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.

150

Album Review

Dan Adler: Back To The Bridge

Read "Back To The Bridge" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 1, 2010

Back To The Bridge is produced by three talented musicians whose ability to interact, solo, provide rhythmic support and, above all, to groove makes this album a terrific advertisement for the classic organ trio and for the enjoyable straight-ahead jazz it produces. While this is guitarist Dan Adler's second album as leader--following 2009's self-produced All Things Familiar--he records here for the first time with organist Joey DeFrancesco and Byron Landham (DeFrancesco's regular drummer). The three musicians sound like they've played ...

303

Afrobeat Diaries

Part 15 - Femi Kuti: Africa For Africa / Antibalas: Who Is This America?

by Chris May
December 1, 2010

Femi KutiAfrica For AfricaWrasse Records2010 Two decades and more down the line with his band, Positive Force, singer and multi-instrumentalist Femi Kuti gets better and better. His take on rhythm may not be the same as that of his father--and why should it be?--but in other respects Femi is keeping Fela's musical flame alive. Positive Force is a horns heavy, ass kicking little big band; Femi's use of call and response ...

239

Album Review

Joan Jeanrenaud & PC Munoz: Pop-Pop

Read "Pop-Pop" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 1, 2010

The Kronos Quartet integrated chamber environs with free-jazz, minimalist composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and other groundbreaking artists or genres that traversed the roads less travelled. Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud was a vital player during the unit's 1978-1999 run, leaving behind a treasure trove of important work as the band became proprietor of a cutting edge classical-meets-almost-anything legacy. As a solo artist, Jeanrenaud has branched out into several probing and largely unique projects. With Pop-Pop, a collaboration with drummer/percussionist PC ...

243

Album Review

Joey DeFrancesco / Robi Botos / Vito Rezza / Phil Dwyer: One Take: Volume Four

Read "One Take: Volume Four" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
December 1, 2010

One of the great pleasures of jazz is entering a club to hear expert musicians come together and play impromptu, with no rehearsals. Such a situation is created in One Take, Volume Four. This is the fourth recording in the series to feature world acclaimed organist Joey DeFrancesco with three expert Canadian musicians; in this case, the seriously swinging tenor saxophonist Phil Dwyer, very capable pianist Robi Botos (also doubling on Fender Rhodes), and drummer Vito Rezza, ...

209

Album Review

Yoni Kretzmer Trio: Nevertheless

Read "Nevertheless" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 1, 2010

Uprising Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer is a musician well-versed in the rich history of free jazz, without confining himself to any specific genre. In his excellent debut release as a leader, New Dilemma (Earsay, 2009), he featured modern, chamber style compositions. Since than he has led a free-folk quintet in Israel, an Albert Ayler Memorial septet and various free jazz outfits. With this sax-bass-drums trio release, Kretzmer has chosen experienced and powerful partners--bassist Jason Ajemian and ...

179

Take Five With...

Take Five with Matthew Shipp

by AAJ Staff
December 1, 2010

DOB: December 7, 1960 In: Wilmington, Delaware First Musical Memory: “My uncle (James) playing a Beethoven piece on piano." Music Inspirations: “Metaphysics and understanding the vibration language behind cosmos." Hobbies/Interests: “Metaphysics, boxing, pro wrestling." Last Book Read: “Lampshade by Mark Jacobson." Favorite TV Show: “Buffy The Vampire Slayer." Musical Tastes: “John Butcher, Jazz Corner, Marshall Allen, Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Antipop Consortium, Marian McPartland, Randy Weston, ...

220

Album Review

Charlie Haden Quartet West: Sophisticated Ladies

Read "Sophisticated Ladies" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 30, 2010

Gorgeous, poised and inviting. And that's just the sister on the cover of bassist Charlie Haden's latest with-singers-and-strings album. It's a retro design which, like the disc it packages, was inspired by Capitol Records' distinctive jazz-inflected vocal albums of the early 1960s. Your parents got off on this stuff big time back in the day, while you were busy listening to singer Bob Dylan and saxophonist Ornette Coleman and preparing for a little therapeutic rioting. But time passes and age ...

597

Interview

Ranjit Barot: Beautiful Collision

by Ian Patterson
November 30, 2010

Ranjit Barot is a well-known figure in India's music industry, where for many years he has written film scores, produced Indie pop, and, more recently, composed and directed the music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which were held in Delhi. Barot, who spent the first 12 years of his life in England, came to a wider audience as the drummer on guitar icon John McLaughlin's outstanding Floating Point (Abstract Logix, 2008). McLaughlin--who knows a ...

529

Profile

Johanna Grussner: From Scandinavia to NYC... and back again

by Chris Mosey
November 30, 2010

Johanna Grüssner is a truly remarkable young woman. Aged 28, she has emerged as one of the best, most professional jazz singers in the Nordic Area after paying her dues in the toughest environment jazz has to offer; gigging around clubs in New York City, including Birdland, where she sang backed by a big band she put together herself. During eight years in the United States, she went on to teach music at PS86, a public school ...

151

Album Review

Mac Gollehon: Mac Straight Ahead

Read "Mac Straight Ahead" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 30, 2010

Brass man Mac Gollehon means business on Mac Straight Ahead. The ten tracks on this album present Gollehon in a variety of settings and on a variety of instruments...at the same time. While the idea of overdubbing oneself on record is fraught with peril, Gollehon beats the odds. Sometimes he conjures sounds of a full, brassy big band, while other settings pare things down to a few instrumental voices. Though trumpet might be his main axe, Gollehon plays better trombone ...