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.

270

Interview

Matthias Winckelmann: Happy Birthday ENJA!

by Bob Hatteau
November 1, 2011

ECM, ACT, Winter & Winter, FMP, MPS, ENJA... Germany sounds like a generous land for creative jazz record labels. ENJA Records, the Münich-based jazz label, was founded in 1971 by Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber. For the last forty years ENJA has built an impressive catalog, with more than seven hundred releases that cover a wide range of the jazz history. At the early stage Winckelmann and Weber focused on the avant-garde jazz, mainly ...

160

Album Review

Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood: In Case The World Changes Its Mind

Read "In Case The World Changes Its Mind" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
November 1, 2011

With significant pressure on artists to look for new territory to mine and new collaborations to explore, it's always great to see those that have worked well kept as ongoing concerns, like guitarist John Scofield's first-encounter with jam band darlings Medeski, Martin & Wood on the superb A Go Go (Verve, 1998). The now-named Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood still reconvenes occasionally, with its follow-up, Out Louder (Indirecto, 2006), a more free-wheeling alternative to its predecessor's focus on Scofield's particularly ...

263

Book Excerpts

Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones

by AAJ Staff
November 1, 2011

This article appears in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones By Papa Jo Jones As Told to Albert Murray (University of Minnesota Press, 2011). A Different Kind of Living in That Southwest Here is what happened. Basie did exactly what Fats Waller did: all the guys that come under James P. Johnson, you know what I mean, and Willie The Lion" Smith, they stayed playing that Harlem ...

248

Album Review

Katya Sourikova: Ivan's Dream

Read "Ivan's Dream" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
November 1, 2011

The third release of Berlin-based pianist and composer Katya Sourikova looks and sounds like something fitting the ECM catalog--the beautiful cover, the pristine and rich sound of the recording, and, obviously, the genre-binding beautiful, lyrical and nuanced music that moves freely and organically along the spectrum of jazz, both American and European, as well as folk music and classical music, all without subscribing fully to any genre but embracing it all. Sourikova has collected ten self-penned compositions, ...

157

Album Review

Ted Rosenthal Trio: Out of This World

Read "Out of This World" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 1, 2011

Borrowing from The Great American Songbook is a standard practice for many jazz artists, who include one or more pieces when rounding out a repertoire of primarily new material. Not so for pianist Ted Rosenthal, whose affinity for music from the Songbook is reflected on at least two previous recordings, Rosenthology (Concord Jazz, 1994) and One Night in Vermont (Planet Arts, 2003), focusing on music from Irving Berlin, Jimmy Van Heusen, Tadd Dameron and Matt Dennis. On Out of This ...

136

Album Review

Greg Ward: Phonic Juggernaut

Read "Phonic Juggernaut" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 31, 2011

Greg Ward's trio Phonic Juggernaut can be loud, it also can be fast, but it can never be described as out of control. The twenty-something saxophonist's take on the modern jazz sax/bass/drums lineup adheres to the traditions of jazz, not as a regressive act but as a forward-thinking, innovative sound. This Chicagoan-turned-New Yorker can be heard with drummer Charles Rumback and in Mike Reed's People, Places, and Things, as well as with the electronic outfit Prefuse 73. His ...

162

Album Review

David S. Ware: Organica

by Nic Jones
October 31, 2011

If it wasn't apparent before that David S. Ware has gravity, now it is. There's always been authority in his saxophone playing, but with the passing of time the gravity of his work has become more apparent, as if every note he plays is now invested with the wealth of life's experiences. This second volume of entirely solo recitals makes the point; Ware is clearly one of the most compelling voices in improvised music. In view of ...

323

Live Review

Enjoy Jazz: Mannheim, Germany, October 2-November 18, 2011, Week 3

by Adriana Carcu
October 31, 2011

Week 1-2 | Week 3-4 | Week 5-7 Enjoy Jazz Festival Heidelberg/Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Germany October 2-November 18, 2011 Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz The black and white stage design gave more than a hint of the dynamic performance pianist Bugge Wesseltoft and DJ Henrik Schwarz were about to bring to the day. Featuring the new album Wesseltoft Schwarz Duo (Jazzland, 2011), the show started with “Kammermusik" in rather contemplative tones, which then ...

150

Album Review

Holli Ross: You'll See

Read "You'll See" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 31, 2011

An ensemble performer for two decades, and co-founder of the String Of Pearls vocal group, jazz vocalist and educator Holli Ross offers her first solo album on the thirteen-track You'll See. Presenting unique interpretations of songs from Duke Ellington, Peggy Lee and Laura Nyro to new material from Brazilian trumpet icon Claudio Roditi and bassist Rufus Reid--both of whom grace this recording--Ross affirms the label from the late jazz critic Stuart Troup, who once dubbed her “the voice of experience." ...

Album Review

Ratko Zjaca: Now & Then: A Portrait

Read "Now & Then: A Portrait" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 31, 2011

Boiling a decade's worth of work down to one CD must be a frustrating yet gratifying process. Frustration likely surrounds the idea of reducing ten years of blood, sweat, composing and performing into a single package, but the recorded evidence of one's artistic growth and reach is the ultimate reward. Such is the case with the music on Now & Then: A Portrait, which serves as a survey of Croatian guitarist Ratko Zjaca's output from 2000 to 2011.