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.

500

Live Review

Francois Bourassa: Quid Pro Piano

by Robert J. Lewis
October 15, 2010

François Bourassa 2010 Festival International de Jazz de MontréalChapelle historique du Bon-PasteurMontreal, CanadaJune 30, 2010 When pianist/composer François Bourassa performed in the mid-1980s at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the sound he produced registered like a doubled-up fist of angry, aggressive music that, stylistically, recalled attack dog pugilist Roberto Duran, when he was at his bellicose best. And then, a chance encounter in 2008, with an up-and-coming local club singer, demonstrated ...

160

Album Review

Thomson Kneeland: Mazurka For A Modern Man

Read "Mazurka For A Modern Man" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
October 15, 2010

Thomson Kneeland makes a creative surge on Mazurka For A Common Man, with wide-ranging music that captures the bassist's skills as a writer--a trait in evidence right from his first CD, The Voice of Blood (Weltschmerz Records, 2001). He went on to record three more albums with his band, Kakalla--documenting, in tandem, Kneeland's ability to write for a quartet/quintet lineup in several idioms and his skills as a bassist. Kakalla was his band for eight years before, Kneeland moved to ...

256

Album Review

Dennis Rea: Views from Chicheng Precipice

Read "Views from Chicheng Precipice" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 15, 2010

Seattle-based guitarist Dennis Rea discloses a 360-degree U-turn, contrasting his work with the hemi-powered progressive rock and jazz fusion bands, Iron Kim Style and Moraine. Rea's Asian-derived fusion--of rock, avant-garde, Asian folk and Western classical concepts--spawns a translucent and rather kaleidoscopic genre-busting sequence of musical events.The album opener “Three Views from Chicheng Precipice (after Bai Juyi)," establishes Rea's distinct Asian paradigms, integrated with percussion, strings, woodwinds and off-kilter metrics. He incorporates a myriad of tonal contrasts into his ...

149

Album Review

Fifty-Fifty: Fragments

by Nic Jones
October 15, 2010

Entering the territory mapped by reeds/drums duos is a surprisingly risky undertaking, given the precedents: John Coltrane with Rashied Ali, Evan Parker with Paul Lovens, and the line-up of AMM that featured percussionist Eddie Prévost keeping the company of tenor saxophonist Lou Gare. For all its undoubted merits, the German duo Fifty-Fifty maybe just isn't ready to keep such fast company. Often the music remains earthbound, for all of the duo's obvious empathy. The repetitive nature of ...

400

Book Review

The Autobiography of Randy Weston: African Rhythms

by Ian Patterson
October 14, 2010

The Autobiography of Randy Weston: African RhythmsRandy Weston / Willard JenkinsHardcover; 344 pagesISBN: 978-0-8223-4784-2Duke University Press2010 It's hard to think of another jazz musician who has promoted the African roots of jazz with quite the missionary zeal of pianist Randy Weston. Weston's African consciousness was awakened by his father, who taught his son that he was an African in Brooklyn. As this autobiography demonstrates, Weston's musical journey--indeed ...

176

Album Review

Rich Halley Quartet: Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival

Read "Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 14, 2010

Like the very best of them, every time Rich Halley puts his horn in his mouth it's a celebration of the sound of the saxophone. His powerhouse blowing capacity and testosterone-soaked sound hearken to the great Sonny Rollins and the late Dewey Redman. His ensemble approach featuring two horns--cornet and saxophone, supported by bass and drums --comes from the classic Ornette Coleman period. But the music's personality is pure Rich Halley.Speaking of Coleman, there's a small degree of ...

505

Multiple Reviews

Organ duo releases from St. Peter’s, Whitstable

by John Eyles
October 14, 2010

St. Peter's church in the English seaside town of Whitstable, Kent, has become one of the favourite recording locations for saxophonist Evan Parker's Psi label. Reasons for this center around the acoustics of the church plus the presence in Whitstable of ace recording engineer Adam Skeating, who repeatedly demonstrates his ability to perfectly capture the church's characteristic resonances. Now, two duo recordings in Psi's latest batch of releases shift the focus onto another of the church's attractions--its organ.

253

Album Review

Patrick Cornelius: Fierce

by Dan Bilawsky
October 14, 2010

Fierce isn't the most inviting album title in the world. People with a penchant for gauging albums based on single-word descriptors could be scared off here, but they'd be missing out on some bold performances that are creative and, yes, occasionally fierce. Some of the most striking music coming out these days seems to lack chordal cushioning. Bassist Linda Oh turned plenty of heads with her piano-less trio, featuring trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and saxophonist J.D. Allen's tuneful ...

199

AAJ PRO

October 2010: Photo Gallery Update

by Michael Ricci
October 14, 2010

Dear fellow photographer: All About Jazz recently relaunched our website, making significant changes to our appearance and greatly raising the awareness of our photo gallery. Please read on for the details. Index New Photo Editor: Bill King Professional Directory Featured Photographers Photo of the Day / Photos of the Week Two Tips Your Copyright Notice New Photo Editor: Bill King Diana ...

295

Album Review

Alex Levin: New York Portraits

Read "New York Portraits" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 14, 2010

New York-based pianist Alex Levin borrows standards from the jazz-rich era of the 1940s,' 50s and '60s, and includes a couple of originals for New York Portraits, his third album as leader. Along with bassist Michael Bates, (leader of the Outside Sources ensemble) and drummer Brian Floody, the trio lays down a relaxed shuffle of rhythm-based music, lending superb interpretations to some time-honored classics. Influenced by the music of Ahmad Jamal,, who the pianist met while pursuing studies at The ...