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.

196

Extended Analysis

Various Artists: The New Universe Music Festival 2010 - Abstract Logix Live!

by Ian Patterson
September 1, 2011

Various Artists The New Universe Music Festival 2010: Abstract Logix Live! Abstract Logix 2011 On November 20-21 2010, Raleigh, North Carolina became the destination for fans of cutting edge fusion/improvised music, drawn from all over the world by the embarrassment of riches that the New Universe Music festival offered in tribute to guitar icon John McLaughlin. For two days Raleigh was The Center of the New Musical Universe as envisioned by independent label Abstract Logix ...

126

Album Review

Daniel Rosenthal: Lines

by Greg Simmons
September 1, 2011

Lines, Daniel Rosenthal's debut as a leader, is a soft-spoken little album with an unusual instrumental mix and inventive tunes. The Boston trumpeter, a five-year veteran of the Either/Orchestra, offers stripped-down arrangements with the periodic inclusion of the banjo to spice things up. With the exception of two Thelonious Monk tunes, Rosenthal is responsible for all of the music on Lines. The feel is loose and conversational, with improvisational duties largely swapped between Rosenthal and alto saxophonist Rick ...

110

Album Review

Peter James Trio: Soul Story

by Nic Jones
September 1, 2011

The piano trio is currently one of the staples in what might be called marketed jazz, but that doesn't mean that every example of the lineup lacks musical substance. British pianist Peter James' trio is a case in point, because it's clear that its stylistic range is wide, even while retaining its own identity. Take the not misleadingly titled “Headlong," which finds the pianist damping the keys to vital rhythmic effect before bassist Jeremy Brown turns in ...

154

Album Review

Nicole Henry: Embraceable

Read "Embraceable" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
September 1, 2011

With the release of her fifth album, Embraceable, vocalist Nicole Henry pleasingly brings together a range of styles--smooth and mainstream jazz, along with pop and gospel. A roster of musicians from diverse jazz backgrounds are featured on various tracks, with standouts including saxophonist Kirk Whalum, harmonicist Gregoire Maret and pianists John Stoddart and Britain's Oli Rockberger, who all contribute mightily. Among the albums's 12 selections, there are four new numbers including three Stoddart gems, and eight standards ...

145

Record Label Profile

Re:konstruKt: New Music Online from Istanbul

by Gian Paolo Galasi
September 1, 2011

The online independent label re:konstruKt was founded in 2008 by Umut Çağlar, an Istanbul-based guitarist and leader of the konstruKt quartet. The label was formed few months after the band's first rehearsals. Its initial purpose was to document the evolution of the Istanbul experimental scene.Çağlar's development as a musician is a good example of the way Turkish improvisers have paved their own way: “We can talk about 'constructions' and 'constructed parts,'" he says. “I first started to make ...

189

Album Review

Bob Gluck Trio: Returning

Read "Returning" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 31, 2011

The piano trio, in one form or another, has been a jazz staple since the 1930s, and consequently skews toward the familiar. Fortunately, there are those atypical artists who invite a deeper dive for the uninhibited. Nothing could be more challenging, interesting and listenable than the music Bob Gluck creates within that formation. Like his Something Quiet (FMR Records 2010), Gluck's Returning is a brilliant collection of uniquely modern jazz. Throughout, it is a passionate and riveting performance with rhythmic ...

239

Extended Analysis

Dawda Jobarteh: Northern Light Gambian Night

by Chris May
August 31, 2011

Dawda JobartehNorthern Light Gambian NightSterns Music2011 As the Gaddafis, Assads, Kim Jongs and other poisoned bloodlines (how long have you got?) remind us, dynastic succession is usually bad news. But in African music, bloodlines are benign: from childhood, a musician learns his art from a family elder and goes on to conserve, and possibly extend, the style into which he has been initiated. Among the continent's traditional musicians, dynastic succession is ...

159

Album Review

Kaz Simmons: Dandelions

Read "Dandelions" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 31, 2011

Combining a voice of crystalline purity, a neat lyrical touch, some superb backing musicians and a few lushly romantic arrangements, Kaz Simmons' Dandelions has a gorgeous heart and a few twists and turns that surprise, delight and occasionally mystify by turn. This is Simmons' third album: the second on her own Fast Awake label, following 2007's Different Smile. While she has referred to Dandelions as being “less jazz" than her previous recordings, which have featured standards like ...

Album Review

Brian Lynch and Spheres Of Influence: ConClave Vol. 2

Read "ConClave Vol. 2" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 31, 2011

Long an exponent of Afro-Cuban rhythms and Latin jazz music, trumpeter/educator Brian Lynch presents a fine selection of originals and standards in another Latin-styled album, grounded in a strong modern jazz foundation. ConClave Vol. 2 draws on obvious elements of Latin music and contains the influence within a framework of a jazz project, as opposed to a typical, overtly expressive Latin jazz statement. On ConClave (Criss Cross, 2004), the majority of the tunes such as the blazing “Tom ...

496

Live Review

Oslo International Jazz Festival 2011

by John Kelman
August 31, 2011

Oslo International Jazz FestivalOslo, NorwayAugust 15-20, 2011 There's always an eager sense of anticipation when returning to Norway, whether it's the barren but beautiful north of Svalbard, the stunning, mountain-surrounded Molde, the picturesque Kongsberg, the fjord-gateway of Bergen or the rugged beauty surrounding Kristiansand. But going back to Norway for the 2011 Oslo International Jazz Festival bore even greater meaning than usual, coming, as it did, only a few short weeks after Anders Behring Breivik ...