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.

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Live From New York

Louis, Christian Marclay, Ryoji Ikeda & Laurie Anderson

by Martin Longley
October 28, 2010

Music, films, strobing, gauzy screens and sofa-projections in New York City... Louis: with music by Wynton MarsalisThe Apollo TheaterAugust 30, 2010 It could be argued that certain problems are encountered when a live band plays musical accompaniment to a silent movie. In the old days, a musician's role was fairly functional. The aim was to lurk in the background, providing suitable sonic shading. If the players became too noticeable, they ...

308

Album Review

Luis Bonilla: Twilight

Read "Twilight" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 28, 2010

I Talking Now! (Planet Arts, 2009) presented a brazen bonanza of trombone playing from Luis Bonilla. That high energy outing--filled with intense, outspoken instrumental wonders--contained great music that was, to some extent, one-sided in the way that it portrayed Bonilla and his quintet. Twilight, on the other hand, is a well-balanced feast for the aural senses. The majority of the personnel from his prior recording is kept intact--the only major roster shift coming at piano, with Bruce ...

177

Album Review

Lauren Hooker: Life Of The Music

Read "Life Of The Music" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 28, 2010

In 2007, vocalist Lauren Hooker turned out an impressive debut, Right Where I Belong (Musical Legends, Inc., 2007), which highlighted her solid, yet flexible, voice, and an ability to graft her own lyrics onto familiar instrumental jazz standards. Three years later, Hooker returns with a program that largely focuses on her own lyrics and music, demonstrating interests in the blues, straight-ahead jazz, funk, pop and Brazilian music. The opening track--a collaboration between Hooker and poet Jeanette Curtis ...

194

Album Review

Dave Frank: Portrait Of New York

Read "Portrait Of New York" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 28, 2010

Twelve tunes inspired by or dedicated to the city of New York come together to form Portrait Of New York, only the fourth album by ex-Berklee Professor Dave Frank in a career as a musician and educator that stretches back to the '80s. Why Frank's recorded ouvre should be so brief is something of a mystery, based on the evidence on Portrait Of New York. He may not be pushing the envelope, but this is a quite beautiful album: a ...

1,042

Live Review

2010 Jarasum Jazz Festival, Gapeyong, South Korea

by Ian Patterson
October 28, 2010

Jarasum International Jazz Festival Jarasum Island, Gapeyong, South Korea October 15-17, 2010 Jarasum International Jazz Festival was almost washed out by rain in its first edition in 2004, and after only three editions founder and director J.J. In--South Korea's premier concert promoter--took the bold step of selling his house to meet debts and keep the festival afloat. His determination and faith have been rewarded, as in just seven years Jarasum has become the largest jazz festival ...

573

Take Five With...

Take Five With Andrew Read

by AAJ Staff
October 28, 2010

Meet Andrew Read: I studied double-bass at the Victorian college of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. After leaving the college I worked with a number of prominent Australian pop and jazz artists including, among others, Vince Jones, Ricky May, Brave Men and Perfect Strangers. After the tragic death of Perfect Strangers' singer Andy Clayton Smith, Liz and I moved to the Netherlands, where I furthered my studies in classical music with the famous classical solo bassist Hans Roelofsen, at ...

511

Old, New, Borrowed and Blue

Jazz Is For The Birds: An Aviary In Song

by Dan Bilawsky
October 27, 2010

In jazz--as in all else in life--different words mean different things to different people. The way we associate words or sounds with meaning is unique to the individual, but certain words tend to draw similar thoughts from within the jazz community. “Bird" is one such word. Whether you're an avant-garde aficionado, a “moldy fig," a modernist or a dyed-in-the-wool bop connoisseur, the word “bird" is likely to conjure up images or thoughts of the great Charlie Parker. ...

324

Album Review

Yeahwon Shin: Yeahwon

Read "Yeahwon" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
October 27, 2010

On her debut recording, New York-based Korean singer Yeahwon Shin takes on a demanding set of tunes, mostly based on compositions by Brazilian songwriters Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dorival Caymmi, Egberto Gismonti, Milton Nascimento and Ary Barroso. She opens with “Chovendo Na Roseira" (known in English as “Double Rainbow"), singing in Portuguese with an original arrangement loosely based on the Jobim/Elis Regina version that appeared on Elis & Tom (1974, Verve). She follows that with Nascimento's “Travessia," singing in almost whispered ...

611

Live Review

Mujician/Aki Takase at the Vortex in London: Tony Levin 70th Birthday Tour

by John Sharpe
October 27, 2010

Aki Takase, John Edwards, Tony Levin / Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, Tony LevinThe VortexLondonOctober 11, 2010 When pianist Keith Tippett's young daughter was asked at school what her parents did, she replied: they're mujicians! That conflation of magic and music neatly sums up Tippett's method. Initially the name was applied to his solo work, but latterly to the long running all-star quartet of saxophone colossus Paul Dunmall, bassist Paul Rogers, and drummer Tony ...

274

Album Review

Henry Threadgill Zooid: This Brings Us To, Volume II

Read "This Brings Us To, Volume II" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
October 27, 2010

This Brings Us To, Volume II is the sequel to 2009's This Brings Us To, Volume I (Pi Recordings), Henry Threadgill's celebrated return to the studio after eight years. Culled from the same recording session, these complimentary releases are the renowned multi-instrumentalist's first commercially available recordings in almost a decade. Volume II finds the legendary AACM innovator's venerable Zooid ensemble exploring a similar range of material as its predecessor, working subtle variations from his singular aesthetic.Liberty Ellman (acoustic ...