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.

326

Extended Analysis

In the Country: Sounds and Sights

by John Kelman
August 17, 2011

In the Country Sounds and Sights Rune Grammofon 2011 Since releasing its 2005 debut, This Was the Pace of My Heartbeat, Rune Grammofon's In the Country has, in the softest, gentlest way possible, evolved its purview and sound world, establishing itself as a piano trio like no other. Through two more recordings, 2006's Losing Stones, Collecting Bones and 2009's more ambitiously expansive Whiteout, this young Norwegian trio has gradually shifted its angle without deserting ...

159

Album Review

Dave King Trucking Company: Good Old Light

Read "Good Old Light" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
August 17, 2011

Branching out from his duties in The Bad Plus and Happy Apple, drummer Dave King formed the Dave King Trucking Company to explore a highly personalized take on Americana that he describes as “if the great Nashville bands of the '60s and '70s could improvise and were Coltrane fanatics." Building on this idea, King and company bolster tuneful themes with unfettered expressionism, drawing inspiration from the 1970s era work of Gary Burton and Keith Jarrett as well as contemporaneous krautrock ...

210

Live Review

Gent Jazz Festival 2011: Days 5-8

by Martin Longley
August 17, 2011

Days 1-4 | Days 5-8 Gent Jazz Festival Bijloke Gent, Belgium July 14-17, 2011 The festival's second chunk customarily embraced music that was sympathetic to jazz, but moved into the territories of roots, rock, pop, soul, electronica, R&B and African music. All of these forms are frequent jazz bedfellows, as progenitors and descendants alike. So, after a three-day respite, the second long weekend of the Gentfest ran through another ...

229

Album Review

Helge Lien Trio: Natsukashii

Read "Natsukashii" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
August 17, 2011

So, what do you do when you've won, amongst other accolades, the 2008 DnBNor Musicians Award and a Norwegian Grammy Award for Best Jazz Album of 2009? Well, if you're Helge Lien and the album is Hello Troll (Ozella, 2008), you just keep on keepin' on--in this fine pianist's case, continuing to hone the trio that's been his primary focus since What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life (Curling Legs, 2001). With the unfortunate dissolution of e.s.t., following ...

241

Album Review

Mike Prigodich: A Stitch In Time

Read "A Stitch In Time" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 17, 2011

Keyboardist/composer Mike Prigodich has some years experience in local outfits around Illinois and Oregon, from wedding bands to church groups. But it was not until he was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 that he decided to take his musical career more seriously. Three years later, the result is A Stitch In Time, a debut of originals that could broadly be categorized as jazz fusion but which also reach into the realms of hard rock, prog and even hard bop. His ...

274

Album Review

Simon Latarche: Cornish Preludes

Read "Cornish Preludes" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 17, 2011

Simon Latarche has produced an out of the ordinary set of jazz-based preludes, based on his own academic pursuits of Bach, Chopin and Debussy's approaches to the form. The resulting Cornish Preludes is a terrific collection from the UK-based composer/pianist/educator's Jazz Ensemble. Latarche's compositions are a near perfect combination of lyricism and improvisation, and the ensemble provides finely knit support to Latarche's considerable talents as a pianist. “The Endless Journey" begins the set with a traditional swing beat, ...

311

Album Review

Rebirth Brass Band: Rebirth of New Orleans

Read "Rebirth of New Orleans" reviewed by Wade Luquet

by Wade Luquet
August 16, 2011

Largely credited with the revival of brass bands in New Orleans, Rebirth Brass Band continues its tradition of bringing high spirited music to its band of loyal followers. Rebirth of New Orleans is a fast-paced, funked up horn party with a contagious beat that makes it difficult to sit still. Formed in 1983 by two brothers, tubaist Phil Frazier and bass drummer Keith Frazier, along with the beloved trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, Rebirth has been New Orleans' go-to party band, its ...

244

Interview

Ray Scro: What Jazz Education Means

by Andrew J. Sammut
August 16, 2011

For Ray Scro, music education is a redundancy. He's been performing, studying and teaching music for nearly fifty years in his home of Staten Island, and throughout New York City. In the early seventies Scro studied under saxophonist and guru Lee Konitz, and he's played with Jimmy Knepper, Chuck Wayne, Charlie Persip, and Chico Hamilton, among others. In addition to his own groups, he works regularly alongside bass legend and jazz scribe Bill Crow. For fifteen years, Scro has also ...

249

Live Review

16th Litchfield Jazz Festival: Kent, CT, August 5-7, 2011

by Sandy Ingham
August 16, 2011

Litchfield Jazz Festival Kent, CT August 5-7, 2011 “I like to save the best for last," saxophonist Jimmy Heath told the crowd near the end of his big band's grand finale set at the Litchfield Jazz Festival on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2011. It was a successful strategy, not only for Heath's great band, but also for the festival itself, which programmed two full days of music that escalated from good to better to best. Another ...

237

Album Review

Tom Harrell: The Time of the Sun

Read "The Time of the Sun" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
August 16, 2011

With all the media attention being given--and deservingly so--to hot young firebrands like trumpeter Christian Scott, it's easy to overlook the older cats who've been quietly building a life's work where the only thing predictable is unfailing creativity. Tom Harrell may have turned 65 earlier this year, but he's still playing with the vigor of a man half his age, while benefiting from the wisdom that grows as the years pass, with little left to prove but plenty more to ...