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.

199

Live Review

Penguin Cafe: Snape, UK, August 12, 2011

by Bruce Lindsay
August 19, 2011

Penguin CaféSnape MaltingsSnape, UKAugust 12, 2011 Penguin Café occupies a unique place in the universe: a comforting and welcoming place where English eccentricity mingles happily with musics from the four corners of the Earth...and one or two other places, too. When the 10-piece group performed at Snape Maltings, with its own slightly eccentric setting in the Suffolk countryside, the illusion was heightened and the resulting atmosphere readily transported the audience to an unreal but rather ...

139

Album Review

Deep Blue Organ Trio: Wonderful!

Read "Wonderful!" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 19, 2011

Chicago's Deep Blue Organ Trio mines one of popular soul artist Stevie Wonder's most fertile creative periods--the late sixties through the early seventies--on Wonderful!. The organ trio format is known for its unvarnished soulfulness, and the group's reverent treatment of these familiar hits gives a breezy lift to Wonder's always engaging and ebullient melodies. Before about 1960 there was rhythm and blues in the record bins, which meant music made by anyone with an African heritage, be it ...

173

Album Review

John Daversa: Junk Wagon:The Big Band Album

by Dan Bilawsky
August 19, 2011

Constant stimulation is the name of the game on Junk Wagon. Trumpeter/composer John Daversa delivers nine pieces that reflect the hustle and bustle of today's world, without resorting to any big band clichés of yore. Each composition, with the exception of the balladic “Most Of All," is a stylistic hybrid, where scattershot elements and shifting ideas make for a fascinating and unpredictable musical journey. Daversa's fearless exploration of the large group format takes him off the beaten ...

262

Album Review

Trio 3 + Geri Allen: Celebrating Mary Lou Williams (Live at Birdland New York)

Read "Celebrating Mary Lou Williams (Live at Birdland New York)" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 19, 2011

These modern jazz VIPs render a synchronized attack that incites a harmonious mélange of mainstream, progressive, and free-jazz during this homage to legendary pianist, composer and arranger Mary Lou Williams. One of the mainstays and redeeming traits of this live program relates to the musicians' inimitable styles amid their technical faculties and keen interpretative powers. With a consortium of diverse approaches, the trio merges jazz boogie-woogie with swing and gutsy solos on Williams' “New Musical Express." Alto saxophonist ...

152

Extended Analysis

Django Bates: Like Life

by Chris May
August 18, 2011

Django BatesLike LifeStoryville2011 (1998) If you had to choose one artifact which is emblematic of the work of the British composer, bandleader and keyboards and e-flat horn player Django Bates, then his notorious “derangement" of John Kander and Fred Ebb's “New York, New York" would be a contender. It does not matter that “New York, New York" is one of the few tunes in Bates' band book that ...

228

Album Review

Alex Garnett: Serpent

Read "Serpent" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 18, 2011

The Alex Garnett who peers out of the cover of Serpent looks a little aggressive and wil0- eyed, with odd vertical slits where his pupils should be--a serpent indeed. The Garnett on the inside is more benign, but with a contemporary hipness. In the excellent black and white back cover photo, the besuited saxophonist is cool and focused, the stylish bopper who could easily have been photographed on a 52nd street club stage in the '50s. When he plays, Garnett ...

138

Take Five With...

Take Five With Torben Waldorff

by AAJ Staff
August 18, 2011

Meet Torben Waldorff: Born and raised in Denmark. Went to Berklee for four years. Have two CDs out on Swedish label LJ-Records. Signed with ArtistShare in New York 2006, with three CDs out--Brilliance, Afterburn and American Rock Beauty, all with saxophonist Donny McCaslin, a friend from the Berklee days, plus drummer Jon Wikan and bassist Matt Clohesy. Sam Yahel is also on Afterburn, while Jon Cowherd plays on American Rock Beauty. Recent performances include JazzBaltica, ...

247

Album Review

Paul Lieberman: Ibeji

by Greg Simmons
August 18, 2011

Paul Lieberman attempts to blend the distinctions between American jazz and Brazilian music--two streams he regards as twins separated at birth--on Ibeji. In his explorations, the woodwind specialist, playing flutes and saxophones, wears his appreciation for both forms on his sleeve. Ibeji employs two distinct lineups: the first plays American music in the Brazilian style and features the brilliant drummer Duduka da Fonseca, working his brushes and sticks in tight swirls and subtle reverberations. The second lineup does ...

274

Album Review

NYJAZZ Initiative: Mad About Thad

Read "Mad About Thad" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 18, 2011

Before moving to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1978, iconic jazz trumpeter Thad Jones was an established New York City jazz legend best known for his co-leadership of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, which enjoyed a twelve-year residency at the renowned Village Vanguard. Mad About Thad is the debut from the NYJAZZ Initiative--a non-profit organization founded in 2008 to promote an appreciation of jazz through education and regular performances--celebrating Jones' music and keeping it alive for new audiences to enjoy.Led ...

148

Album Review

Various Artists: From California With Love

Read "From California With Love" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 18, 2011

From California With Love is one shining example of how tragedy can bring out the best in people. When Japan was devastated by a massive earthquake (and subsequent tsunami) on March 11, 2011, it caused a chain reaction of destruction and death throughout the region. In an effort to help raise money for relief efforts, a whole host of artists and musical professionals volunteered their time and talents to help put this package together. From California With ...