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.

670

Interview

Paquito D'Rivera: Jazz at the Heart

by R.J. DeLuke
January 25, 2011

There is almost nothing Paquito D'Rivera hasn't accomplished since his arrival on the U.S. jazz scene in the early 1980s, when the young Cuban arrived from Spain--the first spot he hid when he defected from his home nation and its Communist rule that denied personal freedoms and forced musicians playing jazz to call it something else in order to avoid punishment.It was in Madrid that he bided his time until he could make it to New York City, ...

241

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell and The Note Factory: Far Side

Read "Far Side" reviewed by Charles Walker

by Charles Walker
January 25, 2011

In his recent book about the AACM, A Power Stronger Than Itself (University of Chicago, 2007), trombonist/composer/critic George Lewis makes a serious, thoroughly researched argument for its members creating their own lineage of American “experimental music," influenced as much by pan-African musics or juke joint jam sessions as by European high art music, and yet beholden to none of those idioms exclusively. As a result, for the critic or historian, it has always been difficult to even know how to ...

199

Album Review

Richard Doron Johnson: Battle Grounds

Read "Battle Grounds" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
January 25, 2011

In a year that saw some lionized piano trio records, Richard Doron Johnson's debut, Battle Grounds, might be the overlooked gem. Johnson is hardly a household name, even within the small, tight circle of jazz fans. His website reveals stints with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Thelonious Monk Institute, as well as gigs with bassist Ron Carter and guitarist Russell Malone. An iTunes search found only two other recordings besides this one, both as a sideman for Danish ...

348

Album Review

Free Range Saxophone Quartet: Fireflies

Read "Fireflies" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 25, 2011

Since inception, the Origin Classical imprint has existed as a stylistic hinge between classical music and jazz. Defying genre definition, Origin Classical's archive should properly be considered simply music--that which defies category. Only a single release, Linda Tsatsanis and John Lenti's And I Remain: Three Love Stories--Music of the Seventeenth Century for Voice and Lute (Origin Classical, 2009), deals with what might be considered the “classical repertoire." The remainder of releases are by musicians simply playing music. ...

265

Unsung Heroes

Laurindo Almeida, Charlie Byrd, and Ralph Towner

by Sean Dietrich
January 25, 2011

The concert guitar is hailed by many as the perfect instrument. After being perfected in the Baroque age, virtuosos believed the wooden torso to posses the variety of an orchestra. The concert guitar produces a wide range of tone, timber, color, and dynamic expression unlike any other stringed instrument, capable of projecting a delicate voice of pure emotion. As music enters the age of electrified sound, fewer players seem to have the audacity to unplug. But amongst a ...

211

Album Review

Matthew Garrison: Shapeshifter Live 2010 Part 1

Read "Shapeshifter Live 2010 Part 1" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 24, 2011

Were it not for demanding touring/recording schedules for an impressive A-list of jazz and pop musicians, bassist/composer Matthew Garrison's discography as leader would surely amount to more than the two studio recordings and one live recording up to 2004. Nevertheless, six years on, Shapeshifter Live 2010 Part 1 is cause for celebration among those who like their music cutting edge and searching. Garrison harnesses computer technology and loops to manipulate pre-programmed material, accompanied by his powerfully probing bass improvisations. It's ...

626

Interview

Matthew Garrison: Core Matter

by Ian Patterson
January 24, 2011

Bassist/composer Matthew Garrison is, without a doubt, one of the most technically gifted musicians of his generation. Over the last two decades he has been employed by such high-caliber leaders as [pianist-keyboardists] Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock and Geri Allen; [saxophonists] Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker and Steve Coleman; [guitarists] John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, John Scofield; [drummers] Jack DeJohnette, Gary Husband and Terri Lyne Carrington. This impressive list tells only a part of the story, for Garrison is equally feted by pop ...

739

Live Review

Panama Jazz Festival: January 10-15, 2011

by Emilie Pons
January 24, 2011

8th Panama Jazz FestivalPanama City, PanamaJanuary 10-15, 2011 Being a jazz musician anywhere is difficult, and perhaps even more so in Panama, Mexico, or even South America. However, the Danilo Pérez Foundation, at Plaza Herrera, in San Felipe, the heart of the historical part of Panama City, makes it easier. Every year the Danilo Pérez Jazz Festival brings musicians from France, Boston and New York, as well as young Panamanian, Chilean, Argentinian, Mexican or Colombian jazz musicians ...

178

Album Review

Meadow: Blissful Ignorance

Read "Blissful Ignorance" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
January 24, 2011

It's been out in Norway since late 2009, on the relatively small Hecca Records label, but any recording with a trio this fine deserves to be out in the world in a bigger way, and so Britain's Edition Records--no longer an upstart company, with over 20 releases in the past 30 months--has picked up Blissful Ignorance, repackaged it, and given it broader international distribution. When he was in Ottawa, Canada, in the fall of 2010, British pianist John Taylor spoke ...

169

Album Review

Patty Cronheim: Days Like These

Read "Days Like These" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 24, 2011

Livia Devereux's Night Winds Whisper (Self Produced, 2010) sported a very jazzy “Walking After Midnight" , proving that well-written music can survive in any genre climate. Patty Cronheim proves the same on Days Like These, a disc also populated with lesser-known standards and forays outside of the typical jazz realm. Stevie Wonder's “Superstition" is given a smooth, hard bop treatment in place of its original funk-inspired strut. Cronheim's silky low alto divines the supernatural essence of the ...