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.

248

Album Review

Toots Thielemans: European Quartet Live

Read "European Quartet Live" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 4, 2011

Jean “Toots" Thielemans' musical education started early--he had already started to play the accordion at the age of three. But it was his skill on the harmonica that brought him international fame, and it's that skill which is to the fore on European Quartet Live, featuring a set of well-known tunes taken from concerts in 2006, '07 and '08. It's the second Thielemans live album to be released in 2010 after The Live Takes, Volume 1 (In + Out Records), ...

458

Extended Analysis

Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen: '...for the ghosts within'

by John Kelman
January 4, 2011

Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen...for the ghosts withinDomino Records2010 Since emerging in the mid-1960s--first as part of the nascent Canterbury scene with the psychedelic Wild Flowers and post-Dadaist-turned-free jazz-rockers Soft Machine; but then, after a tragic accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, an increasingly astute and distinctive singer/songwriter--Robert Wyatt has managed a truly rare thing: to build a career that has reached near-legendary status, despite still feeling somehow underground and cult. Wyatt releases ...

249

Album Review

The Microscopic Septet: Friday the Thirteenth - The Micros Play Monk

Read "Friday the Thirteenth - The Micros Play Monk" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
January 4, 2011

One of New York City's favorites, The Microscopic Sextet's 30-year run has seen a dormant period, but has been revitalized via its affiliation with Cuneiform Records. With its fourth release for the label, Thelonious Monk's influence and eternal spirit yields a wittily entertaining facelift via the septet's customary off-center expansions on bop and swing, to complement the intermittent jiggle to the avant-garde. Its musicians are true to form with their holistic stance on Monk's discography, and, thankfully, they coat the ...

689

Extended Analysis

Karl-Heinz Stockhausen: Plus-Minus

by Raul d'Gama Rose
January 4, 2011

Karl-Heinz Stockhausen/Ives EnsemblePlus-Minushat(now)ART2010 There can be little doubt that the composer Karl-Heinz Stockhausen has had--and continues to have--an ever widening influence on contemporary music. Beginning in the 20th century and continuing on into the 21st century, Stockhausen's masterly use of tonal colour and advanced use of timbral values has touched modern composition involving musicians employing various idioms in music, from improvised music, through composed music and, of course, the music that ...

309

Album Review

Various Artists: KariJazz Presents Yanvablue

Read "KariJazz Presents Yanvablue" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
January 4, 2011

In attempt to assist the Haitian jazz artists after the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, the Karijazz label has released Yanvablue , a double-disc production featuring selections by the best Kreyol Jazz musicians, who cleared and donated the songs, complete with extensive liner notes and musician credits. These musicians remain active, in spite of the ongoing hardship and heartache in their homeland. The first disc opens with tenor saxophonist Buyu Ambroise, who is considered the country's ...

478

Interview

Charles Fambrough: City Tribes

by AAJ Staff
January 3, 2011

[ed. note: We're celebrating the life and music of bassist Charles Fambrough who passed away on January 1, 2011. This interview with Kimberly Barry was conducted in April 1996.] In his thirty-year career, bassist, bandleader and composer Charles Fambrough has played with McCoy Tyner, Grover Washington, Jr., Art Blakey, Flora Purim and Airto, the Fort Apache Band, and Egberto Gismonti, among others. He is a prolific composer whose songs have been recorded by the Jazz ...

263

Album Review

Gwilym Simcock: Good Days At Schloss Elmau

Read "Good Days At Schloss Elmau" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
January 3, 2011

The world of jazz is currently enjoying a surfeit of great piano players, and the ACT label is home to some of the most innovative: musicians such as Michael Wollny of [em], Yaron Herman and Danilo Rea. Gwilym Simcock is the latest addition to the ACT roster with his solo Good Days At Schloss Elmau, a beautifully creative collection of original compositions that further establishes the Welshman as one of the most inventive pianists in jazz. Simcock ...

784

Interview

Nils Petter Molvaer: Colors, Noises and Moods

by Adriana Carcu
January 3, 2011

Trumpeter/composer Nils Petter Molvær is one of the main exponents of Nordic Jazz--a geographic ramification that has acquired, especially during the last decade, the status of an independent genre. He has created his own style by combining traditional instrumental elements with electronic sound processing: a fusion characterized by pregnant rhythmical patterns and a meditative mood. Molvær performed recently at the 2010 Enjoy Jazz Festival in Mannheim, Germany, with Food--Thomas Strønen and Iain Ballamy--also featuring Christian Fennesz, and ...

156

Album Review

SFJAZZ Collective: Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert Tour

Read "Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert Tour" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
January 3, 2011

Despite a format that's become, by definition, formulaic, the SFJAZZ Collective has managed to defy weary predictability, releasing a new collection, each and every year, which pays a most modern tribute to another of jazz's most iconic figures. Every year since 2004, the Collective's members each select music from the chosen artist's discography, creating arrangements with both respect and a healthy dose of irreverence, in addition to contributing a new piece of original music intended to somehow fit within the ...

196

Old, New, Borrowed and Blue

John Williams' Jazz

by Dan Bilawsky
January 3, 2011

The idea for this edition of Old, New, Borrowed and Blue isn't new. The seeds were actually sown with an experience I had a few years back. About four years ago, I was writing for a different jazz publication and I received a package of recordings in the mail. This parcel contained the usual mixture of new discs from well-known jazz labels, recordings that were self-produced by independent artists and reissues of popular (and lesser-known) albums. The album art on ...