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.

217

Album Review

Elvin Bishop: Elvin Bishop’s Raisin’ Hell Revue

Read "Elvin Bishop’s Raisin’ Hell Revue" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 10, 2011

Guitarist and singer Elvin Bishop enjoyed his greatest commercial success with the 1976 single “Fooled Around and Fell in Love" (from 1975's Struttin' My Stuff (Capricorn)). His importance to the development of classic rock, as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the 1960s, is often overshadowed by that AM/FM confection as are his other recordings, especially Rock My Soul (Epic, 1972) and Let it Flow (Capricorn, 1974). While perhaps not a mainstay, Bishop was a solid presence ...

Album Review

Steve Lacy: School Days

Read "School Days" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
May 9, 2011

Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's School Days has had a long and checkered release history. Recorded live in New York in March 1963, it was first issued on vinyl by Emanem in 1975 and later reissued on QED, an Emanem pseudonym. It first appeared on CD on Hat Art in 1994, and again on Hatology in 2003. Now, its CD release on Emanem is cause for celebration for several reasons. Most importantly, it puts this wonderful album back in circulation again, ...

160

Album Review

Claire Ritter: The Streams Of Pearls Project

Read "The Streams Of Pearls Project" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 9, 2011

Claire Ritter's tenth album, The Stream Of Pearls Project, is inspired by water. More accurately, it's inspired by waters: rivers, lakes, brooks, ponds, cascades and their attendant beaches and shorelines. Ritter began the work in 2006 and over the next four years her travels took her to many different places across North America. The result is a beautifully crafted album, with an unusual instrumental lineup that Ritter uses with great ingenuity. Taken individually each of the tunes ...

177

Album Review

Alessandro Bosetti: Royals

by Mark Corroto
May 9, 2011

Musician/sound artist Alessandro Bosetti continues to explore the connection between speech and music, with yet another set of speech loop recordings. On Royals, like on his previous discs--Her Name (Crouton, 2007) and Exposé (Die Schachtel, 2007)--he orchestrates the tone, pitch and cadence of a speaker, talking or reading text. Much like pianist Jason Moran or drummer Dan Weiss' experiments with the articulation of telephone calls or movie scenes, Bosetti begins each of the three tracks with spoken language. ...

116

Album Review

BANN: As You Like

Read "As You Like" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
May 9, 2011

What happens when you put four distinct voices--each one equally powerful--together in an ensemble? The chance that they will pull in different directions is quite real. The fact that the repertoire is as exciting as it is challenging is also quite the lure to fly in the face of convention, even if the rest of the cohort is not quite ready. Such a prospect must surely have presented itself to BANN--saxophonist, Seamus Blake, bassist, Jay Anderson, guitarist, Oz Noy and ...

232

Album Review

Sean Smith Quartet: Trust

by Dan Bilawsky
May 9, 2011

Trust is a key element in any successful relationship. Spouses have to trust one another in their day-to-day lives and children have to trust that their parents will be there for them, no matter what happens. Trust between close friends is often a given and, while we don't always think about it, trust between band mates is at the core of any successful musical partnership. In jazz, more than most forms of music, the musicians have to feel comfortable that ...

197

Album Review

Aimee Nolte & Hideaki Tokunaga: Just Us

by Jack Bowers
May 9, 2011

This genial album by singer/pianist Aimee Nolte and guitarist Hideaki Tokunaga consists of eleven original compositions, all of them written or co-written by Nolte. While there are snippets of jazz from time to time, they are more peripheral than essential. The spotlight is most often on Nolte's voice, which is clear and steady but otherwise unexceptional. As these are accomplished musicians, the session glides smoothly along with no apparent lapses. Having said that, what disconcerts most are ...

343

Race and Jazz

Race, Culture and a White Boy from Texas

by Greg Thomas
May 9, 2011

The date: October 12, 1931. A sixteen year-old white male from Austin High School in Texas, who in later years would help shape the future of the United States, bought a ticket to see “Louis Armstrong, King of the Trumpet, and His Orchestra" at the old Driskill Hotel. He knew nothing about jazz or this “King," he recalled many years later, but did predict that a lot of girls would be at the dance. So, of course, he figured he ...

362

Interview

Leslie Pintchik: Two Different Kinds of Art

by Bruce Lindsay
May 9, 2011

The title of Leslie Pintchik's third album, We're Here To Listen (Pintch Hard Records, 2010), says much about the pianist and composer's musical philosophy. She recognizes the importance of technical skill, but she also values instinct, the open mind and the dismissal of boundaries between musical genres. It's an approach that Pintchik emphasizes throughout this interview, conducted by phone from her New York home. It's also readily identifiable in her writing, her playing and her selection of songs by other ...

149

Live Review

Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland 2011: Days 1-3

by Matt Marshall
May 8, 2011

Days 1-3 | Days 4-6 | Days 8-10 32th Annual Tri-C JazzFest ClevelandCleveland, OhioApril 28-May 8, 2011 Like most jazz festivals, the Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, now in its 32nd year, features a fair share of tributes to jazz legends. Slated this time around were tributes to usual suspects Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald. But caps were also set to be tipped to singer Betty Carter and prog-rocker Robert Wyatt. Oft-repeated in ...