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.

759

Interview

Julian Joseph: Joining Jazz and Baseball

by Bruce Lindsay
September 7, 2010

Julian Joseph is something of a jazz master of all trades. Pianist, composer, bandleader, arranger, broadcaster and educator, Joseph is constantly busy, always working on new ideas and projects, spreading the word about music, encouraging young performers and generally promoting jazz around the world. With Shadowball Joseph has turned his attention to the relationship between jazz and baseball, bringing the two together in a major jazz opera.In 2007, Joseph composed Bridgetower, his first jazz opera. It told the ...

431

Live Review

Highlights from the 2010 Tanglewood Jazz Festival

by Rich Bradway
September 6, 2010

The annual Labor Day Weekend Tanglewood Jazz Festival took place this past weekend at the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, Massachusetts. Rich Bradway, the new media guru at Boston Symphony Orchestra was our roving reporter capturing highlights from the festival with a handheld and presented new video featurettes on Saturday and Sunday throughout the day. Photographer Kristophe Diaz provided the still imagery. Sunday, September 5, 2010 VIDEOS ...

296

Album Review

Jose James and Jef Neve: For All We Know

Read "For All We Know" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 6, 2010

A newsworthy release, not just for the poised American songbook performances of Minneapolis-born, London-based singer José James and his accompanist, Belgian pianist Jef Neve, but also for its issuing label. The iconic Impulse! is not best known for vocal albums. Under its present owners, Universal Music/Verve, the onetime home of the new thing and its standard bearer, saxophonist John Coltrane, was mostly dormant during the 2000s, aside from a burst of reissue activity mid-decade to coincide with ...

838

Interview

Bobby Zankel: Peaceful Jazz Warrior

by Victor L. Schermer
September 6, 2010

For many decades, Philadelphia has been home to a cadre of multi-generational jazz musicians who go on year-after-year composing, arranging and performing some of the best, highest level music to be heard anywhere. This tradition is exemplified in no better way than by alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader Bobby Zankel. Zankel apprenticed with legendary pianist Cecil Taylor and absorbed the most advanced trends of the 1960s and '70s. He then moved to Philadelphia, where he has done his ...

560

Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum

September 2010

by Mr. P.C.
September 6, 2010

Dear Mr. P.C.:In jazz music, much is spoken of the virtue of leaving space. If I don't, they'll say I'm too busy; if I do, I they'll say I can't play. Count Basie played sparsely, and I bet he didn't get the applause or the chicks; I bet they gave him a wide berth. But I bet Oscar Peterson scored.Now these same experts, extollers of the leaving space virtue--when their fascinating pedagogical lecture is ended, then ...

175

Album Review

Ted Piltzecker: Steppe Forward

Read "Steppe Forward" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
September 6, 2010

From the opening notes of “Steppe Forward" itself, Ted Piltzecker and his sextet give a clear statement of intent: Steppe Forward is going to be an upbeat, joyous and uplifting album, from beginning to end. As the closing bars of “Reunion Blues" fade away, it's clear that the band has achieved this intention, with a lively, inventive and engaging set of tunes and some exceptional playing. A former member of pianist George Shearing's Quintet, Piltzecker leads a ...

614

Live Review

"Louis" A Silent Movie with Live Accompaniment at the Keswick Theatre

by Wade Luquet
September 6, 2010

"Louis" A Silent Movie with Live AccompanimentAugust 31, 2010Keswick TheaterGlenside, Pennsylvania The Keswick Theatre returned to its roots with a twist. The elegant music venue in suburban Philadelphia built in 1928 as a movie and vaudeville house was one of the five cities hosting a showing of the silent film “Louis." But this time the old theatre organ that still sits stage right was silent. Tonight, the music was provided by famed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, ...

137

Album Review

Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela: Hands

by John Kelman
September 6, 2010

Sometimes the best indicator of an artist's versatility is in the side projects they accept. Bassist Dave Holland's career could hardly be described as monolithic, with his discography as a leader--ranging from his quintet (Critical Mass (Dare2, 2006)) to his big band (Overtime (Dare2, 2005)) --nothing short of but exemplary. Still, some of the most unexpected revelations have come on peripheral dates, such as Mid-Eastern-informed Thimar (ECM, 1998), with Tunisian oudist Anouar Brahem and British reed man John Surman, or ...

356

Album Review

Georg Breinschmid: Brein's World

Read "Brein's World" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
September 6, 2010

Georg Breinschmid is a madman; a genius madman, but a madman just the same. “Schnucki von Heanois" is a Yiddish Rap and is not even the subject of this piece. Breinschmid's brand of music is a bit hard to describe, but here goes. The bassist takes whatever musical tradition striking him at the time and infuses it with such a potent Eastern European spirit that it's impossible to know if you should dance a polka or a bluegrass jig.

291

Album Review

Various Artists: Cuban Funk Experience

Read "Cuban Funk Experience" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
September 6, 2010

UK mixologist John Armstrong has compiled a collection of “Cuban funk" recordings from the coffers of two record labels: Havana's Egrem and Miami's Sound Triangle, between 1973 and 1988. Like Típica '73's Johnny “Dandy" Rodríguez did back in the 1970s, Armstrong is arguing that Cuban music in the US and in Cuba are two branches of a single family tree. He makes a good case. An interesting experiment is to try to identify which of these cuts comes from which ...