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.

163

Album Review

Michael Feinberg: With Many Hands

Read "With Many Hands" reviewed by Wilbert Sostre

by Wilbert Sostre
April 10, 2011

Bassist Michael Feinberg is a good example of the new breed of young jazz musicians equally comfortable playing a diversity of jazz styles. On With Many Hands, Feinberg's music goes from bebop to avant-garde, and from a ballad to a funky rhythm--sometimes in the same song--with amazing ease and conviction. Surely it all comes from Feinberg eclectic taste in music that also includes rock, hip hop and bluegrass.“The Hard Stuff" has elements of avant-garde at the beginning, before ...

344

Live Review

Rebekka Bakken: Dusseldorf, Germany, March 17, 2011

by Phillip Woolever
April 9, 2011

Rebekka BakkenZakkDusseldorf, GermanyMarch 17, 2011 After singer Rebekka Bakken ignited an intimate evening before a comfortably snug, sold out gathering of 303 counted customers, it seemed that--promotionally at least---she's been characterized with too soft an edge. Bakken may, indeed, be marketed too gently. On recording covers and publicity photos she often appears as some sort of sexy, earth mama. Live, Bakken is actually a rowdier vagabond, at least judging by her ...

227

Album Review

MSG: Tasty!

by Mark Corroto
April 9, 2011

Jazz recordings cannot punch listeners in the nose--well, not literally. But when a recording hits as hard as MSG's Tasty!, it certainly feels like it. Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, a Guggenheim Fellow and distinguished Player, has been applying his punchy style, first in projects with pianist Vijay Iyer, but lately in creative endeavors such as Apex, with saxophonist Bunky Green and pianist Jason Moran, in duo with saxophonist Steve Lehman, and with his South Asian-influenced work in Indo-Pak Coalition ...

202

Live Review

Trio Chaud: Helsinki, Finland, March 29. 2011

by Anthony Shaw
April 9, 2011

Trio Chaud Laulumiehet Restaurant, Helsinki, Finland March 29, 2011 When musicians play together, it might be assumed that they're enjoying themselves, but it's also true that playing can be a very serious business. The combination of play and pleasure is in no way inextricable, but when it occurs both phenomena take on a further strength, allowing audiences to often join in and even savor some of that spirit. While known for his performances ...

408

Album Review

Lajos Dudas: 50 Years With Jazzclarinet: The Best Of Lajos Dudas

Read "50 Years With Jazzclarinet: The Best Of Lajos Dudas" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 9, 2011

The music of Hungarian-born clarinetist Lajos Dudas doesn't fall under a neat little heading. While no mere label can define an artist, some clarinetists can be categorized in a fairly accurate manner, using few words. We have neo-traditionalists (Ken Peplowski), New Orleans torch bearers (Evan Christopher and Dr. Michael White), technical marvels who brilliantly bridge the jazz and classical divide (Eddie Daniels), and those who defy categorization and have been embraced by the jazz mainstream (Don Byron and Anat Cohen), ...

196

Album Review

Nordic Symphony Orchestra, Anu Tali: Erkki-Sven Tüür: Strata

Read "Erkki-Sven Tü&uumlr: Strata" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 9, 2011

So much late-20th and early-21st Century classical music has a movie soundtrack quality about it. Replete with dramatic crescendos and sinister diminuendos, these extended compositions sound as if they are trying to tell a story in a language not spoken. While that paradox is obvious, the effect is not exclusive. The music may be enjoyed on many levels--and on several at one time. It is then no mistake that Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür claims that his, “pieces ...

547

Interview

Walter Kolosky: Affairs of the Heart

by Ian Patterson
April 9, 2011

It took journalist Walter Kolosky eight months to put together Follow Your Heart: John McLaughlin Song by Song (Abstract Logix, 2010), though, in effect, this impressive listener's guide has been the culmination of a lifetime listening to the English guitarist's music. Kolosky has written extensively on McLaughlin's music for many years, and has interviewed him many times. Few people have dedicated quite so much of their time or expended as much energy as Kolosky, in attempting to understand McLaughlin's music. ...

207

Album Review

The Liberators: The Liberators

Read "The Liberators" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
April 9, 2011

The long arms of Fela Kuti and James Brown have stretched down under, with the debut of this Australian funk group's self-titled debut. Based in Sydney, The Liberators effectively rock the house, funk it up, and throw down some sweating dance music in venues and concerts, paying homage to jazz, funk, and Afrobeat. “Rags To Riches" is a throwback to the soundtracks of 1970s Blaxploitation films such as Shaft (1971). The tune's groove is fueled by a ...

262

Album Review

Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet: To Hear From There

Read "To Hear From There" reviewed by Bridget A. Arnwine

by Bridget A. Arnwine
April 9, 2011

Trombonist/composer Wayne Wallace and his music could probably be characterized by any number of clichéd phrases, but why use a cliché when the truth will do. The truth is that Wayne Wallace's To Hear From There is a far better record than its Grammy-nominated predecessor, ¡Bien Bien! (Patois, 2009), and that's saying a lot. Wallace's greatest gift to the music on To Hear From There is that he approaches it respectfully. Wallace, an American man of African ancestry, performs Latin ...

174

Album Review

Fred Hersch: Alone At The Vanguard

Read "Alone At The Vanguard" reviewed by Wilbert Sostre

by Wilbert Sostre
April 9, 2011

Alone at The Vanguard is pianist Fred Hersch's first solo performance at New York's Village Vanguard, after his serious illness and coma in 2008. The release was recorded during the final set on the last night of his six-day run in 2010, and the solo recital format gives the disc an intimate, almost classical music feel, engendering a full appreciation of Hersch's emotional and technical intensity.A three-time Grammy nominee, two as a pianist and one as a composer, ...