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.

192

Multiple Reviews

Albert Ayler: Knocking On The Door of Astral Jazz

by Chris May
November 7, 2011

Despite everything life threw at saxophonist Albert Ayler--critical incomprehension, paucity of performing opportunities, probable bi-polarity--his music shone with light. At the time of his passing, aged 34, drowned in New York's East River, he was, said some of his friends, in the depths of depression (leading to rumors of suicide, or, more fancifully, of murder). But he was still creating beauty--still searching for music as “the healing force of the universe," to quote from one of his album titles, or ...

155

Album Review

Dave Lindholm / Otto Donner: More Than 123

Read "More Than 123" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 7, 2011

The world is a heavy object: a very heavy object. And there are times on More Than 123 when the weight of the world seems to press down particularly heavily on the shoulders of Finnish singer and guitarist Dave Lindholm. Thankfully, Lindholm responds with a wealth of stories delivered with a gritty, bluesy, voice and backed by the darkly atmospheric sounds of a fine band conducted by Otto Donner. Both Lindholm and Donner are veterans of the ...

114

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

November 2011

by Mr. P.C.
November 7, 2011

Dear Mr. P.C.: I'm playing tuba with a banjo band. How long should I allow the banjo players to try and tune before I grab their expensive firewood...er..banjo, and tune it for them? Steve

Dear Steve: Let's turn this around: How would you feel if a banjo player grabbed your tuba and suggested it would be more useful in molten form? I'm assuming, for the sake of comparison, that the banjoist is a ...

270

Album Review

Mozik: Mozik

by Dave Wayne
November 7, 2011

Co-led by Berklee graduates keyboardist Gilson Schachnik and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli (best-known for his work with pianist Hiromi Uehara), Mozik's self-titled debut CD features the sort of fusion-tinged Brazilian jazz made popular a couple of decades ago by artists such as Airto Moreira, Azymuth, and Egberto Gismonti. Playing a program comprised largely of classic Antonio Carlos Jobim pieces ("A Felicidade," “O Amor em Paz," and “Desafinado") and recognizable modern jazz selections by Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock, Mozik's modus operandi ...

198

Album Review

Emmet Cohen: In The Element

Read "In The Element" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 7, 2011

At the ripe old age of 21, jazz piano prodigy Emmet Cohen has already racked up an impressive list of awards among them, Downbeat's Best Jazz Soloist and Best Jazz Combo (for the Emmet Cohen Trio), placed first in the Kathleen T. and Philip B. Phillip's Piano competition at University of West Florida and was selected as a finalist for the 2011 American Pianist's Association's Cole Porter Fellowship. With In The Element, Cohen makes a brash and bold musical statement ...

214

Profile

Mike Westbrook: Art Wolf at 75

by Duncan Heining
November 7, 2011

Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine a jazz composer who began with Ellington and then moved on through Mingus. He soon encompassed rock music, Kurt Weill, Rossini, the traditions of English church music and the pastoralism of Vaughan Williams and Holst, but still found a place in his music for The Beatles, European political cabaret and The Great American Songbook. And what if his inspirations ranged from painters like Paul Nash, Caspar Wolf and J.M.W. Turner to ...

243

Album Review

Phil Robson: The Immeasurable Code

Read "The Immeasurable Code" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 6, 2011

The chance to handpick a quintet of top-flight jazz musicians and then tailor-make an album's worth of tunes with their own particular styles and talents in mind doesn't come along every day. Guitarist and writer Phil Robson grabbed the chance on The Immeasurable Code, an album based on musical interpretations of communication methods. The result is a stunning live album, combining inventive writing with superb musicianship. Of course, it helps if the composer is also a top-flight ...

246

Bailey's Bundles

Robert Johnson’s Persistent Ghost

by C. Michael Bailey
November 6, 2011

The centenary of blues musician Robert Johnson's birth passed quietly May 8, 2011. Anticipating it was the release of The Complete Recordings: The Centennial Collection (Legacy Recordings, 2011). The liner notes for this release, penned by Ted Gioia and Steve LaVere, continue the best biographical line of the allusive singer begun in the liner notes of 1990's Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings (Columbia/Legacy), not to be mistaken for the above. The published scholarship regarding Johnson is, at ...

160

Album Review

Bill O'Connell: Triple Play Plus Three

Read "Triple Play Plus Three" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 6, 2011

Pianist Bill O'Connell's Triple Play (Savant, 2008) turned traditional notions of piano trio instrumentation on their head, and this album is a logical outgrowth and expansion of that particular project. While that outing had a consistent three man line-up that married O'Connell's piano with conga drummer/percussionist Richie Flores' engaging rhythm work and the fine flute playing of Dave Valentin, Triple Play Plus Three uses Valentin's spot as a revolving hot seat. The flautist returns for three numbers, including a mellow ...

132

Live Review

The Tedeschi Trucks Band: Burlington, Vermont, October 18, 2011

by Doug Collette
November 6, 2011

The Tedeschi Trucks BandThe Flynn Center for the Performing ArtsBurlington, VTOctober 18, 2011 The Tedeschi Trucks Band offered an expertly-executed show to a near sold-out house at the Flynn Center on October 18, 2011. It was little wonder the audience trekked out satiated at the end of the muted gospel encore, especially because the final thirty minutes was conceived (contrived?) to enhance the cumulative effect of the previous two hours of mature and largely ...