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.

190

Album Review

Peter Erskine / Bob Mintzer / Darek Oles / Alan Pasqua: Standards 2, Movie Music

Read "Standards 2, Movie Music" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 11, 2011

Standards hold a particular fascination for drummer Peter Erskine, as initiated through his Grammy-nominated Standards(Fuzzy Music, 2008). Unlike that first album--comprised primarily of old jazz standards--Standards 2, Movie Music focuses on songs that are considered standards from the realm of Hollywood movies. Featuring music from Gone With The Wind (1939), considered by many to be one of the best movies ever made, to the main theme from Rosemary's Baby (1968), this unusual collection of songs, by necessity, has to leave ...

585

Interview

Avishai Cohen: Trumpet Trio Makes Strong Mark

by R.J. DeLuke
April 11, 2011

Avishai Cohen is a trumpeter of substantial talent, working hard on his craft and career, making strides that are tangible. The steps that he takes, the bands that he plays with, are impressive. There are a lot of good young trumpeters out there, and he's situated squarely in their lot.Early this year, he toured with the SFJAZZ Collective, a strong group of some of today's best musicians. But Cohen's more impressive recent mark on his résumé is his ...

254

Live Review

Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band

by Daniel Lehner
April 10, 2011

Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band William Paterson University Jazz Room Wayne, NJ March 26th, 2011 Looking at Roy Haynes's oeuvre, over his tremendously prolific career, it becomes apparent that simply being awarded one lifetime achievement award from the Grammy committee may not be enough. For most musicians, being involved in just one of the amazingly diverse musical scenarios in which Haynes has taken part--whether it's Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Andrew Hill, Pat Metheny or ...

219

Album Review

Tigran Hamasyan: A Fable

Read "A Fable" reviewed by Charles Walker

by Charles Walker
April 10, 2011

The young, Armenian-born pianist Tigran Hamasyan possesses an almost intimidating virtuosity, a style that owes as much to Art Tatum's two-handed volubility and the sweeping refinement of Impressionist composers as it does to the spiraling, East-meets-West melodies of his homeland. Winner of the 2006 Thelonious Monk Institute's piano competition, New Era (2008, Nocturne) found Hamasyan settling into a familiar, if impressive trio aesthetic, mining the angular vernacular of modern jazz piano on now-standard vehicles like “Well, You Needn't" or “Solar," ...

351

Book Review

Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story

by Jack Huntley
April 10, 2011

Still Inside: The Tony Rice StoryTim Stafford and Caroline WrightHardcover; 315 pagesISBN: 978-0-578-05113-0Word of Mouth Press, Inc2010 It's a life already mythologized by devotees--how a country boy discovers a god-given talent for guitar and a natural ear, and grows up to dominate the field of acoustic guitar music. Tony Rice ascended to the pantheon of guitar god early in his career by developing a fluid, fast-paced and ...

198

Album Review

Kairos 4tet: Statement Of Intent

Read "Statement Of Intent" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
April 10, 2011

Two years on from its debut, Kairos Moment (Kairos, 2009), Kairos 4tet's Statement Of Intent categorically proves that the critical applause granted to its first album was well-deserved. Statement Of Intent is full of energy, inventiveness and melody, demonstrating a maturing musical sensibility, and placing the band fairly and squarely in the top flight of the UK jazz scene. Saxophonist/composer Adam Waldmann formed the band in 2008, soon after graduating from London's Trinity College of Music. Waldmann's ...

280

Take Five With...

Take Five With Ed Barrett

by AAJ Staff
April 10, 2011

Meet Ed Barrett: I began my musical studies at the age of six on the piano. I then began playing the French horn in fourth grade, and continued till the end of high school. I began playing jazz guitar in1988. I have a guitar performance degree from Berklee and a Master's in Jazz Studies from the University of New Orleans. I currently perform three to five times per week, and have two new CD releases upcoming in 2011.

338

Album Review

Harriet Tubman: Ascension

Read "Ascension" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 10, 2011

It has been forty-six years since John Coltrane took his expanded ensemble into a studio to record Ascension (Impulse!, 1965), and many believe the jazz world has yet to come to grips with its significance and meaning. It has only been eleven years since the power trio Harriet Tubman, expanded into the Harriet Tubman Double Trio, rendered its interpretation of Ascension. Formed in 1998, the Harriet Tubman trio picks up where the short-lived supergroup Power Tools (Bill Frisell, ...

304

Album Review

Trio Mediaeval: A Worcester Ladymass

Read "A Worcester Ladymass" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 10, 2011

Cobbled together from the scraps and remnants left from Henry VII's 1536-41 dissolution of Catholic Monasteries, this Worcester Ladymass ("Ladymass"--Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in this particular case for the Feast of the Assumption, August 15) was studiously assembled by Nicky Losseff, the music editor for the Norse Trio Mediaeval. Research revealed that neither a Credo (I believe recitation of the Apostles' Creed) or Benedictamus Domino (Let us bless the Lord) were present among the fragments and so, ...

263

Album Review

Soren Moller: Christian X Variations

Read "Christian X Variations" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 10, 2011

Making a special social statement with his music, Danish-born pianist Soren Moller honors the memory of Danish King Christian X who, during World War II, protected his country's Jews from discrimination and deportation by the Nazis. The effort to protect and unite fellow countrymen served as the inspiration for the compositions on Christian X Variations. These are five powerful compositions, arranged for both a conventional quartet and a wind quintet, with Moller blending elements of jazz and classical ...