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.

271

Live Review

Lee Konitz: New York, NY June 5, 2011

by Warren Allen
June 21, 2011

Lee Konitz / Bill Frisell / Gary Peacock / Joey BaronThe Blue NoteNew York, NYJune 5, 2011 Descriptions of alto saxophonist Lee Konitz often place a little too much weight on his role as a musician of yesteryear. Certainly, Konitz's contributions as one of the first cool players in the bands of Miles Davis and Lennie Tristano are part of jazz history, and he is one of the few self-made sounds from an era when ...

258

Take Five With...

Take Five With Edward Simon

by AAJ Staff
June 21, 2011

Meet Edward Simon: The process by which Simon became an internationally regarded jazz musician began in the small coastal town of Cardon, Venezuela, where he grew up surrounded by the sounds of Latin and Caribbean music. Born in 1969, Simon credits his father, Hadsy, for developing his passion for music and supporting him and his two brothers, Marlon and Michael, to become professional musicians. Upon arriving on the New York jazz scene in 1989, his ...

218

Album Review

Lisa Kirchner: Something to Sing About

Read "Something to Sing About" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 21, 2011

The first thing that distinguishes Lisa Kirchner's Something to Sing About is her repertoire: not a jazz standard pass her vocal cords; instead, she presents a collection of 20th Century American “Art Songs" composed my the likes of Charles Ives, John Corigliano, Ned Rorem, Aaron Copland, and William Bolcom. An eclectic band supports Kirchner, conspicuously present is accordionist William Schimmel, who also provides the sly “Suicide in C Minor." “Suicide in C Minor" is a cabaret song ...

119

Album Review

Stan Killian: Unified

Read "Unified" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 21, 2011

Unified is tenor saxophonist Stan Killian's third album and his debut for the Sunnyside label. It's high-quality, straight-ahead modern jazz, played with a real swing by Killian and his band, and enlivened by the contributions of three top-drawer guest horn players. Leader/composer Killian hails from Texas, home of Texas tenors like Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet. Killian's own sound certainly has a big, wide open, feel to it but there's a gentleness there as well, a warmth ...

183

Album Review

Agusti Fernandez & Joan Saura: Vents

by John Eyles
June 21, 2011

Although their Trio Local, with saxophonist Liba Villavecchia, has been well-documented for over a decade, Vents is the first duo recording from pianist Agustí Fernández and Joan Saura, on live electronics and sampling keyboard. The album was recorded in Barcelona, between July 2009 and February 2010. It is well-titled, and so are its tracks, which share their Catalan names with the eight winds from various compass directions. Time and again during the album, this seems entirely appropriate, as the musicians ...

458

Interview

Gutbucket: Cascades and Collisions

by Gordon Marshall
June 21, 2011

Over its 12-year career, Gutbucket has resituated its various musical parts like the pieces of a Rubik's cube. The elements of that cube, the sonic strains, have remained similar--an amalgam of fuzz rock, jumpy jazz, post-serial classicism--but its panoply of shifting color has been redeployed in unique ways on each of the Brooklyn-based quartet's five CDs, starting with an emphasis on improvisation but gradually incorporating greater degrees of composing.It is not that it never arrives at a satisfying ...

135

Album Review

David Binney: Barefooted Town

Read "Barefooted Town" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
June 20, 2011

Politics isn't the only thing that increasingly demands clear vision and steadfast commitment (even if it isn't getting it). In the jazz world--where the changing landscape makes getting heard one challenge, acceptance by a broader culture that views “jazz" as a dirty word another--it takes artists with unshakable resolve to stay the course. David Binney has not only honed an instantly recognizable compositional language without the trappings of predictability, he's become a mentor for younger artists, mixing and matching from ...

273

Live Review

Norwegian Jazz 101c: JazzNorway In A Nutshell 2011

by John Kelman
June 20, 2011

2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 It may be true, at least most of the time, that familiarity breeds, if not exactly contempt, then certainly complacency; but that simply doesn't apply if subject is Norway--and, in particular, its disproportionately large and vibrant music scene. Suffering from an epidemic that most folks would be happy to attract--festival inflation--this country of just five million people is host to approximately 600 music festivals annually, covering every possible stylistic nook ...

148

Album Review

Vicious World: Plays the Music of Rufus Wainwright

Read "Plays the Music of Rufus Wainwright" reviewed by Andrew J. Sammut

by Andrew J. Sammut
June 20, 2011

Vicious World might have a field day on its tribute to the music of Rufus Wainwright, except the tunes are rarely that lighthearted. Let's just say the septet is moved to musical tears by the singer/songwriter's earnest melodies and bittersweet harmonies. Even that's putting it mildly. Anxious strings introduce Aaron Irwin's alto sax on the dejected “Going to a Town." “Natasha" pits the innocence of violin and clarinet against Matthew McDonald's bittersweet trombone, choreographing a beautiful, fragile ...

198

Album Review

Billy Bang / Bill Cole: Duet

Read "Duet" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 20, 2011

Among the more daring moments in music is one of the last adventures that violinist Billy Bang shared with double reeds player, the venerable Bill Cole. The intense encounter took place on April 17, 2009 and was captured by Cole who released it on his own label in the winter of 2010. A collection of intriguing compositions by both Cole and Bang, as well as tumultuous improvisations that emerged from the depths of each man's soul, this album will remain ...