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.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Storms/Nocturnes: VIA
by John Kelman
Storms/Nocturnes VIA Origin Records2011 Virtuosity can, when it's the raison d'être, be an impediment; when it's a foundation, in service of the music, it can be liberating. Storms/Nocturnes was initially the brainchild of Tim Garland but, after first convening as a subset of the sextet on the closing track to the British saxophonist/composer's Made By Walking (Stretch, 2000), ultimately evolved into a more egalitarian working trio. Both Storms/Nocturnes (Sirocco, 2001) and Rising Tide ...
Continue Reading...BANN: As You Like
by Ian Patterson
Not to be confused with the British Association of Neuroscience Nurses, or the Builders Association of Northern Nevada, BANN--the brainchild of drummer Adam Nussbaum--is a quartet which nevertheless matches brain with brawn. Saxophonist Seamus Blake, bassist Jay Anderson, Nussbaum and guitarist Oz Noy pool their initials and their considerable individual talents, to create a vibrant, swinging unit with empathy in abundance. There's a veritable spring in the quartet's collective step, and a buoyancy that permeates the playing on As You ...
Continue Reading...The Shape Of All About Jazz To Come
by Michael Ricci
Dear fellow AAJ contributor, It's been several months since our last announcement--a busy stretch resulting in many changes to All About Jazz, from our business strategy to our website's appearance. Please take a moment and read on as we address future plans and recent staff changes.Index 1. Changing Times: Staff and Direction2. Fund Drive Results3. Personalize Your Profile4. Use Social Media to Distribute your Articles
Continue Reading...Lars Dietrich: Stand Alone
by Bruce Lindsay
Genuine solo albums are hard to come by. For far too many musicians, a solo album is simply one where none of the collaborators get their names on the front cover. The real thing can have many benefits for the soloist--no other musicians to pay, no awkward clashes of egos, no breaking up over musical differences. But the buck very definitely does stop with the guy whose name is on the cover. On Stand Alone, the buck stops with Dutch ...
Continue Reading...Terrence McManus/- Gerry Hemingway: Below The Surface
by Glenn Astarita
Guitarist Terrence McManus conveys an extensive music vernacular, tinted with percussive attributes and perceptive interactions with famed drummer, bandleader and consummate improviser Gerry Hemingway during Below The Surface Of. The duo engages a pliant game plan, executed at various pulses, and a broad soundstage that invokes an entertaining outlook, combined with blooming adventurism. The duo kicks off the festivities with “The Night Ocean." Here, Hemingway lays down a swaying, medium-tempo swing groove, underscored by his counterpart's subliminal lo-hum ...
Continue Reading...Jonathan Kreisberg: Shadowless
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Jonathan Kreisberg's music sounds so fresh and new that it seems to have escaped from a parallel universe through a virtual door--assaulting the senses in the known one--where everything else exists in brain-numbing manner. From the first notes he strikes, the guitarist creates a jolting spark, starting an accelerating fire that lights up the taut voices of Will Vinson's stormy saxophone, Matt Penman's palpitating bass, the shifting rhythms of drummer Mark Ferber...even rushing Henry Hey's otherwise pensive piano. For his ...
Continue Reading...Jay Anderson: Driving the Bus
by Ian Patterson
The term “sideman" really doesn't do justice to bassist Jay Anderson, as his beautifully melodic, lyrical lines and in-the-pocket-grooves lift and shape any music that he is a part of. And while the term “journeyman" holds some truth--Anderson has played with a huge number of people--one glance at his extensive discography reveals that most of the session leaders who have sought out Anderson's rich, warm tone have gone back to him time and time again. Anderson has been the first-call ...
Continue Reading...Cal Tjader & Stan Getz: Sextet
by Chris May
Cal Tjader / Stan GetzSextetOriginal Jazz Classics Remasters2011 (1958) The presence of Latin and Afro-Cuban enthusiast, vibraphonist Cal Tjader, has created a widespread misconception that Sextet was the album which sparked tenor saxophonist Stan Getz's fascination with Brazilian music and, ultimately, bossa nova. The notion has, over the years, been reinforced by the inclusion of pianist Vince Guaraldi's “Ginza Samba," whose theme statements were played over a samba beat, and which, ...
Continue Reading...Ferran Fages, Robin Hayward, Nikos Veliotis: Tables and Stairs
by John Eyles
Recorded in June 2010, Tables and Stairs captures an informal trio concert that took place in an Athens apartment at the conclusion of the city's TOT1.0 festival. The trio consists of Ferran Fages, from Barcelona, on sine waves, Robin Hayward, from Berlin, on microtonal tuba, and Athenian Nikos Veliotis on cello, the first time that the three had played together. The music consists of one continuous piece lasting just under thirty-two minutes. Although not sub-divided into tracks, it ...
Continue Reading...Bobby Sanabria / Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra: Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!!
by Dan Bilawsky
If the Latin Jazz community had its own Mount Rushmore, then Tito Puente's face would be there, right beside the images of Machito and Mario Bauzá. All three men are viewed as patriarchs and/or key figures in the evolution of the Afro-Cuban musical movement and, despite Puente being the only non-Cuban on that list, Bauzá himself paid him the ultimate compliment when he said that “no one in the world has done more for Afro-Cuban music than Tito Puente." While ...
Continue Reading...
Trending
In Tribute To...
Points of View: Celebrating Dave Holland
In Tribute To...
John Coltrane At 100: A Global Perspective
Jazz Raconteurs
Julius Hemphill: Marty Ehrlich and Tim Berne Remember a...
Interview
Boney James: A Simple Man And A Lifetime Study
Musician 2 Musician
Steve Coleman on Dave Holland
Interview
Miles Okazaki's Monkathon: The Complete Thelonious...
Reanimating Conversations Past
John Scofield: Meant To Be
VOTE!
