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.

198

Live Review

The JC Sanford Orchestra At Tea Lounge: Sound Matters

by Dan Bilawsky
September 24, 2010

JC Sanford OrchestraTea LoungeBrooklyn, NYSeptember 20, 2010 While Manhattan gets most of the ink when it comes to live jazz in New York, it isn't the only borough where exciting things are happening. Over the past few years, Brooklyn has become a hub of activity for creative music artistry and modern thinking musicians, and one need go no further than Tea Lounge to check out the burgeoning big band scene in Brooklyn.

151

Album Review

Archie Shepp: The New York Contemporary Five

Read "The New York Contemporary Five" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
September 24, 2010

In 1963, cornetist Don Cherry , tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp , drummer J.C. Moses, alto saxophonist John Tchicai and bassist Don Moore performed at the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen . At the time, Cherry was just coming off from playing with Ornette Coleman, while Shepp was transitioning from Bill Dixon. Tchicai had met Cherry and Shepp in New York and become part of the collective. Cherry was the most assured of the five, having developed and honed his ...

262

Album Review

Bruce Williamson Quartet featuring Art: Standard Transmission

Read "Standard Transmission" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 24, 2010

One of the early genius elements of small ensemble jazz manifested November 26, 1945, when Charlie Parker entered the studio with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, and, using the harmonic foundation of Ray Noble's “Cherokee," recorded a new melody, call “Ko-Ko." He went on to do the same with the Hamilton/Lewis composition “How High The Moon," which became “Ornithology," and Fats Waller's “Honeysuckle Rose," which became “Scrapple from the Apple." Later, clever interpreters would make arrangements of the original and ...

266

Album Review

Rita Edmond: A Glance at Destiny

Read "A Glance at Destiny" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
September 24, 2010

Rita Edmond burst onto the jazz scene with her impressive debut, Sketches Of A Dream (T.O.T.I. Music Inc., 2008). That dream continues on a follow-up gem of a recording, presenting new arrangements of vintage material on A Glance at Destiny. A California girl at heart, Edmond is a fixture in the Los Angeles area jazz scene,already achieving a measure of success writing and recording for other artists before focusing on her own singing career. The Ohio-born vocalist began singing at ...

209

Album Review

Brittni Paiva: Four Strings: The Fire Within

Read "Four Strings: The Fire Within" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins

by Woodrow Wilkins
September 24, 2010

The cover of Four Strings: The Fire Within tells the story. A painting of flames behind Brittni Paiva highlights her passion for making music. The multi-skilled Paiva, at the age of 21, is recognized as the finest female ukulele player in Hawaii. She's won several awards, including the 2005 Na Hoku Hanohano Award, from the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts, for Most Promising Artist of the Year. For her fourth release as a leader, she is accompanied by ...

339

Multiple Reviews

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM): The Manticore Years

by John Kelman
September 23, 2010

While other important Italian bands emerged in the heyday of the 1970s, such as Le Orme and Banco, when it comes to progressive rock, none can hold a candle to Premiata Forneri Marconi, commonly known in the English language world as PFM. Whether PFM is better or worse than any of these other groups is fodder for bulletin boards and chat rooms; but when it comes to international popularity and sheer record sales, PFM remains the flagship Italian symphonic prog ...

140

Album Review

David Weiss & Point Of Departure: Snuck In

Read "Snuck In" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 23, 2010

Trumpeter David Weiss was way ahead of his time when he brought together a group of forward-thinking musician-composers to form the New Jazz Composers Octet in 1996. This group--and the writing that was born from within its ranks--received positive critical response from the get-go, and foreshadowed the rise in collective-type situations throughout the jazz community. While Weiss' work within that group helped to mark him as a rising star in the world of jazz composition, his selfless contributions to the ...

422

Multiple Reviews

A Beautiful Friendship: Benjamin Koppel and Kenny Werner

by Jakob Baekgaard
September 23, 2010

A good friendship is all about communication--two people being able to understand and correspond with each other, creating a sense of togetherness which leaves room for the kind of conversation that goes beyond the mere chitchat of everyday life. Pianist Kenny Werner and saxophonist Benjamin Koppel have developed a unique musical friendship. Strong artists in their own right, together they are able to chart an unknown territory where the unexpected gifts of improvisational beauty come as naturally ...

295

Album Review

Joe Gilman: Americanvas

Read "Americanvas" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
September 23, 2010

Pianist Joe Gilman leads a young and talented quintet on Americanvas, an album of original tunes inspired by American artists such as Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell. Jazz that takes its inspiration from the visual arts is not rare--British saxophonist Andy Sheppard's Movements In Colour (ECM, 2009) was so inspired, for example. Like Sheppard, Gilman's varied choices are reflected in the music's range of styles and moods ensuring that this is a constantly intriguing recording. ...

267

Album Review

Annie Kozuch: Here With You

Read "Here With You" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 23, 2010

Trilingual Annie Kozuch was raised in Mexico City and took to show business early. A subject of screen as well as song, it is a surprise that Here With You is her first disc. She sings in all her languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese) on this recording, with the Portuguese song, Jobim's “Chega De Saudade" ("No More Blues") being the pick of the bunch. “Chega De Saudade" is considered, by many, to be the first Bossa Nova composition, having been recorded ...