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.

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Big Band Caravan

Cecilia Coleman Big Band / Phil Norman Tentet / UNT One O'Clock Lab Band

by Jack Bowers
December 1, 2011

Cecilia Coleman Big BandOh Boy!PandaKat Records2011 Among the many pleasant surprises on Oh Boy!, pianist Cecilia Coleman's maiden voyage as leader of her own big band, perhaps the most eye-opening is that the band had been together for only eight months when the album was recorded by the renowned Rudy Van Gelder. Coleman, a Californian who moved to New York City in 1998 and has been gigging steadily there ever since, ...

Album Review

Lisa Mezzacappa & Nightshade: Cosmic Rift

Read "Cosmic Rift" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
December 1, 2011

Since relocating to San Francisco ten years ago, Staten Island-born bassist Lisa Mezzacappa has established herself as a commanding presence in the vibrant West Coast scene. Mezzacappa's pliant bass lines have provided a stalwart foundation for some of the Bay Area's most dynamic projects, ranging from the visceral excursions of her riotous garage jazz band Bait & Switch to her collaborative efforts in the bold collective quartet Cylinder. Cosmic Rift, the debut of Mezzacappa's neo-classical quintet Nightshade, showcases a more ...

110

Extended Analysis

Hakon Kornstad: Symphonies In My Head

by John Kelman
December 1, 2011

Håkon Kornstad Symphonies in My Head Jazzland Records 2011 Amidst a nation of musicians who fearlessly and seamlessly find ways to marry music and technology on the most human of terms, Håkon Kornstad still stands alone. Armed with an array of saxophones, flutes and weird hybrids like the flutonette (a clarinet mouthpiece on a flute body)--and a vintage looping device that may be limited compared to newer ones on the market, but is ...

103

Album Review

Hakon Kornstad: Symphonies In My Head

Read "Symphonies In My Head" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 1, 2011

The third consecutive solo album from Håkon Kornstad is an exemplary, creative work. The Norwegian saxophonist expands an already remarkable palette of sounds and technique from Single Engine (Jazzland, 2007) and Dwell Time (Jazzland, 2009) with musical references that continue to grow and surprise. As before, he manages to turn his improvisations into small symphonies, arresting in their structure and deep emotional impact. As with Dwell Time, Kornstad uses the excellent acoustics of Oslo's Sofienberg Church as ...

141

Album Review

Malcolm Hunter: Nostalgia in My Square Head

Read "Nostalgia in My Square Head" reviewed by Gina Vodegel

by Gina Vodegel
December 1, 2011

Every once in a while an album emerges that, in its final form, only seems to touch briefly on the full story behind its inception. Nostalgia in My Square Head is one of those albums. Songwriter/keyboardist Malcolm Hunter may not be known to the public at large as a musician and blues poet, but he has trodden the streets of New York--Brooklyn and Manhattan in particular--as an entertainer since his childhood days in Queens.The sound of the city ...

108

Album Review

Mark Weinstein: El Cumbanchero

Read "El Cumbanchero" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 1, 2011

Exploring music with the intellect of an ethnomusicologist, the imagination of an artist, and the technical savvy and musical know-how to combine the two is no easy feat, but Mark Weinstein is more than capable of pulling it off. For the flautist's latest Latin feast, he turned his attention toward a fusion of jazz and charanga music, a form of Cuban music that features the flute as the lead voice in an ensemble that also contains a string section, percussion, ...

104

Live Review

Enjoy Jazz: Mannheim, Germany, October 2-November 18, 2011, Week 5-7

by Adriana Carcu
December 1, 2011

Week 1-2 | Week 3-4 | Week 5-7 Enjoy Jazz FestivalHeidelberg/Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Germany October 2-November 18, 2011 Colin Vallon Trio The performance of the Swiss trio surprised from the onset, through their pronounced experimental character. Other than the steady narrative flow featured on their most recent album Rruga (ECM, 2011), the show became a fairly staccato exercise that combined pianist Colin Vallon's restrained, intellectually interpretive style with picks of chords and rash chafes of the ...

193

Reassessing

John Coltrane: Kulu Sé Mama

by Chris May
November 30, 2011

John Coltrane Kulu Sé Mama Impulse!1967 It is rare to find Kulu Sé Mama on somebody's desert-island list of recordings by saxophonist John Coltrane. Why, is a mystery. Despite the brooding intensity of the cover photo, the performances are accessible and delightful, and, as an artifact, although it was recorded over three sessions in summer and fall 1965 in New Jersey and Los Angeles, with two lineups, the album hangs together ...

152

Album Review

Hank Crawford: Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing

Read "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 30, 2011

Saxophonist Hank Crawford will forever be linked to his one-time employer, the great Ray Charles, in the minds of R&B lovers, but soul-fusion fans are likely to remember him for a string of albums he recorded on the Kudu label in the 1970s. Crawford and tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine proved to be the two pillars of potent saxophone soul in label head/producer Creed Taylor's stable during this era, but Crawford's work is often overlooked now, while Turrentine's albums still get ...

Live Review

Tedeschi Trucks Band: Denver, CO, November 18, 2011

by Geoff Anderson
November 30, 2011

Tedeschi Trucks BandFillmore AuditoriumDenver, CONovember 18, 2011 Fate demanded the Tedeschi Trucks Band. It's been an inexorable march over the last decade and now it's paid off. Susan Tedeschi released her first album, Just Won't Burn (Tone Cool, 1998) 13 years ago. She sported girl-next-door good looks and a contrasting take-no-prisoners voice. Over the years she released four more albums under her name. Derek Trucks, meanwhile, became co-lead guitarist in the Allman ...