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.

184

Reassessing

Pharoah Sanders, Hamid Drake, Adam Rudolph: Spirits

by Chris May
November 22, 2011

Pharoah Sanders, Hamid Drake, Adam RudolphSpiritsMeta2000 Following the death of saxophonist John Coltrane in 1967, two of his band members, pianist/harpist Alice Coltrane and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, aligned themselves to fashion--separately and together--music which became known as “astral jazz." The style foregrounded the African and Asian song forms, and percussion and drone instruments, which John Coltrane had explored during his final years, while favoring lyrical, leisurely improvisations in place of the intense, ...

194

Album Review

Greg Burk Trio: The Path Here

Read "The Path Here" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
November 22, 2011

The Path Here, pianist Greg Burk's fifth release for the adventurous 482 Music label, finds the Rome-based American expatriate revisiting and reinterpreting some of the most engaging compositions of his youthful career, aided by old friends Jonathan Robinson (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums). Previously heard together with tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi on Burk's 2004 quartet release Carpe Momentum (Soul Note), Robinson and Cleaver's shared history as the pianist's preferred accompanists dates back almost two decades; Burk met Robinson in 1989 ...

175

Take Five With...

Take Five With Dan Andersen

by AAJ Staff
November 22, 2011

Meet Dan Andersen: Dan Andersen is a jazz guitarist and composer based in Los Angeles who earned a doctorate from the University Of Southern California Thornton School Of Music. The Spark, his debut CD, features pianist Alan Pasqua, bassist Ryan McGillicuddy, and drummer James Alsanders.In 1999, Dan left his home town of Blue Lake, California, and began working as guitarist in show bands on board various cruise ships. In 2001 he relocated to ...

163

Album Review

Samo Salamon Bassless Trios: Duality

by Dan Bilawsky
November 22, 2011

By splitting the program between two different bass-less trios connected to opposite sides of the Atlantic, Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon has managed to bridge the continental divide on Duality. This project could turn into a compare-and-contrast session on the music made by the two groups, alternately dubbed the “US Trio" and “European Trio," and that line of thinking, while merely providing one way of looking at the music, has merit. Salamon may helm both trios, but each group has a ...

158

Album Review

Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto: Current

Read "Current" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 22, 2011

Three-time Latin Grammy-nominee Jovino Santos Neto's Current features all new originals covering a range of Brazilian styles from contemporary and choro to baiao, samba and others. Santos Neto has toured the world, performing with mentor Hermeto Pascoal, Bill Frisell, and Paquito D'Rivera, among others, and his long discography has established him as one of today's top Brazilian jazz pianists/composers. Yet this album was penned exclusively for his Seattle-based Quinteto, the group he formed in 1993 after relocating from his native ...

134

Album Review

Kenny Dorham: Una Mas

by Greg Simmons
November 22, 2011

Trumpeter Kenny Dorham's Una Mas was one of 1963's best records. The thought of hearing it reissued on ultra-high quality vinyl by the good folks at Music Matters should make jazz heads swoon. With its melding of hard-bop, bossa nova, and the blues, Una Mas is a prime example of the memorable vamps that Blue Note favored at the time, finding ultimate success later that year with Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder. Dorham was a prolific recording artist for ...

160

Album Review

Kevin Hays: Variations

Read "Variations" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 21, 2011

When famed jazz scholar Gunther Schuller first coined the term “Thematic Improvisation," he wasn't introducing a new concept so much as shedding light on how jazz artists had come to use the age-old “Theme And Variations" format in their own sweet way. While nobody would argue that grand compositional gestures or outré improvisations from a master musician can be revealing, hearing an artist dissect and rebuild a musical theme on the spot is the real window into their mind. A ...

215

Take Five With...

Take Five With John Beaty

by AAJ Staff
November 21, 2011

Meet John Beaty: Beaumont is a small city in East Texas. Beaumont is the birthplace of Joe and John Beaty. Beaumont is their band. Beaumont is their story. Beaumont is one of the vanguard groups for the Stretch Genre. Joining other premier Stretch groups on the My Mom Things I'm Great Productions roster, Beaumont is establishing a new and exciting scene. The next question would then be, “What is Stretch?" According to My Mom Thinks ...

193

Album Review

Wilson Huggett Project: Field of Hope

Read "Field of Hope" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
November 21, 2011

Five years after Max Roach Park (Jazz Direct, 2006), UK/South African bassist Dan Wilson and drummer Mark Huggett return with a multinational, multidimensional offering that continues and improves upon the strong suits of their earlier disc.On the one hand, there is a focus on establishing moods, often undergirded by deep and pleasing grooves; this tendency would, if unchecked, lead the performances toward nicely played, attractively conceived background music. On the other hand, their international coterie of players serves ...

149

Album Review

Nat Birchall: Sacred Dimension

Read "Sacred Dimension" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 21, 2011

Just outside the Victorian architectural splendor of the city of Manchester lies some of England's most beautiful countryside. The area is home to a small group of musicians whose contemporary take on the music of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, among others, is creating some of the finest and most spiritual sounds around. Trumpeter Matthew Halsall, head of Gondwana Records, is one member of this group. Nat Birchall is a key figure, and Sacred Dimension, his fourth album, finds the ...