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.

162

Album Review

Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet: Natural Selection

Read "Natural Selection" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
November 3, 2010

Profound spirituality and soulfulness is not a quality associated with secular music. However, once in awhile, even secular music reaches levels of such ecstasy that these elements become entwined in the heart of its melody and harmonic changes, as well as its iterant rhythm. Less often, this fusion is found at the confluence of mystic rivers of sound, where the myriad cultures of the world collide. Civilizations as ancient as Egypt, India and China have long held music in crucibles ...

382

Extended Analysis

Charles Lloyd Quartet: Mirror

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
November 3, 2010

Charles Lloyd QuartetMirrorECM Records2010 Saxophonist Charles Lloyd's current artistic output is often depicted as a heartwarming comeback after years of silence. It is certainly true that his recent string of albums for ECM has brought him commercial and critical success even greater than the plaudits that attended his renowned, hippie-tinged 1960s quartet featuring pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette. But this narrative interpretation is awkward, given that the “comeback," beginning in ...

391

Album Review

Art Pepper: Jazz Showcase, Chicago

Read "Jazz Showcase, Chicago" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 3, 2010

This 1977 Chicago Art Pepper performance was bootlegged in Spain. As it was stolen to begin with, the saxophonist's widow, Laurie Pepper re-purloined it, releasing it on her independent Widow's Taste label. That is the beauty of today's technology. Historically, this show came in the middle of Pepper's East Coast Tour capping the saxophonist's comeback before his artistic Gotterdammerung that ended with his death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1982. This particular tour ended with Pepper's famous stretch at New ...

339

Take Five With...

Take Five With Gwilym Simcock

by AAJ Staff
November 3, 2010

Meet Gwilym Simcock: I started the piano at the age of three, and since then all I've ever wanted to do is make music. My father taught me from a very early age, and then I attended the junior department of Trinity College of Music in London and then Chetham's School of Music for 9 years. During that time studying as a classical musician I was introduced to Jazz and became instantly hooked after hearing some Keith Jarrett and Pat ...

211

Album Review

Dans les arbres: Dans les arbres

Read "Dans les arbres" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
November 3, 2010

When French clarinetist Xavier Charles, pianist Christian Wallumrød, guitarist Ivar Grydeland and percussionist Ingar Zach appeared at Norway's Punkt Festival in 2007, they'd yet to take the name Dans les arbres, which would also become the title of this freely improvising unit's 2008 ECM debut. It's taken two years for the album to find Stateside release--anomalous for a label that has, in the past, seen some significant gaps between European and American releases, but which has, in recent years, become ...

235

AAJ PRO

Festivals: More opportunities to reach your audience

by Michael Ricci
November 3, 2010

Dear festival publicist: All About Jazz is celebrating its 15th year on the web with a relaunch, making significant changes to our appearance and expanding our advertising services to festivals. Please read on for the details. Index Your 2011 Budget AAJ Coverage: How We Do It Improved Banner Placement New Advertiser Only Pages Meet the AAJ Sales Staff! Your Company's Profile at AAJ Interviews: John Gilbreath and Souvik Dutta Thanks For Your ...

252

Album Review

Scott Feiner: Accents

by Dan Bilawsky
November 3, 2010

While drummer-leaders don't usually get enough credit, pandeiro-leaders usually don't exist. The pandeiro--a small, handheld instrument that marries that best traits of a deeper-sounding, jingle-less frame drum and a tambourine--is a staple of Brazilian percussion. When Scott Feiner first encountered the instrument, during his first trip to Brazil in 1999, he immediately took to it. In fact, his interest in the instrument was a factor in his decision to relocate to Rio. Several years later, Feiner felt ...

161

Album Review

Roberto Magris Quintet: Mating Call

Read "Mating Call" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 3, 2010

Even though drummer Idris Muhammad may be the only member of the group to elicit nods of recognition here in the States, Italian pianist Roberto Magris' quintet is world-class in every respect, consistently affirming its singular prowess on Mating Call, the second release from Paul Collins' Kansas City-based J-Mood Records. Magris also headlined the label's initial recording, presiding over a quartet (including the late bassist Art Davis) on Kansas City Outbound in 2007. Three of the album's ...

316

Album Review

Junior Wells & the Aces: Live In Boston 1966

Read "Live In Boston 1966" reviewed by Nic Jones

by Nic Jones
November 2, 2010

Here's a particularly potent exercise in musical archaeology. By the time the year of this recording rolled around, blues singer/harmonicist Junior Wells had been in the music game for nearly fifteen years, and it seems as though every one of those had been a period of learning. What's particularly interesting is that Wells elected to play this gig in the company of the Aces, the band that helped to make Little Walter famous. The resulting unit is tighter than tight, ...

405

Interview

Fabrizio Sotti: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make a Great Album

by Matthew Warnock
November 2, 2010

Recording a jazz album is never easy. Compared to most genres of music, where everything is prearranged and planned out ahead of time, there is a large amount of spontaneity when it comes to laying down a jazz record. Many times, the best takes are the least thought-about beforehand--the ones where improvisational magic just jumps out of every musician, where all the stars align and the music culminates in one of those special moments where high-level improvisation is captured on ...