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

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: On Fertile Ground

by Nenad Georgievski
June 25, 2011

In recent years, singer and composer Nick Cave has proven to be unstoppable. He has not shown any signs of old age nor any intention to slow down the tempo of new work. He is also reissuing his back catalog. Undoubtedly a gifted poet and composer, above all Cave is a dedicated hard worker. You might say that he is applying for James Brown's empty spot as the hardest working man in show business. Music styles change ...

174

Take Five With...

Take Five With Mike Prigodich

by AAJ Staff
June 25, 2011

Meet Mike Prigodich: Mike's jazz fusion compositions have begun attracting attention from many well-known national and local artists. Becoming a cancer patient in 2008 was the big wakeup call that got him to start writing lots of new music, form a band, start booking gigs, and pursue his dream of becoming a professional jazz musician, inspired by fellow cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. Mike raised over $10,000 on kickstarter.com in 2010 to fund his first studio album A Stitch ...

107

Album Review

Robbie Robertson: How To Become Clairvoyant

Read "How To Become Clairvoyant" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 25, 2011

Expat Canadian guitarist/vocalist Robbie Robertson has never topped his first two major-label recordings with The Band, Music From Big Pink (Capitol, 1968), that included the timeless single, “The Weight," or its classic follow-up, The Band (Capitol, 1969). But, then again, neither has anyone else.Since the original Band broke up--its final days together in 1976 documented in director Martin Scorsese's 1978 film and concert recording of the same name, The Last Waltz (Warner Bros., 1978)--Robertson has largely busied himself ...

219

Album Review

Gidon Kremer / Giedre Dirvanauskaite / Khatia Buniatishvili: Tchaikovsky/Kissine Piano Trios

Read "Tchaikovsky/Kissine Piano Trios" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 25, 2011

The underlying element uniting these two chamber pieces, composed more than a century Apart, are their Russian origins and the piano trio format as compositional vehicle. Jurg Stenzl, in his notes, describes these two piano trios, the first composed in 1882 by Tchaikovsky and the second by Victor Kissine in 2009, as “the beginning and (for the moment) end of the history of Russian chamber music." Outside of some technical elements, that is all these trios have in common.

275

Profile

Jaga Jazzist: Maximalistic

by Angela Shawn-Chi Lu
June 24, 2011

A Norwegian nonet that rocks 35 instruments onstage and smashes Afrobeat, prog, film music, cheesy fanfares and Steve Reich arpeggios together against a backdrop of gigantic slot machine fruit? The odds of that happening are “No friggin way!" But as it turns out, one such nonet does exist. What's even more shocking is that Jaga Jazzist (pronounced “yaga yazzist") has made this demented formula supremely successful. Over its 17-year career, Jaga Jazzist has garnered international and critical ...

413

Album Review

John Taylor: Requiem for a Dreamer

Read "Requiem for a Dreamer" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
June 24, 2011

It's been three years since John Taylor's last trio disc, but this time the British pianist takes a small detour, rather than continue the winning streak of Angel of the Presence (Cam Jazz, 2006) and Whirlpool (Cam Jazz, 2008). Requiem for a Dreamer reunites Taylor with his longstanding trio--Swedish bassist Palle Danielsson and British drummer Martin France--but with the addition of saxophonist Julian Argüelles., he makes an inspired choice, capitalizing on the chemistry of the trio while adding a fourth ...

265

Live Review

Hammer Klavier Trio: New York, NY, June 10, 2011

by Dan Bilawsky
June 24, 2011

Hammer Klavier TrioMiles' CafeNew York, NYJune 10, 2011 While the exchange rate between Euros and dollars fluctuates, the exchange rate between American jazz acts and European jazz acts has always favored the Stars and Stripes. Although it might be a bit of a generalization, it wouldn't be unfair to say that European audiences, by and large, tend to welcome new jazz from America with open arms, while American jazz audiences are tougher to crack ...

426

Album Review

Laszlo Gardony: Signature Time

Read "Signature Time" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 24, 2011

According to his liner notes, pianist Laszlo Gardony's Signature Time is “a tribute to all African-inspired sound." It's a tribute that recognizes the centrality of African music in so many contemporary genres, showing this recognition in the creation of some fine original music and the reworking of some classic songs. Gardony was born in Hungary but has been resident in the USA for some years. He's a professor of piano at Berklee and has worked with Dave ...

272

Take Five With...

Take Five With Iman Spaargaren

by AAJ Staff
June 24, 2011

Meet Iman Spaargaren: Iman is a multi-reed player, arranger and composer. He has a distinctive way of playing and a very personal tone on his horn. During the past few years Iman has been busy with a wide variety of music groups such as Iman Spaargaren Quartet & Septet, Captain Hook, European Union Quartet and Thelonious4.Instrument(s): Tenor and soprano saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute.Teachers and/or influences? Teachers: Yuri Honing; Michiel ...

384

Album Review

Jeff Lederer: Sunwatcher

Read "Sunwatcher" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 24, 2011

Sunwatchers is a most auspicious debut by saxophonist Jeff Lederer. The reed man chose to reanimate the spirit of Albert Ayler for this session, and along with Ayler's ghost came that of late-John Coltrane spirituality and experimentation.Lederer can been heard as the saxophone behind the creative bands of Ted Kooshian's cartoon and TV show music and drummer Matt Wilson's newest quartet. Playing on Wilson's That's Gonna Leave A Mark (Palmetto, 2009), he is the yang to saxophonist Andrew ...