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.

306

Album Review

Hristo Vitchev Quintet: The Perperikon Suite

Read "The Perperikon Suite" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 6, 2011

The San Francisco Bay Area is harboring a musical danger in Bulgarian guitarist Hristo Vitchev. The danger is production of germane, even compelling modern jazz that engages and warrants attention. As styles and genres become less relevant, the direction Vitchev initiated with his quartet recording, Songs of Messambria (First Orbit Sounds, 2009), and duet release, Secrets of an Angel (First Orbit Sounds, 2009), comes into a more complete realization on The Perperikon Suite. Vitchev's quintet of guitar, ...

171

Album Review

Mandy Harvey: After You've Gone

Read "After You've Gone" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
March 6, 2011

Do you need to know about an artist's personal life when experiencing their art? This question comes to mind when listening to Mandy Harvey, because the astonishing fact is that the jazz singer is deaf. She suffered from hearing problems throughout her childhood, yet she still sang in choirs and was lauded for her vocal talent. While a freshman in the music education program at Colorado State University in 2006, Harvey's world got progressively quieter, and eventually she lost her ...

194

Multiple Reviews

It's an Upstate Thing: John Medeski and Lee Shaw; Joe Barna and Sketches Of Influence

by J Hunter
March 6, 2011

It's time once again to prove that all the great jazz in New York State isn't all made in New York City. The state capital of Albany has been doing its part for quite some time, and it doesn't stop with its two favorite musical sons: mallets wizard Stefon Harris and baritone saxman Nick Brignola. Here are the latest offerings from the Capital Region, both of them recorded live--one from an inspiring octogenarian pianist and the pupil who made it ...

371

Big Band Caravan

Rick Holland–Evan Dobbins Little Big Band / Empire Jazz Orchestra / Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra

by Jack Bowers
March 6, 2011

The Rick Holland--Evan Dobbins Little Big BandTrilbyRPO Productions2010 Five years after a sensational opening act (In Time's Shadow, 2006), trumpeter Rick Holland and trombonist Evan Dobbins have returned for an encore, Trilby, marshaling as before their irrepressible Little Big Band. As was noted of that earlier recording, “the only thing small about [this band] is its numbers." Baritone saxophonist Dean Keller, who shared that chair with Kerry Strayer on Shadow, also ...

213

Album Review

Deborah Brown: For The Love Of Ivie: A Tribute to Ivie Anderson

Read "For The Love Of Ivie: A Tribute to Ivie Anderson" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
March 6, 2011

Ivie Anderson was Duke Ellington's mainstay singer from 1931 to 1942, melding the depth of Billie Holiday with the sophisticated attitude of Lena Horne. Deborah Brown is one of the finest modern jazz vocalists ever to grace live venues and recording studios. In common with Anderson, she is a musician's vocalist, having played with the likes of Slide Hampton, Cedar Walton, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Michel Le Grand, Toots" Thielemans and Roy Hargrove, amply showing the respect in which she ...

303

Album Review

Anthony Branker & Ascent: Dance Music

Read "Dance Music" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 6, 2011

Dr. Anthony Branker holds an endowed jazz chair, and is currently director of the Program in Jazz Studies at Princeton University. A composer and musical director, Branker established the jazz collective, Anthony Branker & Ascent in 2004, featuring an A-list of players--among them, saxophonists Tia Fuller and Ralph Bowen fronting a light ensemble, with vocalist Kadri Voorand. Dance Music is the group's third album of all-original music, inspired by Branker's desire to infuse his compositions with an element of dance. ...

310

Live Review

Anthony Davis Ensemble Live at Dizzy's San Diego, February 20, 2011

by Robert Bush
March 5, 2011

Anthony Davis EnsembleDizzy's, San DiegoSan Diego, CAFebruary 20, 2011 Composer and pianist Anthony Davis is a modern day renaissance man. Not only is he a master of multiple jazz disciplines, he also has composed several critically acclaimed operas. His classical works have often dealt with controversial subjects, such as Tania, (about Patty Hearst), and Amistad (the famous 1839 slave-ship rebellion). Davis, who has spent the last several years teaching at UCSD's justifiably lauded music ...

265

Album Review

Andrew Rathbun: The Idea of North

Read "The Idea of North" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 5, 2011

What effect does solitude have on a person? How can one grow as a result of being alone? These questions provoke a musical response from saxophonist, Andrew Rathbun, though the roots of his inspiration for this music lie over forty years ago. In 1967, legendary concert pianist Glenn Gould produced a radio documentary called “The Idea of North" where simultaneously played voices narrated five people's views on Northern Canada. Gould called this experiment “contrapuntal radio," an extension of his own ...

133

Live Review

Steven Bernstein and Nicole Mitchell: Tel Aviv Jazz Festival, February 15-16, 2011

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 5, 2011

Steven Bernstein's Diaspora Soul & Nicole Mitchell's Indigo Trio Tel Aviv Jazz Festival Cinemateque Tel Aviv, Israel February 15-16, 2011 The 2011 edition of the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival did not feature big names but, instead, focused on musicians who have solidified their unique way of bridging the past with the future, musically speaking, but with much broader cultural aims. New York Downtown trumpeter and arranger Steven Bernstein opened the festival with ...

160

Album Review

Chantale Gagne: Wisdom of the Water

Read "Wisdom of the Water" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 5, 2011

Chantale Gagné has adopted what seems to be the perfect persona for her album, Wisdom of the Water. The young, Montreal-based pianist appears here as an almost childlike water sprite, a naiad, who sometimes mixes fun with erudition too. This is a perfect persona for the metaphor that is brought to fruition as it rushes and bubbles, but always flows onward to what becomes an exciting conclusion on songs throughout the entire album. With the graceful flow of ever changing ...