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.

193

Album Review

Francois Couturier: Tarkovsky Quartet

Read "Tarkovsky Quartet" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
May 16, 2011

Rarely has any other person had such an immense influence on world culture as the late Russian film director Andrey Tarkovsky. His meditations on spirituality and the human soul have brought many a step closer in their journey towards the light. As any luminary whose work and thoughts have inspired countless others, Tarkovsky--besides being a composer for the eye--has also inspired music for the ear. Plenty of artists--including Jan Garbarek, Arvo Part, Jon Hassell, Luigi Nono and Toru Takemitsu--have found ...

289

Live Review

Jazzahead! 2011

by John Kelman
May 16, 2011

Jazzahead Bremen, Germany April 28-May 1, 2010 Jazz may be a marginalized genre with shrinking CD sales and, at least in North America, a painfully low profile in popular media, but just a few days at Jazzahead in Bremen, Germany, leave a much different impression. A trade show for all things jazz, Jazzahead is in its sixth year, and has become the annual focal point for the jazz industry in Europe. Make no mistake: ...

301

Shrinktunes

Fred Hersch's "My Coma Dreams" World Premiere

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
May 16, 2011

There's much to say about the extraordinary My Coma Dreams, the new multimedia piece that describes the medically induced coma experienced by pianist/composer Fred Hersch in 2008. But three days after its world premiere at Montclair State University's Kasser Theater, I'm still looking for the right words to describe it. It seems that my usual critic's concerns keep dissolving under the visceral pull of the thing. This 70-minute piece grew out of eight dreams Fred remembers having during ...

400

Interview

Chick Corea: Creative Giant

by Esther Berlanga-Ryan
May 16, 2011

Virtuosity is a beautiful thing. One would somehow like to believe that anybody can learn how to play any given instrument with delicate, enchanting energy; but truth be told, some are simply born with a gift that most can only dream of. The ability to amaze others through music, enriching the hearts and widening the creative searching horizons of those who listen, with melodies and breathtaking performances, that is something extraordinary. Connections are made between musicians and the world; emotions ...

279

Album Review

Various Artists: First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary

Read "First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
May 15, 2011

The headline news on this lavishly packaged, four-CD collection of the work of the Impulse! label's founding producer, Creed Taylor, is that it includes three previously unreleased tracks by John Coltrane. These were recorded during rehearsals for what would become the saxophonist's Impulse! debut, Africa/Brass, in 1961. They have a combined playing time of less than eight minutes, but as newly discovered Coltrane recordings are reduced to a trickle with the passage of time, the arrival of any such material, ...

246

Live Review

Charlie Hunter: Burlington, Vermont, April 24, 2011

by Doug Collette
May 15, 2011

Charlie Hunter with Erik KalbClub MetronomeBurlington, VTApril 24, 2011 The last time guitarist nonpareil Charlie Hunter came to the greater Burlington area, drummer Erik Kalb also accompanied him--so this recent show was one of the few instances of the idiosyncratic guitarist repeating himself in his last ten years of appearances in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Nevertheless, it was perfectly acceptable to find the duo set up on the tiny stage ...

118

Album Review

Karrin Allyson: 'Round Midnight

Read "'Round Midnight" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 15, 2011

Karrin Allyson is a jazz singer's jazz singer. As such she is well-studied in jazz outside of the vocal realm. This particular tool in her considerable skill set is responsible for her command of even demanding material as evidenced on her near perfect Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane (Concord Records, 2001) and Footprints (Concord Records, 2006). These recordings were nominally concept projects, the first dedicated to John Coltrane's seminal Ballads (Impulse!, 1963),and the second addressing the vocalese of modern jazz compositions. ...

309

Book Review

Experimentalism Otherwise

by Ian Patterson
May 15, 2011

Experimentalism OtherwiseBenjamin Piekut 283 pagesISBN: 978-0-520-26850-0University California Press2011 The historical scope of Benjamin Piekut's study of avowedly experimentalist music in Experimentalism Otherwise is confined to what Peikut tantalizingly describes as “four disastrous confrontations within the world of New York experimentalism in 1964." Nevertheless, the greater themes explored through the prism of experimentalism in avant-garde music open a revealing window onto human perceptions of the ordinary, and, by ...

191

Album Review

Jordan Berger: First

Read "First" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
May 15, 2011

Jordan Berger is a young bassist who, on this debut album as a leader, manifests a mature conception of the post-bop jazz idiom with his assembled group of mostly Philadelphia-based musicians, collectively producing a sophisticated, intelligent, and lively groove. The tracks are mostly originals which, by virtue of their resonances with the jazz legacy, sound delightfully familiar and provide an excellent foil for rich improvisations and collective musical conversation. First opens with Berger's own “Qualm," featuring his extended ...

352

Film Review

Preservation Hall Jazz Band/My Morning Jacket: Louisiana Fairytale

by Wade Luquet
May 15, 2011

Preservation Hall Jazz Band / My Morning JacketLouisiana FairytalePreservation Hall2011 Once upon a time there was a progressive rock band, My Morning Jacket. They were invited into one of the grandest music venues in the world, Preservation Hall, to play with the legendary jazz band. In another “only in New Orleans" moment, they created music together, and filmed the encounter for all to see. For My Morning Jacket, it was a ...