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.

300

Album Review

Philipp van Endert Trio: Rosebud

Read "Rosebud" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
April 6, 2011

Cinema has long since rendered the word “rosebud" as something elusive and enigmatic, that cannot possibly sum up what others want it to. From the moment that Orson Welles whispers the word in the 1941 film Citizen Kane, a mysterious journey of the purely unknowable is embarked upon. But what a journey. With Rosebud, the remarkably inspired German guitarist Philipp van Endert properly gives light to the inability of properly discussing creative music. Much in the same way ...

323

Album Review

Kenny Drew, Jr. and Larry Coryell: Duality

Read "Duality" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
April 6, 2011

The jazz duo affords its participants wonderful opportunities to stretch out creatively. Ideas, suggestions and negotiations of all musical kinds percolate back and forth. And, in the best of instances, they birth new nuggets for further development and exploration. At the same time, the duet framework can possibly limit, as competitive natures and stylistic dichotomies might overtake the mutual partnership and pose distraction. Duality, which features the marvelous talents of pianist Kenny Drew, Jr. and guitarist Larry ...

363

Extended Analysis

Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa

by Nenad Georgievski
April 6, 2011

A question that has always been asked, regardless of genre, is whether music can be conservative and revolutionary at the same time. Various composers have surfaced in recent times with brilliant compositions, but their work has not adhered to any of the schools of composition that make up the 20th century classical music. These composers have often drawn inspiration from musical principles and philosophies that are foreign to the classical heritage, and in general have been less concerned with academic ...

512

Big Band Caravan

Ed Puddick Big Band / Frank Macchia / Rick Wald NY 16

by Jack Bowers
April 6, 2011

Ed Puddick Big Band Guys & Dolls Diving Duck Records 2010 The late Frank Loesser wrote at least 700 songs, more than a dozen of which are included in the score for the smash musical Guys and Dolls, which, believe it or not, opened on Broadway more than sixty years ago, in 1950, with Alan Alda's father, Robert, in the leading role as the gambler Sky Masterson. To mark Loesser's centenary in 2010, British ...

190

Big Band Report

Are You Sure, Bobby?

by Jack Bowers
April 5, 2011

In late March, I received an e-mail from trumpeter Bobby Shew. He said he'd performed a gig in West Palm Beach, FL, and had met my brothers, whom he described as “nice guys." My first impulse was to write back and ask if he could have been mistaken. My brothers? Nice guys? Well, the fact is that my brothers, Tom and Ed, do live in Tequesta, FL, and Bobby did indeed meet them at the concert in West Palm. “Your ...

293

Album Review

Outhouse: Straw, Sticks And Bricks

Read "Straw, Sticks And Bricks" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
April 5, 2011

Outhouse, part of the London-based Loop Collective, is an outfit that's willing to explore--and not just within the boundaries of jazz. After a trip to The Gambia in 2007, the band brought five Wolof drummers to the UK to record its second album, Ruhabi (Babel, 2010). For third album Straw, Sticks And Bricks the core quartet is joined by Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jensson who adds a chordal instrument to the Outhouse lineup and so takes the tonal qualities of the ...

332

Album Review

Darius Jones / Matthew Shipp: Cosmic Lieder

Read "Cosmic Lieder" reviewed by Nic Jones

by Nic Jones
April 5, 2011

Cosmic Lieder contains the sound of a duo engaged in an exercise in totality, which takes in no small amount of the music's past even while there's never any doubt that both players are concerned with music of the future--though, happily, not over-earnestly so. But to call this program a “coming-of-age" would be misleading. Of the two, pianist Matthew Shipp has staked the greater claim on the future by having been on the scene longer, but in saxophonist Darius Jones' ...

237

Album Review

The Night Crawlers: Down in the Bottom

Read "Down in the Bottom" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 5, 2011

Various shades of indigo, as in the blues, are more than suggested on Down in the Bottom, by Vancouver, Canada's The Night Crawlers. The music is crafted around the alliterative, musical hyperbole-flinging sound of the Hammond B3 organ. Cofounder Cory Weeds suggests that this is tribute to the Hammond B3 bands of the '50s and '60s, but that is where all comparison ends. The verve and depth of soulful musical excursions bring a unique character to the music produced by ...

268

Album Review

Marc Copland: Crosstalk

Read "Crosstalk" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 5, 2011

Rather than form a longstanding band that can soak up his musical vision over a period of years, pianist Marc Copland thrives in a universe of rotating players that keeps things fresh and spontaneous. On his three outstanding New York Trio Recordings, Copland switched bassists (Gary Peacock, Drew Gress) and drummers (Paul Motian, Bill Stewart), versatile players who are able to embrace--in their distinct ways--the subtle interplay and remarkably elastic give and take that are a big part of pianist's ...

246

Album Review

Dino Saluzzi / Gidon Kremer / Andrei Puchkarev: Giya Kancheli: Themes from the Songbook

Read "Giya Kancheli: Themes from the Songbook" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 5, 2011

There is a potent element in the sophisticated pioneer spirit of ECM Records and its founder, Manfred Eicher, that is perfectly illustrated by this recording. Giya Kancheli (born 1935) is a Georgian composer who has produced, among other compositions, film and stage scores over the past 40 years. Kancheli transformed the elements of these scores into piano reductions he called Simple Music for Piano, subtitled “33 miniatures from Music for Stage and Screen." Kancheli's son, Sandro, shortly ...