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.

156

Bailey's Bundles

Wynton Marsalis' Swinging Into The 21st Redux

by C. Michael Bailey
November 3, 2011

Sony Legacy has re-issued trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' monumental recorded conclusion to the 20th century, Swinging Into The 21st. Originally comprised of nine albums released between June 1999 and August 2000, Swinging Into The 21st was Marsalis' effort to cap two decades of recording with CBS/Sony. The music was impressive in its variety and creative density. For this reissue, Marsalis' jazz cantata All Rise (Sony, 2002) is included. Composed and premiered during the period of Swinging Into The 21st, ...

256

Album Review

Ron Carter's Great Big Band: Ron Carter's Great Big Band

Read "Ron Carter's Great Big Band" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 3, 2011

Bassist Ron Carter rode to high profile during his stint with trumpeter Miles Davis' second great quintet, the stellar mid-1960s ensemble that also included pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Tony Williams and saxophonist Wayne Shorter--all of whom, like Carter, went on to create great things. Carter also used the opportunity afforded by the Davis boost to become something of a super side sideman, appearing on hundreds of albums led by an array of fellow artists, as well as dozens of his ...

158

Album Review

Dom Minasi: Looking Out, Looking In

Read "Looking Out, Looking In" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
November 3, 2011

Over three days in July, 2011 guitarist Dom Minasi entered Studio 104 in New York and recorded seven solo electric guitar improvisations. The tunes, gathered together as Looking Out, Looking In, form Minasi's first ever solo album. The guitarist is an experienced improviser with an extensive discography. He's capable of impressive flights of musical fancy, of inspired and inspiring ideas. Minasi's previous 2011 release, The Bird, The Girl & The Donkey (Re:konstruKt) featured some intense and challenging ...

312

Multiple Reviews

CTI Celebrates Kudu Legacy: Lonnie Smith, Johnny Hammond, Hank Crawford, Esther Phillips

by Chris May
November 2, 2011

CTI Masterworks' 40th anniversary reissue program has, until now, focused on producer Creed Taylor's primary label. Two multi-disc sets and 24 single discs have made available on CD cherished CTI LPs by artists such as trumpeters Chet Baker and Freddie Hubbard, saxophonists Paul Desmond and Stanley Turrentine, guitarists George Benson and Kenny Burrell, vibraphonist Milt Jackson and pianist Randy Weston (the little known 1972 masterpiece Blue Moses). Classy affairs all, on which, typically, Taylor blended strong material, top drawer (if, ...

184

Album Review

Tineke Postma: The Dawn Of Light

Read "The Dawn Of Light" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
November 2, 2011

Since her 2004 debut as a leader, Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma has released records almost like clockwork every alternate year, with The Traveller (EtceteraNow, 2009), as strong a statement as she's made, featuring a quartet of Americans including drummer Terri Lyne Carrington--constant companion since Postma's sophomore For the Rhythm (Munich, 2005). The Dawn Of Light returns to an all-Dutch lineup for the first time since First Avenue (Munich, 2004), with the exception of Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding, whose sweetly appealing ...

186

Album Review

Wynton Marsalis: All Rise

Read "All Rise" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 2, 2011

Originally released in 2002 as a stand-alone offering, Wynton Marsalis' sacred composition All Rise will enjoy a reprising as part of Legacy Records re-issuing of Marsalis' landmark collection, Swingin' Into The 21st. A devotee of Duke Ellington, Marsalis expands on themes and methods that Ellington himself investigated in his Sacred Concerts of 1965, 1968, and 1973 (RCA, Prestige, RCA, respectively). All Rise was originally commissioned by maestro Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic as the last of ...

119

Extended Analysis

Johnny Hodges: Second Set

by David Rickert
November 2, 2011

Johnny Hodges Second Set Avid Records 2011 Alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges left Duke Ellington's band in 1951 feeling underappreciated and underpaid and convinced that he would have better luck on his own. Unfortunately he was never able to turn his considerable artistry into a lucrative career, and was back with Ellington in a few years for good. Working with Ellington was definitely where he belonged; his fluttering, gusty sound was one of the benchmarks ...

155

Album Review

Various Artists: Miles Espanol: New Sketches of Spain

Read "Miles Espanol: New Sketches of Spain" reviewed by Eugene Holley, Jr.

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
November 2, 2011

In the days of the so-called Young Lions jazz wave--which lasted roughly, from 1981 to 1992--instrumentalists and singers were all the rage. At the tail end of that period, South Carolina-born saxophonist Bob Belden was making waves for his comprehensive and compelling arranging chops. Over the last two decades, Belden has brilliantly re-imagined the music of Sting, Puccini, Stevie Wonder, and, most notably Miles Davis. Devotees of the Prince of Darkness also know that Belden is one of the world's ...

126

Album Review

The Four Bags: Forth

by Glenn Astarita
November 2, 2011

The musicians who comprise this indubitably inventive New York City-based quartet have respectively performed with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Lee Konitz and Clark Terry, in addition to large-scale symphonies and orchestras. Ultimately, the artists' diverse resumes and many-sided viewpoints effectively transfer to this rather sprightly multi-format program, spanning countless applications, yet cohesively shaped into an alluring presentation. The bass-less and drummer-less quartet approach yields rewarding dividends, augmented by Michael McGinnis' use of bass clarinet, and guitarist Sean ...

130

Album Review

Mike LeDonne: Keep the Faith

Read "Keep the Faith" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 1, 2011

Connecticut-born / New York-based Mike LeDonne, who divides his time these days between piano and organ, has begun to record more frequently on the Hammond B3, especially with his suitably named Groover Quartet which, according to Owen Cordle's liner notes to Keep the Faith, has been together now for more than a decade. And that's a good thing, as these gentlemen certainly know how to groove, and do so with abandon on an album recorded roughly a year after the ...