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.

162

Album Review

Sammy Figueroa & His Latin Jazz Explosion: Urban Nature

Read "Urban Nature" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 6, 2011

Urban Nature blends elements of modern jazz fusion with percussive Latin jazz rhythms in a highly charged session from master percussionist Sammy Figueroa and his Latin Jazz Explosion. The two previous recordings with this very same group, The Magician (Savant, 2007) and And Sammy Walked In (Savant, 2005), both garnished Grammy nominations for the Best Latin Jazz Album, and this follow-up sizzler deserves no less consideration. The Bronx-born bomber of percussion has long been a leading voice in the world ...

155

Album Review

Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner: Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner

Read "Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner" reviewed by Lawrence Peryer

by Lawrence Peryer
November 6, 2011

Atlantic Records issued this collection 1976, featuring two tracks each from four of the most important pianists in the post-bop era. Excepting one piece, each pianist is represented here in trio format. The Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea offerings are from their own 1966 sessions as leaders. Jarrett contributes two original compositions and is joined by drummer Paul Motian and bassist Charlie Haden in pleasurable but somewhat conservative outings. Corea brings two different lineups: ...

136

Album Review

Silver Ash: Silver Ash

Read "Silver Ash" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 5, 2011

Brooklyn, NY-based drummer Jeff Arnal also runs Generate Records, a label steeped in a vastly experimental paradigm, featuring works by pianist Gordon Beeferman, reedman John Dierker, and a host of well-known improvisers. During the past few years, Arnal has been issuing 7" LPs which, in most instances, yield a classic analogue spectrum, enhancing the organic or electro-organic soundstage and enriching or perpetuating a three-dimensional listening space. Long considered one of the premier free jazz and improvising drummers, Arnal ...

160

Album Review

Metamorphic: The Rock Between

Read "The Rock Between" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 5, 2011

Metamorphic is part of the F-IRE Collective, one of Britain's most innovative and exciting musical organization. Such an association immediately establishes the band as an ensemble of interest--and the music on its debut, The Rock Between, doesn't disappoint. Composer, arranger and keyboardist Laura Cole is Metamorphic's leader, and the member who has the most intense personal connection with the music. The Rock Between traces Cole's experience of repetitive strain injury, depression, recovery and motherhood. With inspiration coming ...

233

Multiple Reviews

Bob Seger: Live Bullet and Nine Tonight Reissues

by Doug Collette
November 5, 2011

After years as a regionally-based cult figure from Detroit, Bob Seger and his music didn't change all that dramatically, at least on the surface, when Night Moves (Capitol, 1975) launched him into the mainstream popularity he maintains to this day. He merely altered the emphasis he placed on ballads versus up-tempo material. That he continues to fill arenas (and be compelled to add more tour stops) with aging album-rock fans, who enjoy nothing more than hearing his litany ...

129

Live Review

Jane’s Addiction, New York, NY, October 18, 2011

by Mike Perciaccante
November 5, 2011

Jane's Addiction Irving Plaza New York, New York October 18, 2011 Jane's Addiction, in this latest incarnation, features vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist extraordinaire Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins, and Chris Chaney in place of original bassist Eric Avery. The enthusiastic crowd crammed shoulder-to-shoulder inside the small, hazy New York City club seemed to have only one thing on its mind --getting closer to the stage. Some did. Some didn't. Some even managed to surf ...

127

Album Review

Kenny Werner with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra: Institute of Higher Learning

Read "Institute of Higher Learning" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
November 5, 2011

Since coming out the other side of a deep personal tragedy, Kenny Werner has resumed his career with a vengeance. First there was No Beginning, No End (Half Note, 2010), which dealt with the tragic loss of his daughter, Katheryn , in a 2006 car accident, as the pianist and wife, Lorraine, found the way from anger and grief to acceptance and hope through spiritual guidance and music. The smaller-scoped but potent Balloons (Half Note, 2011) came a mere six ...

147

Album Review

Marc Copland / John Abercrombie: Speak to Me

Read "Speak to Me" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 5, 2011

Pianist Marc Copland and guitarist John Abercrombie played together for the first time in the 1970s, in drummer Chico Hamilton's group. This was when Copland was playing saxophone, before his seemingly unlikely but very successful switch to piano. Nearly forty years later, the two artists still find opportunities for musical hook-ups, contributing to extraordinary recordings like Copland's Another Place (2008) and Contact's Five on One (2010)--quartet and quintet offerings, respectively, and both for Germany's Pirouet Records. With Speak to Me, ...

240

The Art and Science of Jazz

Medical History Blues: The Curious Case of Jake.

by Hrayr Attarian
November 5, 2011

Historians and scholars of medical humanities mine the (mostly) Western literary classics for the first descriptions of illnesses we have now categorized and studied. But why not explore popular culture as a historical source as well? Can art forms like the blues--the progenitor of jazz and other modern musical forms--contain also clues to medical mysteries of yesterday?One such example takes us back to the years of prohibition and to the “clever" entrepreneurs who tried to bend its laws.

183

Album Review

Sebastian Liedke Trio: Zeitenwende

Read "Zeitenwende" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 4, 2011

There are times when bombast, noise and heavy riffs seem like musical perfection, and other times when beauty, gentleness and melody are exactly what's required. For those other times, Zeitenwende is an ideal choice. The second album from bassist Sebastian Liedke's Berlin-based trio builds on the success of 2010's self produced debut, To Walk In The Past, with another collection of tunes characterized by his considered and affecting compositions and the sympathetic interplay of his fellow musicians. ...