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.

181

Album Review

Mercury Falls: Quadrangle

Read "Quadrangle" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 23, 2010

It begins with a stark electric drone, an eerie, throbbing repetition from which the familiar cry of a saxophone emerges. The tune is “Spring Pools," and it sounds like music that swells out of the quiet after the Apocalypse. The group is Mercury Falls, a saxophone/guitar/bass/drums ensemble with some deft electronic embellishments. The music could be called ambient, with its seemingly drifting momentum, but it's too gutsy to hold that tag.Heading up the group are reedman Patrick Cress ...

151

Album Review

Kneebody: You Can Have Your Moment

Read "You Can Have Your Moment" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 23, 2010

Kneebody needs no introduction for the avant-leaning, electro-acoustic jazz set--if such a specific subset of a crowd exists. This quintet has a way of combining high art improvisation with earthy grooves and electronic etching that nobody else can seem to match. The music on You Can Have Your Moment is a sonic stew that includes raucous rock grooves, progressive improvisation, ambient experimentation, rhythmic misdirection and a whole lot more. While all five members of this group have ...

749

Interview

Taylor Haskins: Raising His (Trumpet) Voice

by R.J. DeLuke
August 23, 2010

Taylor Haskins is forging more of a career in the jazz world, and it's based on his solid musicianship and flair on the trumpet: a good strong tone, good chops, and a wide array of influences, translating into him being at ease and formidable in many styles, including being plugged-in. In addition to stepping out more on his own as a solo player, he can be found, in recent years, with the likes of Richard Bona, Guillermo Klein, Jamie Baum, ...

426

Take Five With...

Take Five with Wynton Marsalis

by AAJ Staff
August 23, 2010

Status: Nine-time Grammy Award-winning jazz performer. DOB: October 18, 1961 In: New Orleans, LA Hobbies/Interests: “Play basketball. I like to read. I like to play chess." Favorite Movies: “[Pause]...see, it's so many. Let me see if I can...any Hitchcock. Elie Kazan's. John Ford. [Pause]...favorite movies...there's so many good ones...I can't remember the name. It has Andy Griffith in it. He plays like a man of the people that becomes corrupted. [Marsalis calls a friend ...

460

Live Review

Vision Festival 2010: Day 6, June 28, 2010

by John Sharpe
August 22, 2010

Prologue | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7Marilyn Crispell, Joelle Leandre, Roy Campbell, Mat Maneri, Wadada Leo Smith, Gunter “Baby" Sommer, Joe Morris, Mike ReedVision FestivalAbrons Arts CenterNew York CityJune 28, 2010With only three sets scheduled in the main auditorium, Monday evening at the Vision Festival was low on quantity but more than made up for that ...

319

Extended Analysis

Satoko Fujii Ma-Do: Desert Ship

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 22, 2010

Satoko Fujii Ma-DoDesert ShipNot Two Records2010 Pianist Satoko Fujii's music on Desert Ship, for the quartet Ma-Do, sits in a phantasmagorical realm that is located artistically somewhere between composer Gustav Holst's Planets and film director Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sojourn begins in a down to earth manner, with a distant sounding melody that invites, first bass and drums, and then the airy trumpet of Fujii's husband, Natsuki Tamura, to ...

334

Album Review

Junji Delfino: Here I Am

Read "Here I Am" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
August 22, 2010

Despite singing jazz for thirty years, Here I Am is Junji Delfino's first solo recording. Delfino has notable jazz pedigree: her father, Bert Delfino, was a leading jazz figure in post World War II Manila, playing drums in a trio with pianist Fred Robles--who founded the Musicians' Guild in the Philippines--and bassist Rudy Adriano, in the clubs along Dewey Boulevard. Delfino's husband, David Gomes--a respected pianist in his own right--co-wrote two tunes and plays piano, and son Paulo contributed a ...

212

Live Review

Herbie Hancock Imagine Project: Philadelphia, August 13, 2010

by Lewis J Whittington
August 22, 2010

Herbie Hancock / The Imagine ProjectThe Man CenterPhiladelphia, USAAugust 13, 2010 On a cool August night at the open air Mann Center, pianist Herbie Hancock reminisced about his '60s gigs in Philly with Miles Davis back in the day, but he was not looking to rest on any laurel. For two-and-a-half hours, Hanckock showed that he was very much in his prime. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta introduced the throbbing, concussive “Chameleon," as ...

234

Album Review

Mercury Falls: Quadrangle

Read "Quadrangle" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
August 22, 2010

Mercury Falls is an intriguing and somewhat ambivalent band name--and whether it refers to a celestial body, a mythological messenger, plummeting water, dropping temperatures or, indeed, to nothing at all, it's a name that readily reflects the fascinating and at times beautiful music that the band creates on its debut release, Quadrangle. Although Mercury Falls disowns the term, much of the music on Quadrangle has a distinctly ambient feel to it (the band refers to it as ...

187

Album Review

Evan Christopher's Django a la Creole: Finesse

Read "Finesse" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 22, 2010

The epithet “flawless technique" does not even begin to describe Evan Christopher's manner of playing, perhaps, the most challenging reed instrument: the clarinet. His polished intonation is marked by the perfect annunciation of the notes that gush forth from his clarinet sometimes at great speed. His rhythmic attack is so full of surprise, especially when he injects elements of Brazilian and other Latin American colorings into the long, loping lines he plays. He has a spiritual connection with Django Reinhardt ...