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.

196

Album Review

Taeko Kunishima: Late Autumn

Read "Late Autumn" reviewed by Lawrence Peryer

by Lawrence Peryer
November 19, 2011

Pianist Taeko Kunishima's third record, Late Autumn, is an exciting work full of intriguing compositions, diverse instrumentation and top-notch performances. Any one or two of these attributes, as manifested on this album, would be enough to carry the day, but the presence of all three makes for a must-hear release. Kunishima's compositional skill is substantial, and it is a missed opportunity to listen to these pieces in only a casual way. The songs veer from moments of ...

155

Album Review

Jim Kuemmerle and the Triangle Jazz Project: Our Work Is Never Done

Read "Our Work Is Never Done" reviewed by Bridget A. Arnwine

by Bridget A. Arnwine
November 19, 2011

The glory of the world is magnified when the beauty of the human spirit is on full display. When our fellow man decides to look beyond the self to see us all as one collective we, then the real work of improving the human condition can begin. As an elementary school student, Jim Kuemmerle's whole world changed when he learned the history of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire--a March 25, 1911 fire that claimed the lives of ...

158

Album Review

Dick Griffin: Time Will Tell

Read "Time Will Tell" reviewed by William Carey

by William Carey
November 19, 2011

This set of eight original tunes, all penned by trombonist/leader Dick Griffin is a testament to the old KISS adage: keep it simple, stupid. Get some good players together, write some straightforward melodies, and blow, and Griffin has assembled some good players “Could It Be the Blues" strikes the perfect mood to open this record. Few instruments lend themselves to a blues as well as a trombone. Naturally plaintive, in the hands of a player like Griffin, ...

200

Extended Analysis

Rick Lawn’s Power of Ten Little Big Band: Earth Tones

by Victor L. Schermer
November 18, 2011

Rick Lawn's Power of Ten Little Big BandEarth TonesSelf Produced2011The “little" big band format, an ensemble that may range from seven to 11 instrumentalists, gives the leader/arranger/composer--in this case the multi-faceted reed player Rick Lawn--a chance to finely craft the music and bring in players who are equally at home with small groups and big bands and have the ability to work with complex arrangements incorporating solos, simultaneous improvisation and ensemble work. ...

200

Album Review

Ernie Watts Quartet: Oasis

by Ian Patterson
November 18, 2011

Setting up Flying Dolphin Records in 2004 has given tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts wings. After 35 years calling on an ever-changing array of some of the greatest names in jazz to play on his records, Watts has now settled into two quartets: his American and European groups. The continuity of these ensembles and the complete artistic freedom that he's wrestled free have resulted in some of his strongest recordings. Four Plus Four (Flying Dolphin Records, 2009), To the Point-Live at ...

154

Album Review

The Microscopic Septet: Friday the Thirteenth: The Micros Play Monk

Read "Friday the Thirteenth: The Micros Play Monk" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 18, 2011

If two creative star trajectories were ever meant to cross, it was those of pianist/composer Thelonious Monk and the Microscopic Septet. Sure, Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron had a pretty good Monk gig going, and Sphere was a great tribute band lead by Monk's longtime tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse (followed by Gary Bartz). But, the Micros...here are seven guys who really have Monk under their skin. Documented on previous recordings, many sides reprised on Seven Men in Neckties (Cuniform 2006) ...

193

Album Review

Falkner Evans: The Point of the Moon

Read "The Point of the Moon" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
November 18, 2011

Pianist Falkner Evans is a distant relative of the great American novelist William Faulkner, by the same obscure Southern logic by which Al Gore and Gore Vidal are related. He is also a former pianist for the tight Western swing outfit Asleep at the Wheel and leader of an acclaimed piano trio.Evans's famed ancestor once wrote, “The past is never dead. It's not even past." Seen in the right light, this is not a bad axiom for 21st ...

191

Album Review

Silvia Bennett: Sonrie

by Edward Blanco
November 18, 2011

A specialist in interpreting music from The Great American Songbook, Grammy-nominated vocalist Silvia Bennett once again delivers an album of classic standards from the past with one major twist: she sings the lyrics in Spanish. Sonrie (Smile) is a Spanish-language follow-up to Smile (Out of Sight Music, 2010), presenting a largely different repertoire that also reprises the Charles Chaplin title song, Johnny Mandel's “The Shadow of Your Smile" ("La Sombra de Tu Amor") and Burt F. Bacharach's “The Look of ...

200

New York Beat

Tony Bennett: On Tour at 85

by Nick Catalano
November 18, 2011

Last weekend my myriad travels took me to Pittsburgh, where I was able to visit Heinz Hall to watch Tony Bennett defy nature and astound a packed house with his latest concert wizardry. Heinz Hall sits in the middle of a revitalized downtown Pittsburgh and has been wondrously restored, with gold-leafed columns, plush red carpeting and chic dining facilities. Years ago, Lena Horne insisted that Bennett include the venerable venue on his tours to experience its amazing acoustics. This time ...

140

Live Review

Martin Taylor/Andreas Varady: Belfast, Ireland, November 4, 2011

by Ian Patterson
November 17, 2011

Martin Taylor/Andreas VaradyBlack BoxBelfast, IrelandNovember 4, 2011 It was a mouth-watering prospect and no mistake; Martin Taylor, the guitarist's guitarist, paired with 14-year-old, six-string sensation Andreas Varady, the youngest ever headliner at London's Ronnie Scott's. Taylor--of whom Jeff Beck said: “he out-shreds us all"--came to prominence when he began an 11-year stint with violinist Stephane Grappelli in 1979. His collaborations over the years have revealed an open-minded approach to music, with many ventures into non-jazz ...