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.

334

Multiple Reviews

Jan Lundgren celebrates Andre Previn and Cole Porter

by Chris Mosey
January 7, 2011

What do Andre Previn and Cole Porter have in common? Well, with Saul Chaplin, Previn adapted Porter's greatest hit, the score for the 1953 MGM musical Kiss Me Kate. Apart from this, and with little apparent consequence until now, both men greatly influenced the life of Torgil Rosenberg, a Swedish dentist, amateur flier and jazz enthusiast. The consequence of Rosenberg's founding enthusiasms is now upon us. His mission is to make today's youth aware of its musical ...

302

Album Review

Richard Andersson Sustainable Quartet: Please Recycle

Read "Please Recycle" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 7, 2011

Danish bassist Richard Andersson organized this session, which attracts attention, at first glance, from the presence of saxophonist Tony Malaby, but then commands regard for all its players.Recorded after studying at the Manhattan School of Music, Andersson formed an alliance with two other players deserving wider recognition, pianist Sullivan Fortner and drummer Rogerio Boccato. Fortner has already attracted attention for his playing on bassist John Patitucci's Remembrance (Concord, 2009), while Boccato recently toured with trumpeter Roy Hargrove's Quintet.

253

Year in Review

Ken Hohman's Best Releases of 2010

by Ken Hohman
January 7, 2011

Year end lists seem to overlook so much, but in a way that's a good thing. After all, it means that good jazz is plentiful these days. The truth of the matter is I spent a great deal of 2010 exploring all the overlooked releases from the past two years. And with so much jazz being released under artist-run online labels, cobbling together a list is all the more trying. Nevertheless, here's my cream of the crop in a year ...

127

Album Review

Footprints: When You Dream

Read "When You Dream" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 7, 2011

Footprints is a New York-based five-piece, formed in 2008 by trumpeter Christoph Siegrist and saxophonist Joshua Kwassman. Together they set out with the intention of exploring the music of trumpeter Miles Davis' second great quintet, which blazed such a glorious path from '64 until the end of that decade. Repertory has since been largely replaced by original compositions on the group's debut, When You Dream, though Davis' spirit is ever-present despite Siegrist's distinctive, full-bodied tone, refreshingly unlike so many trumpeters ...

444

Live Review

Umbria Jazz Winter #18 Days 1-2: December 29-30, 2010

by Sara Villa
January 6, 2011

Days 1-2 | Days 3-5 Umbria Jazz Winter #18 Orvieto, Italy December 29, 2010-January 2, 2011 Chick Corea/Stefano Bollani Piano Duo This year the wintery version of Italy's major jazz festival is an 18-year-old grown-up, and it shows. Its calendar reconfirmed a highly diverse mix, embellished by an increasing number of collaborations between North American, Latin and European jazz musicians. The opening concert of this kermesse was a pearl ...

237

Album Review

Muirhead Quartet: All or Nothing

Read "All or Nothing" reviewed by Seton Hawkins

by Seton Hawkins
January 6, 2011

The sprawling double-CD release, All or Nothing, by the Cape Town-based Muirhead Quartet proves to be one of 2010's most forcefully unique, probing, and genre-defying albums. Featuring four stellar artists, the album packs a tremendous aural wallop by offering a veritable master class on just about every major style of jazz that has emerged in the past fifty years. While many recent jazz releases offer little more than star-studded jam sessions, All or Nothing presents a rare treat, with its ...

277

Live Review

Oliver Lake Solo: San Diego, December 17, 2010

by Robert Bush
January 6, 2011

Oliver Lake Sushi Performance and Visual Arts San Diego, CA December 17, 2010 Saxophonist, composer, poet and painter Oliver Lake stands at the top of his profession alongside such giants as his contemporaries, multi-instrumentalists Anthony Braxton, and Roscoe Mitchell. His solo concert at Sushi Performance and Visual Arts was the final installment of adventurous curator Bonnie Wright's excellent “Fresh Sounds" series. Lake doesn't perform solo concerts all that often, so this was a rare ...

179

Album Review

Will Vinson: Stockholm Syndrome

Read "Stockholm Syndrome" reviewed by David Lighton

by David Lighton
January 6, 2011

Saxophonist Will Vinson performs the oft-attempted but rarely accomplished feat of producing fresh and original music with an open affection for tradition. He carefully walks the tightrope, all the while risking falling--on one side into shallow mimicry, and on the other into art music. Stockholm Syndrome--Vinson's first Criss Cross release and an appropriately heady mixture of standards and originals--finds the alto saxophonist developing a distinct and personal lyricism. The album brings together five of New York's best ...

366

Year in Review

John Sharpe’s Best Releases of 2010

by John Sharpe
January 6, 2011

Here are ten new releases, in no particular order, which stood out among those I heard this year. Joe McPhee / Ingebrigt Håker FlatenBlue Chicago BluesNot TwoJoe McPhee and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten make a successful pairing as evidenced by interactions which evince a highly charged form and purpose. In spite of the title there are no overt blue notes on display here. But McPhee's tone on tenor saxophone is drenched in ...

170

Album Review

Piccho dal Pozzo: A_Live

by John Kelman
January 6, 2011

In the continually expanding world of progressive rock--an expansion facilitated through global communities created via the internet over the last decade-and-a-half--it's increasingly common to find groups garnering far more (and, often, well-deserved) attention than they did back in their time. Italy's Picchio dal Pozzo only released two albums back in the day--Picchio dal Pozzo (Grog, 1976) and Abbiamo Tutti I Suoi Problemi (L'Orchestra Cooperative, 1980)--but as its country's only known group to expand on the tradition of British Canterbury groups ...