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.

169

Album Review

Nicholas Urie: My Garden

Read "My Garden" reviewed by Matt Marshall

by Matt Marshall
March 27, 2011

With My Garden, an album of songs for large ensemble with poetry by Charles Bukowski, composer/conductor Nicholas Urie continues his exploration into modern-day isolation and disconnect begun on 2009's Excerpts From an Online Dating Service (Red Piano Records). On Excerpts, Urie invited the listener to hear ("imagine" might be more fitting) a certain poetry in the missives he lifted from actual online dating sites. Fit into Urie's jumping or eerily longing scores and sung with complete conviction by Christine Correa, ...

404

Interview

Denise Donatelli: Songbird With A Grammy Nomination

by Marcia Hillman
March 27, 2011

Los Angeles-based vocalist Denise Donatelli won a Grammy nomination with her third CD, When Lights Are Low (Savant Records, 2010). An East Coast native and a recipient of classical piano training, she turned to singing jazz, wound up relocating to the West Coast and has since pursued her performance and recording career. This interview was conducted shortly after her Grammy weekend experience. All About Jazz: Talk a little about your musical background. Denise Donatelli: I was ...

183

From the Inside Out

Mama Africa

by Chris M. Slawecki
March 27, 2011

If you wanted to travel to--oh, let's just say--Tanzania and then from Tanzania to India, then to Puerto Rico, to England, then Spain, to Peru, then to South Africa, to personally experience their musical varieties both garden and exotic, you could do it by cashing in, with rounding, about 28,690 frequent flier miles. Or you could sit back right where you're at and read this instead. Geof BradfieldAfrican FlowersOrigin Records

302

Album Review

Mark Dagley: Mystery of the Guitar

Read "Mystery of the Guitar" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
March 27, 2011

It's interesting how some CDs fit into daily life better than others. You might not, for example, put on Sun Ra if your mother was coming over for tea, but you might not be inspired by music that seeps harmlessly into the woodwork. Mystery of the Guitar is one of those special CDs that can function as both background and foreground; it possesses the unique virtue of being both soothing and interesting. Mark Dagley is a genuine Renaissance ...

180

Album Review

R|E|D|S: Sign of Four

Read "Sign of Four" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 27, 2011

R|E|D|S is a quartet made up of an American expatriate and three Danes: baritone saxophonist Ed Epstein, guitarist Bjarne Roupe, bassist Goran Schelin and drummer Dennis Drud. Epstein and Roupe are close friends, and the saxophonist wanted a vehicle in which to collaborate with the guitarist. With this exegesis, the quartet was born. The baritone saxophone makes for a challenging combo leader, in much the same way a football defensive back leads while waltzing a partner backwards. ...

234

Album Review

Geof Bradfield: African Flowers

Read "African Flowers" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
March 27, 2011

African Flowers germinated during reed player Geof Bradfield's 2008 performance tour of Africa, co-sponsored by the US State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center, as part of pianist Ryan Cohan's quartet. No stranger to the music of Africa, multi-instrumentalist Bradfield (tenor and soprano sax, bass clarinet and flute) arranged singer Miriam Makeba's “Polo Mze" for Seize the Time (Naim Jazz, 2009) by drummer Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, an ensemble with whom Bradfield has frequently performed in their shared Chicago hometown. ...

306

Album Review

John Vanore & Abstract Truth: Contagious Words

Read "Contagious Words" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
March 27, 2011

John Vanore & Abstract Truth's Contagious Words has the qualities of either a small big-band date or a big small-band date, depending on the perspective. There are twelve musicians listed on every track, and five more who show up for a few tracks each. That certainly has the instrumental mix for a full big band sound, but Vanore, who plays trumpet and composed most of the tracks on the album, uses the full power of the orchestra judiciously.

285

Afrobeat Diaries

Part 22 - Seun Kuti and Brian Eno Take Afrobeat Forward

by Chris May
March 26, 2011

Seun Anikulapo Kuti & Egypt 80From Africa With Fury: RiseBecause Music2011 It is, almost, too good to be true. With his second album, the aptly titled From Africa With Fury: Rise, co-produced with Brian Eno, Seun Kuti delivers on the promise of his debut, Many Things (Tot Ou Tard, 2008), which inhabited Fela's Afrobeat so resoundingly, and steps forward, his own man. All the music's original signatures are here: ...

167

Album Review

Thomas Marriott: Human Spirit

Read "Human Spirit" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 26, 2011

Human Spirit is trumpeter Thomas Marriott's seventh critically well-received recording for the West Coast Origin Records label. Marriott shakes things up by using an organ trio format as his vehicle, to quite great effect. Marriott and his merry Origin Records band pushes forth the definition of the “new" West Coast jazz, while at the same time giving Origin Records an aural definition as identifiable as the ECM Sound of the heralded German label. Marriott provides five original ...

146

Album Review

The Dead Kenny Gs: Operation Long Leash

Read "Operation Long Leash" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 26, 2011

The powerhouse trio known as The Dead Kenny Gs answers the musical question: can a jazz band have an uplift mofo party plan? With its collective experience, the group certainly can take the music one step beyond. Like their inspired namesakes, the 1970/80s punk band The Dead Kennedys, saxophonist Skerik, drummer/vibraphonist Mike Dillon, and bassist Brad Houser play music loud and fast. Well, sometimes slow, but definitely loud. Their debut release draws on their experience together and in ...