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.

195

Album Review

Mike Baggetta Quartet: Source Material

Read "Source Material" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
October 7, 2011

Guitarist Mike Baggetta creates a remarkable collage of images that are framed by his composition, writing with abundant skill and bringing an immediate presence to music carried to fulfillment by his band. He has some of the best musicians here, who interact with fluidity and add texture and ambience on the road to resolution.Baggetta has a wide comfort zone. He essays bop as facilely as he does a ballad, balancing his technique with a high degree of creativity. ...

200

Album Review

AJ Kluth's ALDRIC: Anvils and Broken Bells

Read "Anvils and Broken Bells" reviewed by Lawrence Peryer

by Lawrence Peryer
October 7, 2011

While there are many interesting sounds on Anvils and Broken Bells, this release from Chicago-based improviser AJ Kluth (credited to his ensemble ALDRIC), they do not necessarily add up to an entirely compelling work. Kluth and his crew do conjure up some seductive ambiance, with their arsenal of horns, guitars and effects machines. Guitarist Toby Summerfield capably offers a diversity of tones, if not approaches. The moments when Kluth switches to melodica are especially tasty, as in ...

240

Extended Analysis

Starless and Bible Black (40th Anniversary Series)

by John Kelman
October 7, 2011

They may be rolling out slower than fans would like, but given the superlative work that Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson has been doing to bring the decades-old King Crimson catalog into the 21st century--creating vibrant new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes, with Crimson co-founder/guitarist Robert Fripp's direct involvement and/or approval--he can be forgiven for taking the extra time to get them just right. So far, Wilson has managed to respect the original material, while creating more three-dimensional audio landscapes ...

145

Album Review

Andrew Cyrille / Haitian Fascination: Route de Freres

Read "Route de Freres" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
October 6, 2011

Despite all of the cross fertilization that's taken place over the decades between the US and the various island nations of the Caribbean, it could be argued that the jazz world hasn't really dealt with the music of Haiti in any fundamental way. Andrew Cyrille--who's drawn on his Haitian heritage throughout his career as a solo artist and drummer for the likes of Cecil Taylor, David Murray, and John Carter--blends Haitian rhythms with jazz improvisation on Route de Freres.

152

Extended Analysis

Grand Union Orchestra: If Paradise

by Chris May
October 6, 2011

Grand Union OrchestraIf ParadiseRed Gold2011 If Paradise, the biggest jewel in British composer, keyboardist and trombonist Tony Haynes' recording career to date, joins a handful of orchestral albums which have not so much crossed genre and cultural boundaries as rendered them meaningless. Off-piste singularities may exclude these discs from mainstream jazz history, but their exalted singularity make them artifacts to be treasured. Other high-carat items are pianist Joachim Kühn and arranger ...

195

Album Review

Frank Sinatra & Count Basie: Sinatra-Basie: The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings

Read "Sinatra-Basie: The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings" reviewed by Todd Gordon

by Todd Gordon
October 6, 2011

Fifty years ago, Reprise Records heralded its first release. The label was founded by singer/actor/entertainer Frank Sinatra, who had been with Capitol Records since 1953 and was yearning for total creative freedom; something he felt was denied to him, despite his enormous commercial and critical success. His own first release on the label was, not surprisingly, ebullient, and with Concord Records now handling Sinatra's Reprise catalog, Ring-a-Ding, Ding! (1961) has been remastered, along with My Way (1969) ...

146

Live Review

Helen Sung: San Diego, CA, September 15, 2011

by Dan McClenaghan
October 6, 2011

Helen SungDizzy'sSan Diego Wine and Culinary Arts CenterSan Diego, CA September 15, 2011 From post World War II through the 1970s, what is now called San Diego's “Gaslamp Quarter," centered on 5th Avenue in the in the city's downtown, was a neon-lit area of beer bar dives, pornographic theaters, massage parlors, strip clubs and a variety of greasy spoons catering to the town's young sailors. San Diego was, and is, a Navy town. ...

205

Album Review

Darius Jones Trio: Big Gurl (Smell My Dream)

Read "Big Gurl (Smell My Dream)" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
October 6, 2011

Darius Jones' debut recording, Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing) (AUM Fidelity, 2009), heralded the arrival of an important new voice on alto saxophone. Big Gurl (Smell My Dream) is the second release in an ongoing series of concept records slated to document Jones' personal development--from his origins in Richmond, Virginia to his relocation as a member of New York's fertile Brooklyn scene. Eschewing the star power of his first album, which included multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore and drummer Rakalam Bob ...

156

Album Review

Otomo Yoshihide Quartet: Allurements of the Ellipsoid

Read "Allurements of the Ellipsoid" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 6, 2011

The minimalist improvisation of Otomo Yoshihide's Quartet, assembled for the 2005 Donaueschinger Music Festival, delivers a thoroughly abstract sound that could never be described as obtuse. This coming together of heavyweight improvisers yielded two discs--one, a studio session and the other, a live performance--recorded over three days. Those familiar with the genius of Yoshihide's music can follow his career from the noisy rock of his band Ground Zero to his swinging free jazz recordings for small and large ...

133

Album Review

The Claudia Quintet + 1 featuring Kurt Elling and Theo Bleckmann: What Is the Beautiful?

Read "What Is the Beautiful?" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
October 5, 2011

Jazz and poetry have a longstanding relationship that precedes the postwar experiments of the Beats, dating back to the Harlem Renaissance. As with any artistic collaboration, the cooperative efforts of improvising musicians and poets have yielded mixed results over the years. One of the first artists to successfully explore this territory (with John Cage and Charles Mingus) was Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972), a poet, novelist and painter whose innovative work ranges from political protest and sardonic humor to sentimental romance. In ...