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.

299

Take Five With...

Take Five With Michael Simon

by AAJ Staff
August 8, 2011

Meet Michael Simon: Michael's musical background goes back to Punta Cardón (his native town), in Venezuela in the 1980s, when he was only ten years old, already jamming with his brothers. His musical studies cover a wide spectrum, first in Cuba where he went to the Ignacio Cervantes music school to study trumpet, and then to the Rotterdam conservatory of music in The Netherlands, where he obtained his arranging and composition degree in 2002. For the ...

191

Album Review

Ivo Perelman Quartet: The Hour of the Star

Read "The Hour of the Star" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 8, 2011

With his newly formed quartet, Brazilian tenor sax titan and visual artist Ivo Perelman effectively synchronizes the freer aspects of improvisation with bop, and harmonious patterns. And the musicians' synergy offers an underlying constant within the copious slants and contrasts presented throughout. The musicians kick off the festivities with “A Tearful Tale, where pianist Matthew Shipp lays out a circular and swirling platform atop the rhythm section's flourishing developments. Elsewhere on the album the players design perpetual motion ...

155

Album Review

Vincent Lyn: Heaven Bound

Read "Heaven Bound" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 8, 2011

Heaven Bound: indeed, what an appropriate choice of words to title pianist Vincent Lyn's project. The album is a wonderful collection of jazz, bossa nova, samba, Afro-Cuban rhythms and delicate classical interpretations. The fourteen-piece repertoire is an even blend of melody-rich originals and well-chosen, uncommon jazz standards. The music is engaging, sophisticated and highly pleasurable from start to finish, with no fillers, as every tune is a keeper and deserving of airplay consideration.Lyn is an interesting professional, whose ...

227

Interview

Cuong Vu: Agogic Logic

by Ian Patterson
August 8, 2011

New York may be the major incubator for all that's best in American jazz but there are healthy signs that vibrant scenes are emerging in other cities. Long-term New York-resident, alto saxophonist David Binney recently expressed a desire to spend more time in the jazz scene in Los Angeles, where he says: “there's something really happening." Further north, in Seattle, there's something going on too; an exciting scene is developing around a core of young musicians who see the jazz ...

364

On the Road With...

Lenny White and RTF IV: Germany, Holland and France

by Carl L. Hager
August 7, 2011

Intro |#2 | #3 |#4 “The gigs in Germany were fantastic, great audiences. The band is starting to hit its stride. In Hamburg, about 1,000 real dedicated fans stood in the rain for the full performance. In Neckarsulm, we played at the Audi performance center inside an Audi car manufacturing plant, a remarkable structure filled with classic and current Audi cars. “Overall, this is an amazing band. We played in Essen, Germany, ...

231

Album Review

The George Lernis Jazz Quartet: Shapes Of Nature

Read "Shapes Of Nature" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 7, 2011

The lower portion of the tree that adorns the cover of George Lernis' Shapes Of Nature can be viewed as a metaphor for the Cyprus-born/Boston-based drummer's music. The seven compositions that make up this recording have firm roots in the rich soil of jazz tradition, but as they grow, they branch out in unexpected ways, just as the tree grows beyond the cover. While man and nature each build things in far different manners, both demonstrate a certain logic in ...

235

Album Review

Chris West: The Surprise Trilogy: Disc 1

Read "The Surprise Trilogy: Disc 1" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 7, 2011

The first of the 3-CD Surprise Trilogy, by saxophonist Chris West, reasserts that Nashville is not all about country and roots music. Indeed, Nashville plays host to an aggregation of top-flight session artists who need to be adept, multifunctional, and armed with a broad range of musicality. Consequently, West has cut his teeth with eminent artists such as bassist Victor Wooten, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and pianist Kenny Werner. West's soul-drenched modern mainstream jazz arrangements are augmented ...

148

Live Review

Beady Eye: New York, NY, June 22, 2011

by Mike Perciaccante
August 7, 2011

Beady Eye Live on Letterman The Ed Sullivan Theater New York , New York June 22, 2011Usually when a big group breaks up, the main lyricist is the singer, and he/she goes on to a solo career that is similar in scope and acclaim to what the original band had achieved. What happens when the main voice doesn't write the majority of the lyrics? What happens when the band is Oasis, the ...

330

Take Five With...

Take Five With Savio Rego

by AAJ Staff
August 7, 2011

Meet Savio Rego: It has been said by those that know his music that the sound of Savio Rego's guitar is soft and lush, creating layers of silky smoothness while his voice expresses intimacy and calm reflection immediately evoking passionate and romantic feelings. Having captured the minds and hearts of many followers with his debut CD which was released in October 2009, it is time for him to make the breakthrough into the big time with his new ...

404

Album Review

Woody Witt: Pots and Kettles

Read "Pots and Kettles" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 7, 2011

With Pots And Kettles, veteran saxophonist Woody Witt cooks up a tasty menu of contemporary and modern jazz main dishes on his third album for the Blue Bamboo Music label, but his eight overall as leader. A professor of Jazz Studies at Houston Community College and an Affiliate Artist at the University of Houston Moores School of Music, Dr. Witt is not only an outstanding musician, but an educator by profession.Offering a variety of plates serving from traditional ...