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.

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From Far and Wide

Charles Fambrough: A Friend Unlike Any Other, R.I.P.

by Mark Kramer
January 10, 2011

For my dear friend Charles, my second Brother: Bassist Charles Fambrough, born in Philadelphia on August 25th, 1950 and known as “Broski," died on January 1st, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. with his daughter and wife at his side. Reportedly, he ever-so-gently squeezed their hands as he held them, and smiled. Then he was gone. When All About Jazz Publisher Michael Ricci asked me whether anybody was writing a tribute piece for Charles, a robust, world-acclaimed bassist, ...

705

Live Review

Winter Jazzfest, New York City, Day 1: January 7, 2011

by Daniel Lehner
January 9, 2011

Day 1 | Day 2 Winter JazzfestNew York, NYJanuary 7-8, 2011 Since the informal move of jazz to the cities in the 1930s, the lore and legend of jazz compositions have lain in streets and places. The most common ones were the clubs, where innovations in jazz were happening, and the windy, uptown streets of questionable safety where they were being forged ("52nd St. Theme," “Five Spot After Dark"). The modern jazz ...

222

Album Review

Trish Clowes: Tangent

Read "Tangent" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 9, 2011

Trish Clowes' Tangent is an ambitious project that brings together free improvisations, small band numbers and full-scale orchestral pieces to create a fascinating collection of new music. Projects of this scale in jazz are far from easily achieved, and the fact that this is composer, leader and tenor saxophonist Clowes' debut--recorded at the age of 25--renders her ambition, and the project's success, praiseworthy, indeed. Clowes is accompanied on Tangent by some of the brightest and most innovative ...

235

Album Review

Lawnmower: West

by Glenn Astarita
January 9, 2011

Eminent progressive jazz drummer Luther Gray rekindled the spirit of his youth when he listened to music, via his Walkman, while mowing the lawn. With a dual-guitar and bass-less lineup, this ensemble professes a unique identity as it intertwines blues, rock and the perimeters of free jazz into a cleverly designed forum. Here, the musicians inconspicuously dish out an album that carries a mark of distinction On “One," guitarists Geoff Farina and Dan Littleton launch the festivities with ...

185

Year in Review

Matt Marshall’s Best Releases of 2010

by Matt Marshall
January 9, 2011

The following is a list of the most engaging and challenging releases from the world of jazz (and closely orbiting spheres) that I came across in 2010. Sadly, there's never time or opportunity to hear everything. Nels Cline Dirty Baby (Cryptogramophone) Brad MehldauHighway Rider (Nonesuch) John Ellis/Double WidePuppet Mischief (Obliqsound) IconoclastDirty Jazz (Fang Records) Christian ScottYesterday You Said Tomorrow (Concord) ...

305

Album Review

P.F.M.: Cook (Expanded Deluxe Edition)

Read "Cook (Expanded Deluxe Edition)" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
January 9, 2011

Wrapping up Esoteric Recordings' ambitious, thorough and definitive reissue series of Premiata Forneria Marconi's 1970s English-language releases on Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Manticore label, the Italian progressive rock group's sole commercial live recording from the time, Cook (1975), gets a facelift and significant upgrade. The original release was marred by poor sound and energetic but sloppy performances, compared to PFM's fine studio albums, from which most of the music was culled: Manticore's Photos of Ghosts (1973) and The World Became ...

318

Album Review

Dan Adler: Back to The Bridge

Read "Back to The Bridge" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
January 9, 2011

Israeli-born guitarist Dan Adler sets the tone for his second disc, Back to The Bridge, with “Silver And Gold," an original tune filled with smart licks and many improvisational bits shared with his band mates, organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Byron Landham. The disc is a mix of covers and new material suited for the organ trio format--Adler's first disc as a bandleader in this format.According to Scott Yanow's liner notes, “Silver and Gold" was written as a ...

207

New York Beat

Art Tatum Goes To College

by Nick Catalano
January 9, 2011

After teaching jazz studies at my university for over 30 years, I have amended many original pedagogical goals and done a great deal of revisionist thinking. Although some of my students are part-time musicians, mostly with perfunctory training, most of them like the pop music of the day and take my course because they have heard that jazz music might be “cool." The course is taught chronologically, and it is always gratifying to see them respond enthusiastically ...

336

Album Review

Charles Pillow: Van Gogh Letters

Read "Van Gogh Letters" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
January 9, 2011

Those who like Debussy's Nocturnes will love what this trio does on the crossover Van Gogh Letters. Three master musicians venture into saxophonist Charles Pillow's softly articulated, impressionistic/minimalist tone poems. Inspired by Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, Pillow translates the great artist's phrases and sentences into painterly sounds evocative of a quieter, less-pressured epoch. The trio embarks on a journey through the varied places and moods that the gentle, saintly, and troubled Van Gogh saw and painted with intense beauty ...

392

Year in Review

J Hunter's Best Releases of 2010

by J Hunter
January 9, 2011

Counting down the best releases of 2010: Allison Miller Boom Tic Boom Foxhaven 2010 Anyone with job references as diverse as organ icon Dr. Lonnie Smith and indie singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco must have something interesting to say, and drummer Allison Miller proves that out. Boom Tic Boom is a square-peggish gumbo that flirts with the chaotic but never loses its way. Avant-garde pianist Myra Melford adds thrilling depth and boundless thought, and ...