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.

129

Album Review

Liane Carroll: Up And Down

Read "Up And Down" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
June 13, 2011

Liane Carroll is a much-admired British singer and pianist, winner of accolades including Musician Of The Year at the 2008 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. She has worked with musicians as varied as Sir Paul McCartney and Charlie Haden, while on this album her invited guests include tenor saxophonists Kirk Whalum and Julian Siegel, and Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn. She already has a strong body of work to her name, but Up And Down might just be her finest album to date. ...

119

Album Review

John Butcher / Gino Robair: Apophenia

by John Eyles
June 13, 2011

The partnership of John Butcher and Gino Robair dates back to 1997, their first joint release appearing soon after. It is some years since they released their last duo recording-- New Oakland Burr (Rastascan, 2004)--but Robair was part of Butcher's seven-piece group, which recorded somethingtobesaid (Weight of Wax, 2009) at the Huddersfield Festival in 2008. Now comes Apophenia, a radio recording originating from KFJC, California, in October 2009. That source may explain its relative brevity--it just tops twenty-eight minutes. It ...

220

Extended Analysis

Charles Mingus: Blues and Roots/Mingus Three/Jazz Portraits/Jazzical Moods

by David Rickert
June 13, 2011

Charles MingusBlues and Roots/Mingus Three/Jazz Portraits/Jazzical MoodsAvid Records2011 (1954-59) If you have a fondness for a particular album by Charles Mingus, chances are you won't find another quite like it in his catalog. The bassist and composer had one of the most wide-ranging careers of anyone in jazz, and no album resembles any of the others. While this may be frustrating for someone looking for another recording just like, for instance, ...

214

Album Review

Club d'Elf: Electric Moroccoland / So Below

Read "Electric Moroccoland / So Below" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 13, 2011

Even in our far-reaching and cluttered modern musical culture, it seems safe to suggest that there is no other band quite like Club d'Elf, a floating riverboat gamble with a fluid cast of contributors--keyboardist John Medeski, guitarists Reeves Gabrels and Duke Levin, Mat Maneri on electric viola, turntablist Mister Rourke, and many others among them--steered by bassist Mike Rivard and Rivard's longtime co-explorer, multi-instrumentalist and musicologist Brahim Fribgane. Electric Moroccoland, the first disc in the new two-CD ...

251

Extended Analysis

Bill Carrothers Trio: A Night at the Village Vanguard

by Warren Allen
June 13, 2011

Bill Carrothers Trio A Night At The Village Vanguard Pirouet Records 2011 Pianist Bill Carrothers could not have picked a better venue to cut a trio recording in. Whether it's the inimitable acoustics of the Village Vanguard, or simply the sheer number of essential records cut there over the decades shaping listeners' ears, recordings made at the Greenwich Village cathedral with the red awning somehow sound an extra bit more like jazz. That ineffable ...

178

Album Review

Andrea Wood: dhyana

Read "dhyana" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 13, 2011

Washington D.C. native Andrea Wood has assimilated the area's disparate musical styles. Properly trained, Wood exerts impressive creative control over her material, one that is not afraid to take chances. Her alto is both powerful and pliable, capable of Betty Carter-like flights of fancy, and dhyana is a collision of every tradition between here and the Old World. But from this multicultural miasma rises the Rodgers and Hart standard “My Favorite Things," presented in a way that ...

145

Album Review

David Binney: Graylen Epicenter

Read "Graylen Epicenter" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 13, 2011

Undoubtedly one of the great alto saxophonists, David Binney's reputation as an original, exciting composer has also grown steadily since his debut recording, Point Game (Owl Records, 1989). Binney is so prolific a musician that it's sometimes hard to stay abreast of his current projects. However, there is little chance of Graylen Epicenter going unnoticed. With this recording Binney raises the bar, playing sublimely and drawing outstanding performances from an A-list of New York collaborators, clearly inspired by the leader's ...

1,176

Interview

Anthony Branker: Jazz Dialogics

by Victor L. Schermer
June 13, 2011

Anthony Branker is a musician for all seasons. He began his career as a trumpeter, including a stint with the Spirit of Life Ensemble, which honored its African-American and Afro-Caribbean roots during a multi-year tenure as the Monday night band at the legendary Sweet Basil club in New York City. Over time, Branker developed an increasing interest in jazz education, which led him to teaching positions at Hunter College and Princeton University, where he organized and conducted memorable ensembles. Around ...

197

Album Review

Judy Wexler: Under A Painted Sky

Read "Under A Painted Sky" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 12, 2011

Few singers would dare dive into music associated with Johnny Mathis, Carmen McRae, Abbey Lincoln and the 1962 film, The Music Man, on the same album; even fewer would be able to pull it off as vocalist Judy Wexler does on Under A Painted Sky. Wexler possesses a voice for the ages, and puts it to good use on a dozen delicious numbers that cover myriad moods and spotlight the stellar instrumentalists in her band. Wexler's prior ...

369

Multiple Reviews

Konstrukt & Their Mighty Fine Guests

by Mark Corroto
June 12, 2011

Freedom is sweeping the globe. Maybe not in terms of political discourse, business or education, but maybe more importantly, musically. In places like Beirut and Istanbul, the free jazz scene is very much alive. The band konstruKt, made up of guitarist Umut Çağlar, saxophonist Korhan Futaci, drummer Korhan Argüden and percussionist Özün Usta has been garnering attention not only at home in Turkey but in European improvised music circles. They have performed with the likes of British free jazz saxophonist ...