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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Album Review

James Carter: Caribbean Rhapsody

Read "Caribbean Rhapsody" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 17, 2011

Reconciling the improvisational nature of jazz with the semi-rigid confines of classical constructs like the concerto has never been easy. While concertos are meant to highlight a soloist, making this format seem like a perfect home in which a jazz instrumentalist can dwell, the oft-scripted nature of all parts involved, including the solo, works against one of the key principles in jazz: spontaneous composition. While James Carter's collaboration with composer Roberto Sierra should rightly be hailed for all of the ...

Album Review

Veryan Weston: Different Tesselations

Read "Different Tesselations" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
June 17, 2011

Different Tesselations must be considered as a companion piece to Tesselations for Luthéal Piano (Emanem 2003), the album on which Veryan Weston debuted his sequence of 52 closely linked pentatonic scales in a piece he called “Tesselations"--so named, he said, because it “contains structures which have, by coincidence, similarities with some of the principles of geometric tessellations." For the 2003 album, Weston recorded five pieces, each of which utilized from six to fourteen of the scales. He recorded the pieces ...

212

Multiple Reviews

Vibrations of the Day konstruKt a Full Moon

by Jerry D'Souza
June 17, 2011

Free jazz from Turkey is more than a catchphrase when it comes to konstruKt. It is an ideal, an approach, a symbiosis of creativity and sound that evolves and blooms. The group brings an incredible level of energy and process into its music in lucid and inventive formations. konstuKt with Marshall Allen, Hüseyin Ertunç and Barlas Tan ÖzemekVibrations Of The Dayre:konstruKt2010 The seed for konstruKt was sown in ...

113

Album Review

Pear: extemp’ore

Read "extemp’ore" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 17, 2011

The improvising duo of Pear--keyboardist Nick Pierone and percussionist Rick Milne-- plays a fanciful game of six degrees of separation on extemp'ore. The opening “Dewey Miles" is a piece of cake, with the sampled voice of Miles Davis whispering “play what you hear" to some Betty, or maybe Jean-Pierre in the backseat. Pierone's piano dances and flirts with the words, as the duo conjures Davis' 1980 comeback. With guest Jennifer Leitham attending to the heavy bass, there's the ...

120

Album Review

Peter Scharli Trio featuring Ithamara Koorax: O Grande Amor

Read "O Grande Amor" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 17, 2011

Their pairing may seem like an odd mix: Ithamara Koorax, born in steamy Rio de Janiero and expert voice for all the lusty and romantic musical treasures of Brazil, teaming with trumpeter Peter Schärli from Switzerland, where modern jazz often assumes a more astringent and ascetic (and often quite electronic) tone. Pianist Hans-Peter Pfammatter and bassist Thomas Dürst, who complete the Schärli Trio, are also Swiss. And yet their combination of tropical heat and frosty chill have already created--on The ...

326

Album Review

Maikotron Unit: Ex-Voto

Read "Ex-Voto" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
June 17, 2011

The maïkotron is the cornerstone for the music of the Maïkotron Unit. It's an odd looking instrument with its valves and keys, but is capable of producing the microtones which are perfect for the music of this trio. Ex-Voto, its seventh album, was inspired by the paintings of drummer Michel Lambert. His art also gives the CD sleeve its resplendent hue. The trio is dedicated to New Music, an apt term that encompasses classical music, jazz and swing, ...

241

Album Review

Ken Vandermark Predella Group: Strade d'Acqua / Roads of Water

Read "Strade d'Acqua / Roads of Water" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 16, 2011

Prolific composer/saxophonist Ken Vandermark's first soundtrack Project, Strade d'Acqua / Roads of Water, brings together his multiple interests and sound designs, creating a work for the film by Augusto Contento. It can exists as a standalone album, separate from the film, without commentary.Recorded in 2008, Vandermark's Predella Group reunites trombonist Jeb Bishop--an original member of the Vandermark 5--with the leader, as well as his replacement, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. For this work, Vandermark arranges the sound in a sparse ...

233

Live Review

Eliane Elias: New York, NY, June 2, 2011

by Ernest Barteldes
June 16, 2011

Eliane EliasDizzy's Club Coca-ColaNew York, NYJune 2, 2011 Pianist/vocalist Eliane Elias opened her set at New York's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, in celebration of Light My Fire (Concord, 2011) with “Ladeira," a Gilberto Gil-penned instrumental samba with a very syncopated drive. The tune was more like a warm-up, where her solid band--drummer Rafael Barata, percussionist Marivaldo Santos, acoustic guitarist Rubens de La Corte and bassist Marc Johnson--seemed to stretch its muscles for what was to ...

393

Album Review

Simin Tander: Wagma

Read "Wagma" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 16, 2011

Simin Tander is a polyglot German-Afghan singer who combines the fierce creativity of Meredith Monk with the jazz savvy of Gretchen Parlato. She has surrounded herself with a like-minded trio that is willing to forge in whatever direction she desires, with music and singing full of wordless howls, purrs, and calls. This is multicultural music with a German edge and the rugged and untamed spirit of Afghanistan. “Becoming" is a composition in English that begins like Thelonious ...

235

Live Review

Bert Turetzky & Friends: San Diego, CA May 26, 2011

by Robert Bush
June 16, 2011

Bert Turetzky and Friends Dizzy's San Diego, CA May 26, 2011 Bertram Turetzky might well be considered the Godfather of San Diego contrabass. He has mentored many of the area's top players, like Bob Magnusson, Mark Dresser, and Rob Thorsen, to name a few. Even though he's retired from teaching since 2003, Turetzky remains active, if selective about gigs. His Dizzy's concert was a relatively rare example of Turetzky the performer, ...