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.

453

Live Review

Dmitri Kolesnik at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola

by AAJ Staff
September 9, 2010

Dmitri KolesnikDizzy's Club Coca ColaNew York, NYAugust 27, 2010Dmitri Kolesnik came to New York from his native St Petersburg in 1991, to study bass with Ron Carter. Now Kolesnik is a firm fixture on the jazz scene in New York. At Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, Kolesnik's band featured trumpeter Joe Magnarelli, young piano star Anthony Wonsey, and his regular drum partner Jimmy Madison, formerly sideman to James Brown, Lionel Hampton and many other bands.

148

Album Review

Anat Fort: And If

by John Kelman
September 9, 2010

Pianist Anat Fort's ECM debut, A Long Story (2007) may have featured her “dream team"--and was all the better for it--but there's something to be said for the comfort and chemistry of longtime collaborators. Bassist Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider may not have the cachet of Ed Schuller or Paul Motian, but having worked with the Israeli expat since 2004, they clearly get what she's about, making And If a fine follow-up to A Long Story that, in many ...

296

Take Five With...

Take Five With Kali. Z. Fasteau

by AAJ Staff
September 9, 2010

Meet Kali. Z. Fasteau: Kali. Z. Fasteau is from a musical family, playing piano, cello, flute, and voice since early childhood in Paris and New York. Her piano teacher, for eight years, was Olga Heifetz. She started improvising at age 14. She received post-grad degrees studying the music of Asia, Africa, 20th Century Europe and jazz. Then she traveled for more than 14 years, living in 18 countries: India (1981-83), Turkey (1976-77), Nepal, Morocco, Senegal, Congo, Italy, ...

184

Album Review

JJ Grey & Mofro: Georgia Warhorse

Read "Georgia Warhorse" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
September 9, 2010

Recorded in the same studio (Retrophonics) with the same producer (Dan Prothero) as all of JJ Grey & Mofro's previous works, Georgia Warhorse constitutes an overview of the band's whole career. The CD strikes an effective balance between the swampy blues of early albums like Lochloosa (Alligator, 2007) and the authentic R&B/soul music that filled the predecessor to this album Orange Blossoms (Alligator, 2008) The CD sounds like a throwback at first, as it begins with “Diyo Dayo," ...

267

Album Review

Gia Notte: Shades

Read "Shades" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 9, 2010

Easy, effortless, breezy, and boundless: a few words to describe Gia Notte's approach to the standards. Shades, from beginning to end, displays an intention to recast standards in a different light. Not a bone-jarring different light, just one that is informative and thoughtfully conceived. Longtime Chet Baker ballad vehicle, “My Funny Valentine," is a case in point. This standard deserves the admonishment that a 50-year moratorium be placed on its recording. However, Notte's autumnal delivery and October ...

455

Album Review

Sunwrae Ensemble: Live at Thornbury Theatre

Read "Live at Thornbury Theatre" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
September 8, 2010

Not to be confused with Saturn's most famous jazz son, the Sunwrae Ensemble is the creation of Rae Howell, a multi-instrumentalist who has gained widespread recognition in her native Australia as a composer of highly original music which simmers somewhere between cinematic score, modern classical composition, and chamber jazz of a distinctly progressive variety. Recorded at Melbourne's Thornbury Theatre in 2009, Rae orchestrates various configurations of piano, string quartet, double-bass and drums, harp, vibraphone and flute, through an intriguing set ...

704

Interview

Kevin Frenette: Fall River Guitar Guy

by Gordon Marshall
September 8, 2010

However cool the surface of his music, Kevin Frenette is not content to serve up any sort of “easy listening." The guitarist grew up in Fall River, a small city in southeastern Massachusetts, but the beauty of his music is akin to a sylvan setting--to enter into it is to traverse a forest trail. Some themes and motifs--"organisms"--are finely formed and highly developed; some are just budding--new ideas still in the rough, offered to the ear as tokens of innovations ...

378

Multiple Reviews

New Voices: Sarah Manning, John Escreet, Kneebody

by J Hunter
September 8, 2010

Jazz is like the human body. It needs fresh air, constant activity and a steady stream of nutrients to stay hale and hearty. Conversely, if all the genre does is sit in a comfy chair and try to live on what came before, it becomes sedentary, incurious and--ultimately--self destructive. Fortunately, the young keep jazz active and alive. Here are a few examples of the new kids on the block. Sarah ManningDandelion ClockPosi-Tone

503

Album Review

Norma Winstone: Stories Yet to Tell

Read "Stories Yet to Tell" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
September 8, 2010

Distances (ECM, 2008) wasn't British vocalist Norma Winstone's first release to feature her current trio of reedman Klaus Gesing and pianist Glauco Venier, but with ECM Records' greater exposure and reputation, it was the first to reach a broader international audience. With Distance a largely lyric-based alternative to Winstone's always lovely wordless vocals on Chamber Music (Universal, 2004), Stories Yet to Tell is a worthy successor to both, with even greater emphasis on Winstone the lyricist--she contributes to eight of ...

237

Live Review

The Cookers and the Vijay Iyer Trio, at Charlie Parker Jazz Festival 2010

by Ernest Barteldes
September 8, 2010

Charlie Parker Jazz FestivalTompkins Square ParkNew York, NYAugust 29, 2010After a blistering blues-based set by New York-based singer Catherine Russell, the 7-piece hard-bop ensemble The Cookers (Billy Harper: tenor sax; Eddie Henderson and David Weiss: trumpets; Craig Handy: alto sax and flute; George Cables: piano; Cecil McBee: bass and Billy Hart: Drums) took to the stage with a hard-driving number that shifted time signatures, going from a blues-inflected groove to a more syncopated tempo and ...