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.

476

Multiple Reviews

Benoit Delbecq: The Sixth Jump / Circles and Calligrams

by Jerry D'Souza
January 16, 2011

Pianist Benoît Delbecq makes his debut trio recording with The Sixth Jump, released simultaneously with Circles and Calligrams, which Delbecq describes in a solo outing. The first disc amplifies his skills as an empathic leader whose inventive thematic explorations are woven in spontaneous interaction with his mates. The second lets him explore the dynamics of the piano elaborately, his sense of purpose expressively accomplished.Benoit Delbecq TrioThe Sixth JumpSonglines2010 Delbecq uses ...

206

Album Review

Jesper Zeuthen: Jesper Zeuthen Trio

Read "Jesper Zeuthen Trio" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 16, 2011

Bless the children of saxophonist Albert Ayler. Bless them, for their convictions are pure, and uncontaminated by convention and style.That benediction should also be extended to Jesper Zeuthen. The sixty-something Danish alto saxophonist serves the same mission as the late, great Ayler on this trio session, with bassist Adam Pultz Melbye and drummer Thomas Præstegaard. Zeuthen is probably best known for his work with Pierre Dørge's New Jungle Orchestra, but he also played in the sixties Danish cult ...

325

Album Review

Dan Block: From His World To Mine: Dan Block Plays The Music Of Duke Ellington

Read "From His World To Mine: Dan Block Plays The Music Of Duke Ellington" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
January 16, 2011

Bandleader and accomplished reed man Dan Block is an exponent of traditional and swing jazz, and pays homage to the music of Duke Ellington with From His World To Mine: Dan Block Plays The Music Of Duke Ellington. The repertoire's avoidance of the usual Ellington standards and classics makes this a unique project unlike other tributes to the master--there is no “Satin Doll," “Sophisticated Lady," “Caravan," or “Take the A Train"; instead, lesser-known but equally impressive tunes from the '30s ...

213

Album Review

The O'Farrill Brothers: Giant Peach

Read "Giant Peach" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 15, 2011

A glance at the five fresh-faced band members on the back of this album cover belies the fact that this is one killer assemblage of musical talent. The O'Farrill Brothers--the grandchildren of famed Cuban bandleader Chico O'Farrill and offspring of great Cuban pianist Arturo O'Farrill--aren't old enough to buy beer, but they're clearly old enough to drink in the deep waters of their musical heritage. Trumpeter Adam O'Farrill and drummer Zack O'Farrill, and their young band mates, deliver eight searing ...

487

Book Review

Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story

by Chris M. Slawecki
January 15, 2011

Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis StoryGeorge LipsitzHardcover; 264 pagesISBN-10 0816666784University of Minnesota Press2010 For six decades, Johnny Otis played just about every role you can play in the music business: musician (on drums, vibes and piano), singer, songwriter, arranger, bandleader, talent maven, producer, business manager, promoter, radio and television personality, author and nightclub owner. In the age spanned by the ends of WWII and the Vietnam ...

158

Album Review

Frank Portolese: Plectrum Jazz Guitar Solos

Read "Plectrum Jazz Guitar Solos" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 15, 2011

Solo jazz guitar is a harsh and unforgiving lover. The piano provides a more complete performance experience as a solo instrument for technical reasons, though this same completeness can be achieved on guitar by a precious few, talented enough to achieve such artistic parity. Add to this the stipulation that a plectrum (guitar pick) be used in preference to finge-picking, and the number of masters diminishes even further. The touchstone of this brand of playing is, of course, Joe Pass, ...

516

Book Review

The Da Capo Best Music Writing 2010

by C. Michael Bailey
January 15, 2011

The Da Capo Best Music Writing 2010Ann Powers, Guest Editor; Daphne Carr, Series EditorHardcover; 352 pagesISBN: 0306819252Da Capo Press2010 This is an editorial disguised as a review written by a music writer about a collection of articles written by other music writers, compiled and edited by...who else? Another music writer. This may be the craziest, most useless daisy-chain of an intellectual (and I say that carefully) exercise ever ...

153

Album Review

Gregg Allman: Low Country Blues

Read "Low Country Blues" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
January 15, 2011

Low Country Blues is keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Allman's first solo album in fourteen years, and in many ways unlike any other project of its kind. Comprised largely of blues covers by the likes of Muddy Waters and Sleepy John Estes, and produced by the estimable T-Bone Burnett, it nevertheless is as personal a piece of work as Allman's very first album under his own name, Laid Back (Capricorn/Polder, 1973). But where that album was distinctly of its time, including ...

472

Book Review

A Biographical Guide To the Great Jazz and Pop Singers

by David Rickert
January 15, 2011

A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop SingersWill FriedwaldHardcover; 811 pagesISBN: 9780375421495Pantheon Books2010 Be prepared to spend a fair amount of extra money if you pick up Will Friedwald's A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers. Friedwald, one of the greatest writers about jazz today, writes about singers and albums with such enthusiasm that you may feel compelled to purchase many of the ...

227

Album Review

Weasel Walter/ Mary Halvorson/ Peter Evans: Electric Fruit

Read "Electric Fruit" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 15, 2011

The meeting of guitarist Mary Halvorson, trumpeter Peter Evans, and drummer Weasel Walter is something more than an informal chinwag and something less than a formal colloquy. These six improvised tracks act as a show-and- tell demonstration of the immense talents of tomorrow's--and, maybe today's--creative giants.In the past few years, Halvorson's trio disc, Dragon's Head (Firehouse 12, 2008), and septet session, Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12, 2010), have been tapped on numerous top ten lists, as has Evans' work ...