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.

135

Album Review

Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What

Read "So Beautiful or So What" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
April 28, 2011

After successful run at self-producing, yielding hits like Graceland (Warner Bros., 1986) and The Rhythm of the Saints (Warner Bros., 1990), Paul Simon reunites with Phil Ramone for So Beautiful or So What, the singer/songwriter's first album since the largely overlooked Surprise (Warner Bros., 2006). Ramone last worked with the singer/songwriter on One Trick Pony (Warner Bros., 1980), but was responsible for producing many of Simon's early hits from the 1970s. After breaking out with the iconic ...

157

Album Review

Marcin Wasilewski Trio: Faithful

by John Kelman
April 27, 2011

Over the course of the past decade, the members of pianist Marcin Wasilewski's trio have been growing in the public eye, first as trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's young Polish quartet on a trio of albums culminating in Lontano (ECM, 2008), and then, in the case of pianist Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz, through a collaboration with Manu Katche on two of the drummer's ECM releases, including Playground (2007). But before all that attention, Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz were Simple ...

548

Live Review

Jazzkaar 2011: Tallinn, Estonia, Days 1-3

by John Kelman
April 27, 2011

Days 1-3 | Days 4-6 | Days 7-8 Punkt Festival in Tallinn / Talvin Singh and Niladri Kumar Jazzkaar Festival 2011 Tallinn, Estonia April 20-22, 2011 It's one thing to visit a European country and marvel at the history that has been made in centuries past; it's another to arrive somewhere where the history was recent; yet another, still, to stay where that history was actually made. When the relatively small (current population: ...

123

Album Review

Trilok Gurtu with Simon Phillips & the NDR Big Band: 21 Spices

Read "21 Spices" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 27, 2011

There's a certain logic underlying the union of percussionist/composer Trilok Gurtu and the NDR Big-band, as both have proved themselves open to musical exploration over the years. Gurtu, in particular, has consistently blurred the boundaries of music, and it is characteristic of his way of thinking to employ Simon Phillips--ostensibly a rock drummer-- with a jazz big band, to bring a different groove to the mix. Wolf Kerscheck's stirring arrangements of ten Gurtu compositions are both sympathetic to Gurtu's melting-pot ...

228

Live Review

Henry Butler: San Diego, April 12, 2011

by Robert Bush
April 27, 2011

Henry ButlerSaville Theatre, San Diego City CollegeSan Diego, CAApril 12, 2011 The path that brought famed New Orleans pianist Henry Butler to the Saville Theatre on April 12 has been rich in diversity and inexorably directed to his core : the wide scope of Crescent City music, and the deep well of the blues. Although he began his professional career in jazz as a thoroughly modern keyboard stylist--Fivin' Around (Impulse! 1986), ...

134

Album Review

AGOGIC: AGOGIC

by Troy Collins
April 27, 2011

Defined as “accenting a musical note by extending it slightly beyond its normal time value," AGOGIC is the evocative name adopted by the seasoned front-line of multi-instrumentalist Andrew D'Angelo (alto saxophone, bass clarinet) and trumpet player Cuong Vu for a multi-generational collective featuring electric bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Evan Woodle, two of Seattle's most promising young upstarts. Longstanding veterans of the vibrant 1990's Brooklyn scene, D'Angelo and Vu recently moved back to the Emerald City, their childhood home. Their ...

174

Album Review

Nicholas Urie: My Garden

Read "My Garden" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 27, 2011

Nicholas Urie made an impressive footprint with the release of his Excerpts From and Online Dating Service (Red Piano Records, 2009). The composer/arranger modus operandi changes little on My Garden, where he takes his texts from the poetry of West Coast writer Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), and weaves them into provocative and often violent tapestries of contemporary big band sounds. Bukowski was a gutter poet laureate, who at the height of his popularity, labored in a Post Office ...

150

Album Review

Bobby Selvaggio: Grass Roots Movement

Read "Grass Roots Movement" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 27, 2011

Bobby Selvaggio's Grass Roots Movement, marks his sixth release as leader and second outing for Arabesque Records. This quintet record follows his 2009 disc Modern Times, recorded with veteran pianist Kenny Werner. Here, the saxophonist employs some new names, an electric groove, but no worries, the musicianship retains the highest standards. Here he switches on the power with an electric ensemble, where only drummer James Johnson is unplugged. He might as well be plugged in, however, because he ...

505

Interview

Trilok Gurtu: Stirring the Big Old Pot

by Ian Patterson
April 27, 2011

There is a popular theory of mathematical probability, that if you put a typewriter in front of a monkey, it will, through a process of trial and error, eventually produce a play of William Shakespeare. Swayed by the same sweeping logic, others believe that if you put a trap kit and assorted percussive instruments in front of Trilok Gurtu, then he will, in time, play every genre of music known to humankind. Before leaving his native India in the mid-'70s ...

190

Album Review

Kirk MacDonald Quartet: Songbook Vol. 2

Read "Songbook Vol. 2" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
April 26, 2011

Saxophonist Kirk MacDonald--an exemplary player, composer, band leader and educator--has established himself as one of Canada's premier jazz musicians. His compositions are geared to mainstream jazz, but he uses several tributaries to blood them and generate nuggets of energy and rumination. MacDonald's integrity as a player is defined by his versatility. He can forge ahead and find unexpected nooks of delight that tantalize, or he can go deep into the fabric of a ballad and spin a ...