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.

143

Album Review

Christian McBride Big Band: The Good Feeling

Read "The Good Feeling" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
September 23, 2011

With all that Christian McBride has accomplished in his 30 year jazz career, The Good Feeling is his first recording fronting a big band. This formidable bassist has had a versatile career as leader, sideman, composer and arranger; he has appeared with a galaxy of star players from jazz, as well as rock and pop; and has been commissioned to write for orchestras and festivals. Here, he commands a tightly-knit 17-piece unit, featuring established ...

Album Review

Charlie Apicella & Iron City: The Business

Read "The Business" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
September 23, 2011

Guitarist Charlie Apicella & Iron City get down to the gritty business of delivering variations of funk and soul jazz on The Business, a well-crafted, vibrant grind of guitar-organ sounds supported by percussion and saxophone voices in an exciting quintet format. Though Apicella's playing style has been compared to that of Wes Montgomery, he also has an affinity for the music of Grant Green, featuring one of the late guitarist's compositions on The Business. Produced by veteran jazz guitarist Dave ...

298

Album Review

Boom Box: Jazz

by John Sharpe
September 23, 2011

Some might think there an element of presumption in titling a CD Jazz, but German saxophonist Thomas Borgmann gets right to the essence in this set by his Boom Box trio, with drummer Willi Kellers and bassist Akira Ando: spontaneous three-way conversations which swing. Borgmann has a back story that takes in iconoclasts such as saxophonists Peter Brotzmann and Charles Gayle, and pianist Borah Bergman, so the lyrical freedom which he purveys here may come as something of a surprise. ...

188

Extended Analysis

The Twenty 20s: Uh! Oh!

by Chris May
September 22, 2011

The Twenty 20sUh! Oh!Self Produced2011 Late summer 2011 has produced two off-piste jazz vocal gems. The first was CTI Masterworks' reissue of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral's A Wilder Alias (CTI, 1974). The second is Hetty Kate and The Twenty 20s' Uh! Oh!. The disc focuses, lovingly, on standards from the 1950s and laces them, bizarrely but immaculately, with vestigial psychedelia, electro-acoustica and surf twangadelica. The result sounds like a David ...

116

Album Review

Matthew Shipp: Duos With Mat Maneri & Joe Morris

Read "Duos With Mat Maneri & Joe Morris" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
September 22, 2011

To Matthew Shipp, the piano is a vast kaleidoscopic landscape that will always remain tonally uncharted. Sometimes it is daunting to traverse; at other times it is familiar. When faced with the prospect of the former, Shipp's dynamic and pianistic attack is quite different. He is aroused by the challenge of a pursuit flushed with mysterious tones and colors the sequence of which he seems never to be sure. Then he will attack the notes, repeating motifs with subtly varied ...

166

Album Review

WorldService Project: Relentless

Read "Relentless" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
September 22, 2011

Formed in 2009, and winner of the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award in 2010, WorldService Project rapidly established itself as a popular live act in London and across Britain, before branching out onto continental Europe with gigs in Norway and Germany. Its debut, Relentless, demonstrates that this is a band on a roll.The quintet has a classic jazz lineup, centered around the piano of founder and main composer Dave Moorcroft. Eight of the nine tracks are Moorcroft originals, and ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Jake Hertzog

by AAJ Staff
September 22, 2011

Meet Jake Hertzog: Jake Hertzog's accomplishments as a jazz musician mesh with his love for the rock idiom, creating almost an entirely new musical language. His new album, Evolution, co- produced by the great jazz bassist Harvie S, the original compositions (except for Jake's version of Bruce Springsteen's “Streets of Philadelphia") have been mastered to perfection--and is a recording destined to become a classic.Past achievements include winning the Grand Prize in 2006 for the Montreux Jazz ...

201

Album Review

Steve Lacy Five: Blinks...Zurich Live 1983

Read "Blinks...Zurich Live 1983" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 22, 2011

Blinks...Zurich Live 1983 is one of those ageless albums that accentuates the unparalleled synchronicity of iconic soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's Five, captured live at a 1983 concert in Zurich, Switzerland. Packed with the leader's linear and concise theme constructions, the band reconfigures and rewinds many of the primary melodies amid moments of energized minimalism and lyrical eloquence. Over the course of time, it is perhaps more apparent these days that Lacy and saxophonist Steve Potts were near perfect foils--indeed, a ...

133

Album Review

Harris Eisenstadt: Canada Day II

Read "Canada Day II" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
September 22, 2011

Are life events audible in music? They would certainly seem to be in the case of Canadian drummer/composer Harris Eisenstadt. Half the tracks on Canada Day II were composed around the time of his son's birth. One track is dedicated to his youngster, and the genesis of two others was related to public schools, so Eisenstadt wanted the cover to recall childhood summers at camp. In fact, there is a pervasive brightness and childlike innocence to much of this second ...

273

Extended Analysis

Radio Bevort with Marcelo Nisinman: Perfect Organization

by Ian Patterson
September 22, 2011

Radio Bevort with Marcelo Nisinman Perfect Organization Gateway Music 2011 Multi reed player/composer/vocalist Pernille Bévort 's last outing as leader was in 2007, on the impressive Playground 1 (Calibrated), with pianist Marie Louise Schmidt. Bevort, however, hasn't been idle, participating in several big band recordings and performing in a variety of contexts, from her own smaller ensembles to a veritable slew of big bands, including the Danish Radio Big Band with bassist ...