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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Book Review

Duke Ellington's America

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
October 20, 2010

Duke Ellington's AmericaHarvey G. CohenHardcover; 682 pagesISBN: 978-0-226-11263-3University of Chicago Press20010 Dozens of books in print about Duke Ellington portray him as the pre-eminent composer of the 20th century, who led his orchestra for an amazing 50 years and possessed a percussive, dark-clustered piano style that influenced everyone from Thelonious Monk to Randy Weston. This meticulously researched and elegantly written book, by British cultural historian Harvey Cohen, ...

212

Album Review

Dave Frank: Portrait Of New York

Read "Portrait Of New York" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 20, 2010

Jazz and New York are like hot dogs and baseball, or peanut butter and jelly. The Big Apple has been the epicenter of so many important movements and moments in jazz, that it's hard to think of any other place--save perhaps New Orleans--that deserves the honor of being captured in song. Pianist Dave Frank, widely recognized as a premier jazz educator and performer, pays tribute to New York with solo piano paintings of various streets and locales, and four reworked ...

708

Live Review

Peter Brötzmann’s Full Blast Trio with Ken Vandermark at Cafe Oto in London

by John Sharpe
October 20, 2010

Peter Brötzmann's Full Blast Trio with Ken VandermarkCafé OtoLondonSeptember 30, 2010Any review of Peter Brötzmann's Full Blast Trio tends to be liberally spattered with words like blustering, explosive, aggressive and fiery, testament to the raw power and energy channeled through this threesome in their short existence. Not that the German reed iconoclast was a shrinking violet before. Ever since his emergence on the international jazz stage with the earth shattering Machine Gun (FMP, 1968), rightly ...

498

Album Review

Denise Donatelli: When Lights are Low

Read "When Lights are Low" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
October 20, 2010

A recent news photo depicted pop singer, Lady Gaga, accepting an MTV Video Music Award bedecked in a gown of raw meat. While reactions to that stunt went to understandable extremes--condone as art or revolt as déclassé--it's easy to wonder what women jazz vocalists might have thought of it. Based upon the marvelously entertaining and stylistically brilliant CD, When Lights are Low, it might not be a surprise to envision Denise Donatelli heading up on stage come Grammy time. And, ...

245

Album Review

Greg Ward's Fitted Shards: South Side Story

Read "South Side Story" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 20, 2010

Saxophonist Greg Ward's moderately esoteric spin on jazz signals an artist who has traversed diverse paths, including stints with electronica artist Prefuse 73, and stalwarts of progressive jazz, such as drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist Von Freeman. Here, Ward compiles a textural and hard-hitting modus operandi, largely evidenced on “Step Forward." This piece is dabbled with metal-jazz overtures, spiced by the saxophonist and keyboardist Rob Clearfield's brute force attack.Clearfield multitasks via crunching synth sounds and fluid electric piano ...

179

Album Review

King Capisce: King Capisce

Read "King Capisce" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 20, 2010

King Capisce hails from Sheffield, in the north of England--the home city of Joe Cocker, ABC and the Arctic Monkeys. On the evidence of its debut , King Capisce, this quartet's own lineage bypasses these rock and pop superstars and tracks back, instead, to Sheffield's more experimental bands such as Cabaret Voltaire and ClockDVA, with contemporary aural links to post-jazzers like Polar Bear, TrioVD and, most obviously, the electric bass and guitar sound of Acoustic Ladyland's fourth album, Living With ...

198

Album Review

Dave Frank: Portrait of New York

Read "Portrait of New York" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 20, 2010

New York-based Dave Frank is a piano style unto himself. With the most solid left hand playing jazz piano, Frank delights in composing and improvising the most devilish bass lines, defying Einstein's rule governing space and time. Frank's last recording, Ballads and Burners (Jazz Heads, 2007), amply demonstrated why Frank has a Jazz School named for him. Frank joins Alex Levin and his recent New York Portraits (Self Produced, 2010) in paying homage to the Cultural Center ...

383

AAJ PRO

The Student Performer Cycle

by Chuck Anderson
October 20, 2010

Every musician is at once a student and a performer. In each role, the musician explores and hopefully expands. The efficiency of progress for the student often suffers because of his inability to clearly see the differences between his own roles as student and performer. The attitude of the student must essentially be one of humility and patience. The work usually centers on the difficulties of developing one's technical capabilities and one's unique musical personality. Focusing on weaknesses ...

244

Album Review

Tommy Smith: Torah

by John Kelman
October 19, 2010

Since returning home after schooling at Berklee College of Music, vibraphonist Gary Burton's final ECM quintet and Whiz Kids (1987), and four Blue Note discs as a leader, Tommy Smith has virtually single-handedly placed his native country on the jazz map with his Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO). He's also become a powerful advocate on the educational/mentoring front, leading the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra and, with Exploration (Spartacus, 2007), demonstrating that it's possible to encourage mature performances from a ...

175

Live Review

Chick Corea Trio at Highland Ballroom October 1, 2010

by David Miller
October 19, 2010

Chick Corea TrioHighline BallroomNew York City, USAOctober 1, 2010 Well, that was unexpected. Imagine a Chick Corea trio show where the pianist is not the centerpiece of the performance. In fact, his piano plays as much rhythm as the bass and drums. A trio of equals. Then you would have some idea of what was presented at the Highline Ballroom in New York after the rain had finally subsided. Two people at my table who ...