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.

186

Album Review

Luca Aquino: Chiaro

Read "Chiaro" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
October 29, 2011

With Chiaro trumpeter/composer Luca Aquino distinguishes himself as a creator/sound engineer extraordinaire. Following up on his Lunaria (EmArcy, 2009) and Icaro (EmArcy, 2010), Aquino again takes instruments in hand and integrates a beautifully lyrical, sensitive human musical approach within a dazzling and dizzying panoply of electronically generated textures and rhythms. Chiaro is an Italian word which can be translated as “clear." While the musical representations here are, at times, anything but, what is apparent is that Aquino ...

131

Live Review

Psychedelic Furs & Tom Tom Club: Westbury, NY, October 7, 2011

by Mike Perciaccante
October 29, 2011

Psychedelic Furs & Tom Tom Club NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, New York October 7, 2011 Touching down at Long Island's NYCB Theatre at Westbury for the penultimate night of a short eighteen-date trek across the U.S., legendary modern rock bands The Psychedelic Furs and Tom Tom Club used their incredibly catchy, danceable and energetic music to teleport the dedicated disciples back to the mid-'80s/early '90s. Termed by Tom Tom Club bassist Tina Weymouth ...

128

Live Review

The SFJAZZ Collective: Toronto, Canada, October 15, 2011

by Alain Londes
October 29, 2011

The SF Jazz CollectiveKoerner HallToronto, CanadaOctober 15, 2011 The eight-piece, all-star SFJAZZ Collective rolled into town with its current project, dedicated to the music of Stevie Wonder, its original arrangements reflecting the Collective's personality. Part of a successful group of this magnitude is the talent, respect, and chemistry that helps everyone contribute to the whole. They work as one with the different textures of the rich instrumentation at their disposal.Kendrick Scott's delicate drum ...

119

Live Review

SFJAZZ Collective: Ottawa, Canada, October 13, 2011

by John Kelman
October 28, 2011

SFJAZZ Collective The Music of Stevie Wonder Centrepoint Theatre, Ottawa, Canada October 13, 2011 In its eight-year existence, the SFJAZZ Collective has gone from triumph to triumph, each year choosing a specific artist to honor--past years including pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonists Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter--and giving each of its eight members the mandate of coming up with a new arrangement and a new composition, making the Collective the best ...

158

Album Review

Thom Gossage Other Voices: In Other Words

Read "In Other Words" reviewed by Matt Marshall

by Matt Marshall
October 28, 2011

According to drummer Thom Gossage, the tracks on this, the fifth release by his Other Voices ensemble, are launched from a single figure--anything from a simple melodic line, to fully composed pieces of music, rhythm scores, electronic soundscapes, chants and poems--that are subsequently abstracted through an assemblage process. The idea came to him after viewing a painting by choreographer Isabelle Van Grimde, and seeing the process she followed to achieve abstraction of a visual figure. The group ...

182

Live Review

New Gary Burton Quartet: San Diego, California, October 12, 2011

by Robert Bush
October 28, 2011

New Gary Burton Quartet Neurosciences Institute San Diego, CA October 12, 2011 Vibraphone master Gary Burton has returned to the guitar quartet, a format that has served him well since his early recordings with Larry Coryell in the '60s, and especially with Pat Metheny in the '70s. His current group was born about a year ago, when he began touring with drummer Antonio Sanchez, double bassist Scott Colley, and protégé Julian Lage, a guitarist ...

112

Album Review

Dino Saluzzi / Anja Lechner / Felix Saluzzi: Navidad de los Andes

Read "Navidad de los Andes" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 28, 2011

Most musicians work with a wide range of other collaborators over time, but only a precious few become so empathically close as to engender ongoing relationships. It's no surprise that Argentinean bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi has continued to work with his brother, saxophonist/clarinetist Felix, their genetic bond clearly apparent on Dino Saluzzi Group recordings like Juan Condori (ECM, 2006). The bandoneonist's extra-familial bond with German-born cellist Anja Lechner--first, in his collaboration with the Rosamunde Quartette on Kultrum (ECM, 1998), and nearly ...

163

Live Review

The Thing, London, October 4, 2011

by John Sharpe
October 28, 2011

The ThingCafe Oto,London, UKOctober 4, 2011 Back in London for the second time in under a year, The Thing held court in north London to a Cafe Oto rammed with a gratifyingly young crowd. When the Scandinavian trio, comprising the Norwegian rhythm pairing of drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, in consort with Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, started out back in 2000, their book contained mainly tunes by trumpeter Don Cherry (hence the ...

127

Album Review

Great Waitress: Lucid

by John Eyles
October 28, 2011

In January 2009, Berlin-based pianist Magda Mayas played with the Australian duo of accordionist Monika Brooks and clarinetist Laura Altman at Sydney's Now now Festival. At the start of 2011, the three came together--by now under the name Great Waitress--to again play the festival plus some other gigs before recording Lucid at Sydney's Linear recording studio, on February 8th . Despite the collective group name, this album is most welcome as an addition to Mayas' growing discography. As ...

137

Album Review

The Jeff Gauthier Goatette: Open Source

Read "Open Source" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 27, 2011

When two-thirds of a group has “effects" in their instrumental credits, it's a safe bet this ain't your granddaddy's jazz. When it's violinist Jeff Gauthier's Goatette, punctuating the quirky theme in the first moments of “40 Lashes (With Mascara)" with thundering drums and high-octane power chords, it's clear that Open Source is going to make plenty of demands--and not just on the musicians who play it. Any group featuring the intrepid Cline twins--guitarist Nels and drummer Alex--is ...