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.

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Multiple Reviews

KOH: Poetic Songs

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 30, 2011

KOH (Koh Othera) began her musical career with the help of composer and pianist Satoko Fujii, who produced and played on the Japanese vocalist, pianist and composer's spare and promising debut, Yamabuki (Libra, 2005). A unique vocalist and pianist, with a rare sensitivity to poetic texts that are the basis for her playful compositions, KOH proves--six years later, with two completely different releases--why Fujii trusted her talent. On both sets she collaborates with drummer Masahiro Uemura, known for his association ...

418

Album Review

Levon Helm: Ramble at the Ryman

Read "Ramble at the Ryman" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 30, 2011

The Arkansas delta grit is gone from his voice, replaced by age and disease with the well-sanded twang of an American Southern Isaiah, if Johnny Cash were a stern Elijah. Levon Helm was the first voice among equals in The Band, sharing vocal duties with the equally distinctive vocals of bassist Rick Danko and pianist Richard Manuel. The only American (necessarily Southern) in a band of Canadians, it was Helm's dusty tenor that lent an American authenticity to the Band's ...

280

Live Review

The Fabulous Thunderbirds / Dickey Betts: Westbury, NY, July 10, 2010

by Mike Perciaccante
July 30, 2011

The Fabulous Thunderbirds / Dickey Betts & Great Southern NYCB Theater at Westbury Westbury, New York July 10, 2011 On a pleasant Sunday evening, the crowd outside the NYCB Theater in Westbury was happily buzzing and chattering in anticipation of the boogie-woogie blues and southern rock extravaganza they were about to see. The Fabulous Thunderbirds, featuring original member/vocalist/harmonicist Kim Wilson, and Great Southern--the on-again/off-again solo project fronted by Allman Brothers Band founding guitarist Dickey ...

256

Album Review

Christoph Siegrist: Welcome To The Blue World

Read "Welcome To The Blue World" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 30, 2011

Trumpeter Christoph Siegrist's Blue World is not the world of the blues. Instead, the Swedish-born horn man populates this realm with songs that expand the modern language of jazz by using solid, yet moving, rhythmic tides and angular horn lines that join together or swoop around one another. Siegrist's primary partner in crime is tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, and both men often work their way through the heads of these songs in rhythmic unison, while fleshing out some interesting intervals ...

241

Album Review

Rob Mazurek's Starlicker: Double Demon

Read "Double Demon" reviewed by Nic Jones

by Nic Jones
July 30, 2011

Starlicker is a trio which crosses the genres with ease and a healthy disregard for categorization. Cornetist Rob Mazurek is one of those musicians more preoccupied with the future of improvised music than with its glorious past. Much the same can be said for vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, who once again proves himself to be one of a handful of post-Bobby Hutcherson, post-Walt Dickerson players out there working in new margins, while drummer John Herndon has long been a stalwart of ...

389

Album Review

Albert Vila: Tactile

by Dan Bilawsky
July 29, 2011

Barcelona-based guitarist Albert Vila doesn't buy into the idea of generic compositions that go down easy, but result in a hunger for more substantial aural nourishment. Vila makes music with the utmost care and concern for texture, taste and dramatic development, and each one of his compositions is a mini-odyssey through his mind. Vila's debut album--Foreground Music (Fresh Sound, 2007)--was a quintet outing that highlighted the guitarist's unique writing and, while a pair of personnel changes help ...

243

Album Review

The George Lernis Jazz Quartet: Shapes of Nature

Read "Shapes of Nature" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
July 29, 2011

Many people recall the tedium of childhood music lessons: the endless scales; impatient instructors; and the drudgery of practice, practice, practice. A few gifted individuals get to move on to bigger and better things, but the vast majority face a conspiracy of limited talent and the distraction of competing interests. Fortunately, those who do possess the requisite talent and perseverance can reach higher plateaus, and occasionally, create something truly interesting and original in the service of their own musical growth, ...

324

Reassessing

Ornette Coleman: Tomorrow is the Question!

by C. Michael Bailey
July 29, 2011

Ornette ColemanTomorrow is the QuestionContemporary1959Shaking out of the contractual obligation forcing him to employ a pianist on his debut, Something Else!!!! (Contemporary, 1958), alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman dispensed with the instrument altogether on 1959's Tomorrow is the Question!, causing a bit of consternation on the part of the mainstream jazz media. This was Coleman's committed step forward toward a harmonically less restrictive sound, en route to the joyful chaos of Free Jazz ...

267

Album Review

Dave Valentin: Pure Imagination

Read "Pure Imagination" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 29, 2011

Grammy Award-winning Latin-jazz flutist Dave Valentin was the first artist signed to the now defunct GRP record label, founded by keyboardist Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen in 1978. GRP's hefty roster of jazz artists became a popular commodity, and the label was also commended for its cutting-edge analog and digital audio engineering. Thus, Valentin's flight to notoriety via his superior technique and stylistic approaches became rather legendary. Valentin demonstrates his modern-day vision on the jazz-fusion-hued “Joy." Here, ...

263

JazzLife UK

So Why Can't Jazz Guitarists Play Chords?

by Bruce Lindsay
July 29, 2011

This edition of JazzLife UK starts about as far from Britain as it's possible to get in the USA without toppling head first into the Pacific. It returns to its spiritual and physical homeland of Norfolk, where it can happily hide from the real world until next time, and looks forward to a festival that combines music, literature and beautiful architecture. Then it pops into the Great Wen (thank you, William Cobbett) for a short visit to celebrate some jazz ...