrated guitarist Randy ...

Album Review

Sophie Alour: Opus 3

Read "Opus 3" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 9, 2011

French saxophonist Sophie Alour's Opus 3 is not only her third album as a leader, it is also her first in a trio setting. The recipient of the French Django D'or award, Alour departs from the electric intensity of her previous release, Uncaged (Nocturne, 2007), to explore her voice as an instrumentalist. The 11 originals are tone poems bearing heavy western classical influences, with occasional peppering of other styles that showcase the leader on both tenor and soprano saxophones.

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Opinion

Occupy Jazz! Occupy Wall Street!

by Ras Moshe
December 9, 2011

Things have got to change! That is the cry being heard in the five boroughs of New York City, across the United States and, increasingly, in European cities too.All sorts of people from all sorts of social classes are at the protests--because the realization has dawned that eventually everyone will be impacted by the self-serving machinations of the Wall Street greed merchants and their allies in the world's other financial centers.It's great that jazz is becoming ...

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Flying Steps

Read "Flying Steps" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
December 8, 2011

A good rule of thumb when exploring new or unfamiliar jazz terrain is to look for either bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz or drummer Peter Erskine among the personnel. Finding both together leads to the very satisfying net results of Yelena Eckemoff 's Flying Steps, reuniting the Russian-born pianist with Erskine for their third collaboration. The addition of Oleszkiewicz is a windfall of almost indefinable value, the bassist contributing his experience and versatility as a sideman on more than ...

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Big Band Report

Catching Up

by Jack Bowers
December 8, 2011

As our most recent column was devoted exclusively to the Ken Poston / LAJI event, “Modern Sounds," held October 20-24 at the Los Angeles Marriott Airport Hotel, and to the day-long tribute to bandleader Stan Kenton on the hundredth anniversary of his birth that followed, a number of substantive items slipped through the cracks. Before they vanish forever, herewith a belated attempt to overtake and retrieve them. On October 31 (Halloween, appropriately enough), I was back on ...

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Album Review

Denis DiBlasio Quintet: Where the Jade Buddha Lives

Read "Where the Jade Buddha Lives" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 8, 2011

As a former member/musical director of trumpeter Maynard Ferguson's band, baritone saxophonist Denis DiBlasio is certainly no stranger to mapping out music and following charts. But he also has an adventurous streak, one in which the slightest of frameworks is laid down--maybe just a mood suggested or, perhaps even, a single note brought up as the basis for a mood--and the musicians are allowed free reign within these loose architectures.Of course the right musicians need to be picked; ...

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Reassessing

Antonio Carlos Jobim: Wave

by Chris May
December 8, 2011

Antonio Carlos JobimWaveCTI/A&M1967 Singer, guitarist, pianist and--above all--composer Antonio Carlos Jobim was among the first artists to be signed by producer Creed Taylor when he set up CTI Records in 1967. The Brazilian, who helped launch bossa nova internationally when his tune “Desafinado" became a Top 10 hit for saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd in 1962, had already worked with Taylor (producer of the Getz/Byrd disc), notably on The ...

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Live Review

The Thirteenth Assembly: London, October 30, 2011

by John Sharpe
December 8, 2011

The Thirteenth AssemblyVortex Jazz ClubLondon, UKOctober 30, 2011 As George the announcer intimated, a lot of people had been waiting a long time for tonight's concert at north London's Vortex Jazz Club. Not only because of the stellar cast list uniting four of the most exciting talents on New York's jazz and improvised music scene, but also because the performance initially had been scheduled in June, before being postponed until now. As it happened, ...

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Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: Live At Bird's Eye

Read "Live At Bird's Eye" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 8, 2011

As a virtuoso harmonicist and vibraphonist, Hendrik Meurkens has always reigned supreme in the unique instrument doublers category, yet he never seems to get the attention he fully deserves. The German-born, New York-based Meurkens has been making beautiful and bouncy Brazilian-based music for decades with his instruments of choice, and Live At Bird's Eye is no exception. For his fourth date on the Zoho label, Meurkens culled nine numbers from two different stints that took place eighteen ...

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Album Review

Benjamin Duboc: Primare Cantus

Read "Primare Cantus" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 8, 2011

French double bassist Benjamin Duboc is one of the busiest musicians in the left-of-center experimental scene of musicians today in Europe. This prolific musician plays regularly with Japanese trumpet player Itaru Oki (who is based in France), in duo and with the NUTS quintet, and with many of the elite of French improvisers, including pianist Jobic Le Masson's trio Free Unfold, or in sax trios with saxophonists Daniel Erdmann, Sylvain Guérineau, Jean-Luc Guionnet or Abdelhaï Bennani. The three-disc Primare Cantus ...