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.

399

Live Review

Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Vic Theatre in Chicago

by Hrayr Attarian
November 6, 2010

Ryuichi SakamotoVic TheatreChicago, ILOctober 26, 2010 Mysticism and minimalism were the dual themes for the Ryuichi Sakamoto concert at the historic Vic Theatre in Chicago on Tuesday night the 26th of October 2010. Sakamoto stopped at this venue as a part of a rare North American tour to promote his dual CD set Playing the Piano/Out of Noise on the Decca Label. The concert opened with ambient electronic and nature sounds ...

195

Album Review

Edwin Bonilla: Homenaje a los Rumberos

Read "Homenaje a los Rumberos" reviewed by Javier AQ Ortiz

by Javier AQ Ortiz
November 6, 2010

Homenaje a los Rumberos is a hyper-swinging and high-octane danceable salsa recording by Edwin Bonilla, that truly takes dancers as its true North. Bonilla, who keeps an awfully busy schedule performing and working as a first-call studio percussionist for quite a broad assortment of groups and figures, became a darling of the international salsa DJ scene with his penchant for hardcore, get-down-and-dirty productions under his name. This is the type of music popularly referred to in Spanish as capable of ...

210

Album Review

Stephan Micus: Bold as Light

Read "Bold as Light" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
November 6, 2010

At a time when, at least for First World residents, there seems no respite from the relentless, rapid pace of life, artists like Stephan Micus provide welcome clarity; proof that there are alternatives. Difficult though it may seem, when immersed in all the push-and-pull of day-to-day distractions, there is another way; it's just not necessarily an easy one. For nearly four decades, Micus has traveled the world, a student of culture and society...and the music that naturally evolves from the ...

257

Album Review

Negroni's Trio: Just Three

Read "Just Three" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
November 6, 2010

On its fifth release, the Miami-based Latin jazz trio led by Puerto Rican-born pianist Jose Negroni continues to explore its various influences, which go from straight-ahead to Caribbean beats, with classically-inspired moments. The disc opens with the rumba-inflected “Fingers," a fast-paced tune that features Negroni on electric piano. The chemistry between the bandleader and his gifted son, drummer Nomar Negroni, is evident here, as the younger Negroni responds to each of his father's grooves with carefully placed accents that enhance ...

360

Live Review

Michael Formanek CD Release Show at Jazz Standard

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
November 5, 2010

Michael FormanekJazz StandardNew York, NY October 27, 2010 Bassist Michael Formanek celebrated the release of The Rub and Spare Change with two sets at the venerable Jazz Standard, October 27, 2010. It was noteworthy as his debut for ECM Records and first new CD in about a dozen years. Once an assiduous presence of the New York scene, in the intervening years, he's been focused as an educator at Peabody Conservatory, leading ...

213

Album Review

Trygve Seim / Andreas Utnem: Purcor: Songs for Saxophone and Piano

Read "Purcor: Songs for Saxophone and Piano" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
November 5, 2010

Since emerging on the label with his own large ensemble and as part of the collaborative, more improv-heavy group The Source, saxophonist Trygve Seim has been a leading voice in the second wave of Norwegian artists who look to legacy ECM musicians like Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen and Terje Rypdal as touchstones, but possess unmistakable voices of their own. Albums like the superb Sangam (2005) spotlighted Seim's distinctive compositional approach, taking the unorthodox instrumentation of Edward Vesala (with whom Seim ...

257

Live Review

Michael Formanek Quartet at the Philadelphia Art Alliance

by Nick Millevoi
November 5, 2010

Michael Formanek QuartetArs Nova Workshop at the Philadelphia Art AlliancePhiladelphia, PAOctober 28, 2010 On October 28, 2010, bassist Michael Formanek brought his quartet to the Philadelphia Art Alliance to celebrate the release of The Rub and Spare Change (ECM). The album draws upon many of the strengths of the individuals and the group, providing strong evidence of Michael Formanek's skills as a composer, bassist, and bandleader. The music lends itself to being performed live, where, ...

341

Album Review

Scanner with the Post Modern Jazz Quartet: Blink Of An Eye

Read "Blink Of An Eye" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 5, 2010

If the early works of Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) can be described as voyeuristic, then Blink Of An Eye might just be Frotteurism, the act of touching others, usually in crowds, without their ever knowing. On Blink of an Eye he alters, accents and manipulates a jazz quartet's sound, often without it being obvious.Scanner began producing music in the late 1980s/early 1990s by pirating cellphone calls and working them into his electronic sound, an approach that fits nicely ...

339

Take Five With...

Take Five With Bradford Rogers

by AAJ Staff
November 5, 2010

Meet Bradford Rogers: Atlanta native Bradford Rogers is a producer, engineer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. As a member of the house band for the Recording Academy's Atlanta Chapter Awards Series, Bradford has performed with such multiplatinum artists as Michael McDonald, James Brown, Bobby Valentino, En Vogue's Dawn Robinson, Sleepy Brown and Cee-Lo.Instrument(s):Flute, piano, keyboards, voice.Teachers and/or influences? I've been very much influenced by the Zen approach of Miles Davis: It's what you don't play ...

166

Album Review

Roy Gaines and his Orchestra: Tuxedo Blues

Read "Tuxedo Blues" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 5, 2010

Blues singers and big bands used to go together like bread and butter, but somewhere along the way the singers must have become superfluous in the minds of the leaders or the public. Nowadays, large ensembles are still happy to play the blues--be they well-known warhorses or obscure gems--but husky-voiced singers are rarely seen delivering a blues sermon with them. Vocalist-guitarist Roy Gaines remembers this bygone era quite well, since he was part of it. Gaines toured on a bill ...