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.

190

Album Review

Trichotomy: The Gentle War

Read "The Gentle War" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 26, 2011

The Gentle War, Trichotomy's fourth album, further establishes the Australian three-piece at the forefront of the newer generation of intelligent, thoughtful and inventive piano trios. The band brought in Brent Sigmeth--an engineer who has worked with jazzers like The Bad Plus, as well as folkies such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott--to mix the album, and the result is exceptional sound quality on all three instruments. The Gentle War does signify a development in Trichotomy's music from its previous ...

331

Album Review

Gerald Cleaver / Uncle June: Be It As I See It

Read "Be It As I See It" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
January 26, 2011

Be It As I See It, Gerald Cleaver's fourth release as a leader, is an artistic vision of the Great Migration of African American families, in particular his family's movement from the rural South to the urban landscapes in the North, arriving at his home in Detroit, Michigan. The New York-based drummer/composer is a major player in forward-thinking music, his reputation and acumen evolving through his early tenure with AACM leader Roscoe Mitchell, and involvement with like- minded contemporaries including ...

255

Year in Review

Warren Allen's Best Releases of 2010

by Warren Allen
January 26, 2011

2010 was special for its sheer quality in quantity. While no one album truly ran away from the pack (as evidenced by the vast disagreements between other writers' top recording lists this year), each month seemed to produce something new and fantastic. Represented here are 15 releases, some by well-established names and some by new(ish) faces, all highly deserving of greater recognition. While I always look for a diverse array of artists, labels, instrumentation, styles, etc., the only consideration in ...

188

Album Review

Jonathan Kreisberg: Shadowless

Read "Shadowless" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 26, 2011

Guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg has gained a lot of visibility through his sideman work with organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, but his talents are occasionally downplayed in that role. When left to fend for himself, as on this eight song program, the full breadth and depth of his artistry is revealed. Kreisberg wanted to follow up his gentle, standards-only Night Songs (Criss Cross, 2009) with a more potent musical brew, and Shadowless easily fits the bill. Kreisberg kicks things ...

317

Live Review

Chuck Anderson/Jimmy Bruno: Philadelphia, January 15, 2011

by Victor L. Schermer
January 26, 2011

Chuck Anderson/Jimmy Bruno DuoRoller's Flying Fish8142 Germantown AvenuePhiladelphia, PA Saturday, January 15, 2011 When two self-propelled master guitarists like Chuck Anderson and Jimmy Bruno get together, it's a certainty that sparks are going to fly, but not necessarily in what direction. How would these two individualistic players combine forces--and why? Anderson and Bruno both came out of the same hotbed of Philly jazz in the 1960s, and swapped potentially lucrative careers ...

257

Album Review

Nordic Connect: Spirals

Read "Spirals" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
January 26, 2011

Flurry (ArtistShare, 2007), the debut disc from Nordic Connect, rang out loquaciously. In assimilating several moods, the music created an emotionally resolute ambience. Since the release of the CD, the band as toured Canada, the USA and Scandinavia, recording its follow-up,Spirals, at the end of 2008. Pianist Maggi Olin wrote most of the compositions, with contributions also coming from trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, saxophonist Christine Jensen and drummer Jon Wikan. The charts are impressive and open-ended, leaving room for ...

209

Album Review

Marcus Miller: A Night in Monte-Carlo

Read "A Night in Monte-Carlo" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins

by Woodrow Wilkins
January 26, 2011

He's the man in the porkpie hat. Bassist, composer, arranger and producer Marcus Miller matches classical with jazz on A Night in Monte-Carlo, featuring L'Orchestre Philharmonique De Monte-Carlo. Miller, a two-time Grammy Award-winner, has a diverse and vast discography as a leader, producer and sideman. Among his numerous credits are work with Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, Donald Fagen, Dizzy Gillespie, David Sanborn, Bob James and Al Jarreau. The strings warm up the set, recorded during the ...

201

Album Review

Jonathan Kreisberg: Shadowless

Read "Shadowless" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
January 25, 2011

In a landscape populated by forty-something guitarists like Kurt Rosenwinkel and thirty-something six-stringers like Lage Lund, Jonathan Kreisberg stands alone. Sure, he's got the chops and linguistic sophistication of a group of peers who are the clear next step beyond the innovations of Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Bill Frisell , but what separates Kreisberg is his interest in expanding the sonic potential of his instrument; one of smaller subset of guitarists who approach the inherent orchestral nature of their ...

387

Live Review

Tomasz Stanko Quintet: New York City, January 14, 2011

by Warren Allen
January 25, 2011

Tomasz Stanko Quintet with Chris PotterJazz StandardNew York, NYJanuary 14, 2011 Polish trumpet legend Tomasz Stanko has long had a close relationship with New York City. One of the first great jazz musicians to come out of Eastern Europe in the late 1970s, Stanko today splits his time between Warsaw and New York. But even from his first free jazz efforts with the great Krzysztof Komeda through his sparse, melodic releases on the German ...

185

Album Review

Gideon Van Gelder: Perpetual

Read "Perpetual" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
January 25, 2011

By implementing diverse styles without being confined to any particular one, pianist Gideon Van Gelder provides stimulation for the mind and ear with Perpetual. Categorizations are meaningless yet intriguing, displaying swatches of Van Gelder's open concepts, Third Stream, and lessons probably garnered from New York's New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, which Van Gelder attended in 2007. Regardless of the influences (ranging from the multidisciplinary works of Meredith Monk to Brazilian guitar virtuoso Toninho Horta), his compositional approach is ...