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

Album Review

FAB Trio: History of Jazz In Reverse

Read "History of Jazz In Reverse" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
October 20, 2011

Jazz violin, for some, is an acquired taste. Perhaps this has more to do with the instrument's dominant role in Western classical music, more than anything else, but there's something very naked and vocal about the sound of a violin--much like the saxophone, it calls forth all sorts of intense emotions. Billy Bang, who died in April 2011, understood this all too well. He endured more than his share of slings and arrows early in his musical career, only to ...

154

Album Review

Derek Nash: Joyriding

Read "Joyriding" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 20, 2011

One of the strengths of the current British jazz scene comes from its core of mainstream, straight-ahead musicians, who focus their creative abilities on drawing fresh nuances from established musical styles; saxophonist Derek Nash is one of them. Joyriding features what he refers to as his “regular quartet," although that phrase does scant justice to the quality of the musicianship. Nash is a member of Jools Holland's Rhythm And Blues Orchestra, a regular presence on BBC TV ...

203

Extended Analysis

James Carter Organ Trio: At The Crossroads

by C. Michael Bailey
October 20, 2011

James Carter Organ Trio At the Crossroads Emarcy Records 2011 Jazz has many faces. Some are searching and expansive, like those of alto saxophonists Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, seeking the outer edges of the music. Some are reverent and deferential, like the Modern Jazz Quartet and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, trying to lend respectability to the music borne in the whore houses of New Orleans' Storyville district. But like every family, ...

235

Album Review

Vince Mendoza: Nights on Earth

Read "Nights on Earth" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 19, 2011

It's been 13 years since Vince Mendoza last released an album of all-original music with Epiphany (Zebra, 1999); but it's not as if he hasn't been busy. He's a first-call arranger for high profile jazzers, working on guitarist John Scofield's 54 (EmArcy, 2010), now-deceased keyboard giant Joe Zawinul's Brown Street (Heads Up, 2007), and über-trumpeter Randy Brecker's Some Skunk Funk (Telarc, 2006). He's lived in the pop world with Björk, Elvis Costello and Joni Mitchell, and participated in concept projects ...

394

Interview

Achille Succi: Nuances and Articulations

by Glenn Astarita
October 19, 2011

Saxophonist and bass clarinetist Achille Succi has recently been singled out as “one of the European musicians to keep an eye on in the next ten years" by (Bill Schoemaker in Giornale Della Musica (January 2010), while journalist Mario Gamba defines him as a “genius of Italian Jazz" in Alias (March 20th, 2010). Born in Modena, Italy, in 1971, he began his career as a self-taught musician and later won several scholarships that gave him the chance to ...

241

Album Review

Aaron Staebell: Bending & Breaking

Read "Bending & Breaking" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 19, 2011

Bending And Breaking is percussionist and composer Aaron Staebell's debut as a bandleader; a debut filled with energy, enthusiasm, and invention, signaling the appearance of yet another talented newcomer on the scene. As a composer, Staebell's work takes inspiration from and shares qualities with a wide range of styles and sources. “Nobody Reads Your Blog" has echoes of Frank Zappa; “Grumbleboxx" can trace a line back to heavy metal and to free jazz; “Thank You John" is ...

218

Extended Analysis

Empirical: Elements Of Truth

by Chris May
October 19, 2011

EmpiricalElements Of TruthNaim Jazz2011 Empirical's second album, Out 'n' In (Naim, 2009), is a hard act to follow. The salute to reed player Eric Dolphy deservedly won the band Best Jazz Act in the 2010 MOBO Awards. Elements Of Truth rises confidently, if not wholly successfully, to the challenge set by its predecessor, and more about that in a moment. But first, the back story. The MOBO award ...

188

Album Review

FAB Trio: History of Jazz in Reverse

Read "History of Jazz in Reverse" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
October 19, 2011

The late Billy Bang (1947-2011) will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the great jazz violinists. On his chosen instrument, Bang was a true innovator--a singular prodigy whose diverse experiences ranged from a brief tenure in Sun Ra's Arkestra to co-founding the groundbreaking String Trio of New York in 1977. In addition to leading his own groups, the past decade found him collaborating regularly with fellow veterans bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul--seasoned improvisers whose formative years were spent ...

181

Interview

Tom Everett: Jazz at Harvard

by Andrew J. Sammut
October 18, 2011

It's no accident that forty years of jazz at Harvard coincides with forty years of Tom Everett at the esteemed university. Everett founded Harvard University's first student jazz band, taught its first jazz history course and welcomed the campus' first visiting jazz artist. He now leads two jazz bands at the prestigious university, continues to teach jazz history courses and welcomes a different visiting jazz artist each year, working with and commissioning works from Anthony Braxton, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, ...

275

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar Two Rivers Ensemble: Inana

by Troy Collins
October 18, 2011

Born in Chicago to an American mother and Iraqi father, trumpeter Amir ElSaffar put his promising jazz career on hold in 2002 to study traditional Iraqi maqam abroad. His 2007 debut, Two Rivers (Pi Recordings), bore the fruit of his international studies, successfully fusing venerable aspects of the Iraqi classical vocal tradition with advanced improvisation techniques culled from American jazz. Pushing the cross-cultural envelope even further, Radif Suite (Pi Recordings), his 2010 collaboration with Iranian-American tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh, combined ...