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.

124

Album Review

Veryan Weston / Leo Svirsky / The Vociferous Choir: Different Tessellations

Read "Different Tessellations" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 12, 2011

In the realm of tessellations--the juxtaposition of elements into a coherent pattern--the only ones that could match Different Tessellations in terms of intrigue and seduction--composed by Veryan Weston and recorded here by prodigiously talented pianist Leo Svirsky and the Vociferous Choir--is Maurits C. Escher's Circle Limit III. The Escher is visual art at its finest, a tantalizing woodcut standing in all its maddening glory, against all other two- and three-dimensional art. But even this barely compares to Weston's musical vision, ...

193

Multiple Reviews

Piano in the Foreground

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 12, 2011

The piano has been a much coveted instrument ever since its invention and never less so than within the 20th century avant-garde. As a central character in the narrative of music since 1900, the instrument has been hugely dominant. Its near infinite range of harmonics and rhythmic extrapolations have afforded musicians who write for or performed on it enriched composition and performance possibilities. It is no wonder then that most moderns have been so seduced by its dynamics that they ...

227

Extended Analysis

Halloween 2010, Atlantic City, NJ: Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus

by C. Michael Bailey
June 12, 2011

Phish Halloween 2010, Atlantic City, NJ: Little Feat—Waiting For Columbus Self Produced 2010 Phish's “Musical Costumes" fully hit their stride with 2009's Halloween cover of the Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street (Rolling Stones, 1972). That show was the first Halloween “Musical Costume" show since 1998's cover of The Velvet Underground's Loaded (Cotillion, 1970) (and the subsequent cover, a month later, of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (Capitol, 1973)). So, what was ...

115

Album Review

Potsa Lotsa: The Complete Works Of Eric Dolphy

Read "The Complete Works Of Eric Dolphy" reviewed by Keith Henry Brown

by Keith Henry Brown
June 12, 2011

The great multi-instrumentalist/composer Eric Dolphy spent almost as much time being criticized in his career as he was praised. Remarkably, there was dissension in some critical circles at the time about his abilities as a performer and writer. In the infamous cover story in the April 1962 issue of Downbeat Magazine, Dolphy and his employer at the time, John Coltrane, found themselves in the precarious position of having to “Answer The Jazz Critics": “What I'm trying to ...

Album Review

Conure: Strings, Locations

Read "Strings, Locations" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 12, 2011

Strings, Locations is the work of electronics ace Mark Wilson's fiendish mind. He uses field recordings, keys and other implements to design a doomsday scenario that is most assuredly not classified in the ambient-electronica or New Age categories. Wilson's head-banging approach constitutes a source of interest. It's all in good fun, however, as he summons notions of oscillating jet engines and mechanized disasters. Not for the feeble or faint-of-heart, the artist generates an overpowering soundscape, partially entrenched in ...

183

Album Review

Antoine Dufour: Sound Pictures

Read "Sound Pictures" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 12, 2011

Superhuman acoustic guitar playing was de rigueur for the New Age music of the 1980s and '90s, though personality often suffered at the expense of technical ability. Only a few artists:, such as Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges were able to float as cream to the top of a pile of wannabes, all who could play perfectly, but with absolutely no spirit. On Antoine Dufou's fifth solo CD, Sound Pictures the guitarist plays his own composition, “Spiritual ...

331

Live Review

Fifth Annual Longwood Gardens Wine and Jazz Festival, June 4, 2011

by Victor L. Schermer
June 11, 2011

Fifth Annual Longwood Gardens Wine and Jazz FestivalKennett Square, PAJune 4, 2011 Longwood Gardens is a horticultural conservancy spread over the countryside in Kennett Square, Chester County, PA. It is one of those beautiful meccas with the potential to serve memorably for a summer music festival, as anyone who has attended Juan Les Pins, Tanglewood, or Ravennia can attest. Tom Warner, who has done excellent jazz and classical music programming for major concert halls, ...

223

Album Review

Steve Lacy Five: Blinks...Zurich Live 1983

Read "Blinks...Zurich Live 1983" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 11, 2011

Few musicians bestrode the world of the avant-garde like the proverbial Colossus, but Steve Lacy did. He played with the heart of a giant and a soul in which a flame was lit in the '50s, when he began his career playing Dixieland music. By the time he made his presence felt in the avant-garde playing the straight horn, he was in the middle of a forest fire of his own making. So hot was the music he played both ...

296

Album Review

Lol Coxhill / Alex Ward: Old Sights, New Sounds

Read "Old Sights, New Sounds" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
June 11, 2011

Recorded at Incus HQ, London, in October 2010, this duo is a delight that should refresh even the most jaded ears. Lol Coxhill and Alex Ward are both veteran improvisers and regular participants on the London scene, so it was inevitable that they would eventually play together as a duo. As evidenced below by YouTube, that happened in August 2010 at John Russell's annual Fete Qua Qua; the pairing was repeated the following month at Sybil Madrigal's monthly Boat Ting ...

258

Live Review

Norman David Eleventet: Philadelphia, PA May 27, 2011

by Victor L. Schermer
June 11, 2011

Norman David Eleventet Little Bar Philadelphia, PAMay 27, 2011 With the closing of Zanzibar Blue and Ortlieb's Jazzhaus, Philadelphia has lost two of its iconic jazz clubs, further diluting an already limited constellation of venues. So it's encouraging to see music coordinators Greg Matthews and Mike Boone taking up some of the slack via a jazz series they recently inaugurated at the Little Bar located at the corner of 8th and Fitzwater Streets in the ...