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.

116

Live Review

Tim Warfield: Doylestown, PA May 21, 2011

by Victor L. Schermer
June 4, 2011

Tim Warfield and the Shirley Scott Tribute Band Jazz Night at the MichenerThe Michener Museum Doylestown, PA May 21, 2011 Tim Warfield is a saxophonist who came up in the Philly jazz scene and is now frequently heard on recordings as leader and sideman, performing in many venues around the country. It was obvious from this concert why he has ascended the ladder in a very competitive field: he has a unique grasp ...

180

Album Review

Lol Coxhill / Enzo Rocco: Fine Tuning - The Gradisca Concert

Read "Fine Tuning - The Gradisca Concert" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 4, 2011

There are no hard and fast rules that suggest improvised music cannot be a congenial undertaking. Free expressionism should not always be engineered upon overly cerebral formats and ideologies, contrary to popular belief. Fabled saxophonist Lol Coxhill and prominent Italian guitarist Enzo Rocco conjure the best of both worlds throughout this amiable set, recorded live at a festival in Italy. For decades, Coxhill has been a staple within the British free-jazz movement, yet is a supremely versatile artist ...

213

Live Review

BossaBrasil Festival: New York City, NY, May 20, 2011

by Ernest Barteldes
June 4, 2011

Marcos Valle, featuring Wanda SaBossa Brazil FestivalBirdland, New York, NYMay 19, 2011 The 2011 edition of the BossaBrasil festival at New York's Birdland featured bossa nova-era alum Marcos Valle, a keyboardist/vocalist who appeared in the 2010 edition as the guest of singer Emilio Santiago. Backed by a solid band, featuring trumpeter Jesse Sadoc, bassist Sergio Brandao and drummer Renato Basa, Valle kicked off the set with his instrumental, “Estatica," a heavily syncopated tune that ...

170

Take Five With...

Take Five With PT Gazell

by AAJ Staff
June 4, 2011

Meet PT Gazell: Hot, swingin, smooth, original, clean, lyrical, faster than a speeding bullet, diatonically chromatic, one of a kind, masterful, the swingingest, Oh yeah, like what? Nat King} Cole, Benny Goodman, Louis Jordan, Ben Webster, Harry Sweets" Edison, Wes Montgomery, Tiny Moore...that's what! Dig it. PT Gazell--American master of the half-valved diatonic harmonica. Swing and jazz played on a 10-hole, Richter-tuned diatonic harmonica.Instrument(s): Harmonica.Teachers and/or influences? ...

203

Album Review

Hazmat Modine: Cicada

by Anthony Shaw
June 4, 2011

To call this band is eclectic is a understatement; to call it spectacular is a simplification; to say it is led by a mouth-harp duo is approximating a partial truth, but ignores the other seven people that comprise the troupe, not to mention ten other “past, adjunct and intermittent Hazmaticians!" However, the start and end has to be leader and mouth-harp extravaganzist Wade Schuman who, with his wails and howls, vocal and instrumental, owes as much to Tamla Motown as ...

197

Album Review

Johnnie Taylor: Taylored in Silk

Read "Taylored in Silk" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 4, 2011

Concord Music Group begins a Stax Remasters series with the release of The Staples Singers' Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (1972), Booker T and the MGs' McLemore Avenue (1970) and Johnnie Taylor Taylored in Silk (1973). The Taylor's disc is most notable for sharpening the definition of “Memphis Soul." Johnnie Taylor today is best known for his 1976 Columbia single, “Disco Lady." But it was long before then that Taylor began to leave his footprint on American music. ...

225

Album Review

Patti Austin: Sound Advice

Read "Sound Advice" reviewed by Jeff Winbush

by Jeff Winbush
June 4, 2011

Sound Advice is Patti Austin's first pure pop album in ten years and, as a vocalist, Austin has always moved easily between genres. Austin excels when she's paired with a producer who can bring out her strengths and the material matches her ability. The Real Me (Qwest, 1988) was an example, where the singer and the songs were perfectly matched, but this time around Austin has chosen songs that don't compliment her.Whatever else Austin is, she's no rock ...

189

Live Review

Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville 2011

by Kurt Gottschalk
June 3, 2011

Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville Victoriaville, Canada May 19-22, 2011 The 27th annual Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) was a remarkably consistent four days of concerts. It held high points, to be sure (the Ex, Zeena Parkins, Jaap Blonk), and inevitable low points as well. But there was also a singular peak of pure fascination, that being something called Echo Echo Mirror House, presented by the ever-challenging Anthony Braxton. There was little by ...

187

Album Review

Flow Trio: Set Theory, Live At The Stone

Read "Set Theory, Live At The Stone" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 3, 2011

Recorded live at NYC's The Stone, Set Theory constitutes the third release by Flow Trio, following its excellent studio set, Rejuvenation (ESP, 2009) and an earlier live disc, like this one, on Ayler Records. An appropriate home for this band, as it happens, for the legendary Albert Ayler looms large in Flow Trio mainstay, saxophonist Louie Belogenis' personal pantheon, alongside John Coltrane. Though undersung as a unit, the trio's joint pedigree is impressive, covering a galaxy of free jazz talent: ...

206

Live Review

Colin Vallon Trio: New York, NY, May 20, 2011

by Warren Allen
June 3, 2011

Colin Vallon TrioRubin Museum of ArtNew York, NYMay 20, 2011 New York City's Rubin Museum houses a large collection of fine art from the Himalayans, much of it with religious symbolism. In partnership with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, the museum has also become a home for a series of new jazz performances on Fridays by innovative artists both young and old. As part of this series, Swiss pianist Colin Vallon brought his ...