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.

207

Album Review

Jim Caruso: The Swing Set

Read "The Swing Set" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 14, 2011

This disc is 250,000 pounds-per-square-inch cabaret music rendered with a loving and exacting hand by a coy master. Singer Jim Caruso does not take himself seriously while doing exactly that, and it is this quality that makes The Swing Set so much entertaining fun. Caruso's repertoire is not dusty standards, sanded to nothingness; instead, he chooses less-heard gems performed in the style of the '20s and '30s. Add to this perfect engineering and a crackerjack band, and Caruso delivers a ...

478

Album Review

Roxy Coss: Roxy Coss

Read "Roxy Coss" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 14, 2011

There is no question that women musicians have, and continue to play, a major role in jazz--from composers and band leaders such as Maria Schneider to renowned pianist Marian McPartland,--but few make their mark as saxophonists. Roxy Coss is a New York-based saxophonist who, with her self-titled debut, joins the likes of Anat Cohen, Mary Fettig, Tia Fuller, and Karolina Strassmayer, as a saxophone voice with which to be reckoned. On her debut, Coss--on tenor and soprano saxophones, as well ...

151

Album Review

Vyacheslav Guyvoronsky: Pieces for String Trio and Trumpet

Read "Pieces for String Trio and Trumpet" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 13, 2011

Longtime Leo Records recording artist, trumpeter Vyacheslav Guyvoronsky leads a string trio on this curiously interesting and immensely entertaining venture, where chamber music, jazz improvisation and European folk attain a synchronous coexistence. Here, the trumpeter divulges the precision of a classical soloist with unorthodox voicings, all enacted by a jazzy impetus. With a fluid attack on the front end, Guyvoronsky accents, underscores and solos atop the string section's intuitive interplay. The album features introspective and somber interludes to ...

123

Album Review

Dom Minasi: The Bird, The Girl, The Donkey

Read "The Bird, The Girl, The Donkey" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
February 13, 2011

New York guitarist Dom Minasi has years of experience on the jazz scene as a player, writer, improviser and educator. The Bird, The Girl and The Donkey finds Minasi in the company of some other leading lights of the New York improvised music scene, on five extended pieces characterized by some adventurous interplay, some good-humored musical ideas, and a batch of great titles. It's altoist Blaise Siwula whose presence is most obviously stamped upon the music: intense, ...

265

Album Review

Liudas Mockunas / Ryoji Hojito: Vacation Music

Read "Vacation Music" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
February 13, 2011

Not as, might be suggested by the title, songs to put you in the holiday mood, but seven improvisations recorded by Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas and Japanese pianist Ryoji Hojito, while the latter was on vacation in Lithuania. The pair met during the course of Hojito's travels around the country and, without thinking too much, went into a studio for a spontaneous session which yielded the disc's first three cuts. It is supplemented by four tracks recorded a year later ...

305

Album Review

Ron Thomas: Two Lonely People

Read "Two Lonely People" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 13, 2011

A spin through pianist Ron Thomas's discography as a leader doesn't always directly point toward the music found on Two Lonely People. His two masterful trio outings, Music in Three Parts (Art of Life Records, 2006) and Doloroso (Art of Life Records, 2006) are both full of abstract and elastic originals; the highly electric and compellingly otherworldly Elysium (Vectordisc, 2009) stretches the boundaries way, way “out there"; and his 17 Solo Piano Improvisations (Vectordisc, 2006) leans heavily on the pianist's ...

148

Album Review

Shawn Costantino: Waltz for Anne

Read "Waltz for Anne" reviewed by Wilbert Sostre

by Wilbert Sostre
February 13, 2011

With the advantage of having access, these days, to what is currently going on in the 21st century jazz scene as well as the jazz tradition, it is not rare to find young musicians whose music conveys both the present and the past of jazz. That is certainly the case with Shawn Costantino, a saxophonist/flautist/clarinetist/composer with a style thickened by the sounds of bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, fusion, smooth jazz and everything in between. Costantino plays with ...

185

Mix Tape

February Fever

by Gary Armstrong
February 13, 2011

Your body may be homebound, but your mind can still wander. A series of songs about the anticipation and benefits of Spring. TrackNameTime ArtistAlbum1One, Two, Three2:42Sarah VaughanThe New Scene 2Old Devil Moon2:53 Cheyenne JacksonThe Power Of Two3It's Love (from 'Wonderful Town')2:48Larry KertSpotlight On Larry Kert4Puttin' On The Ritz2:53Fred AstaireThe Irving Berlin Songbook5What Now My Love2:30Jack JonesThe Impossible Dream6I Will Wait for You2:32Bobby DarinPure Gold7Cantata for Combo2:53Lalo SchifrinBullitt (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)8Old Friend4:17Michael FeinsteinThe Power Of Two9No Strings2:54Fred ...

152

My Playlist

Frank Macchia's Freaky Fricassee of Music

by Frank Macchia
February 13, 2011

These are just a random group of some of my favorite tunes compiled for your listening pleasure. Not just jazz tunes, but some rock, pop and classical as well. I hope you can check out some of these artists. I really dig them!! TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1After Youre Gone3:53Terry GibbsDream Band Vol 12Alabama (Takes 4 & 5)5:10John Coltrane QuartetThe Classic Quartet--Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings3All Of Me2:18EsquivelMusic From A Sparkling Planet4Bernie's Tune (LP Version)4:21Clare FischerCrazy Bird5Clear Spot3:40Captain Beefheart & The Magic ...

732

Take Five With...

Take Five With Frank Macchia

by AAJ Staff
February 13, 2011

Meet Frank Macchia: Born and raised in San Francisco, CA., Frank started on the clarinet at the age of ten years old. Soon afterward he began studies on bassoon, saxophone and flute. By the age of fourteen he began studying composition, writing jazz and classical pieces for his high school band and orchestra and for jazz ensembles that rehearsed at the local union hall, including trumpeter Mike Vax's Big Band. In 1975-76 Frank wrote jazz/classical hybrid ...