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.

270

Album Review

George Brooks Summit: Spirit and Spice

Read "Spirit and Spice" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
August 21, 2010

The concept of fusing Indian classical music and jazz is not new. Saxophonist George Brooks, a longtime votary of the form, has honed his skills through several conglomerations: Bombay Jazz, with guitarist Larry Coryell and flautist Ronu Majumdar; the Kirwani Quartet, with Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink and Indian flute maestro Hari Prasad Chaurasia; and Summit, with guitarist Fareed Haque, bassist Kai Eckhardt and drummer Steve Smith. His compositions reflect the soul and character of Indian classical music, but open themselves ...

265

Album Review

Theo Bleckmann: I Dwell In Possibility

Read "I Dwell In Possibility" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 20, 2010

Were Theo Bleckmann Irish he would be a leprechaun, a magical bringer of joy and beauty with creativity and a sense of humor. Probably a more apt cultural consideration is viewing this vocalist/performance artist as the embodiment of all that was good, demiurgic, evocative, and provocative of Berlin during the explosively creative Weimar Republic period. Bleckmann is a daring and broadly talented artist fearing no type of artistic expression. A lover of sounds and gadgets, the singer has forged a ...

998

Extended Analysis

Africa: 50 Years of Music - 50 Years of Independence

by Chris May
August 20, 2010

Various ArtistsAfrica: 50 Years of Music: 50 Years of IndependenceSterns2010 “In my country alone, there are 80 ethnic groups and 200 dialects," says the Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango in an interview in the booklet enclosed with this box set. “So it's hard to talk about Cameroonian music in the singular. There are thousands of types of African music." To provide a fully comprehensive survey of African music is, ...

173

Album Review

Zbigniew Seifert Quartet: Nora

by John Kelman
August 20, 2010

With a trajectory only starting to expand beyond his native Poland, before succumbing to complications from cancer in 1979 at age 32, it's little surprise that Zbigniew Seifert has flown largely beneath the radar of even the most knowledgeable jazzer. Still, it appears as though overdue attention is finally returning to this remarkable violinist, whose Man of the Light (Promising Music, 1977) remains an overlooked gem of incendiary post-Coltrane modality, and impressionistic, European classicism. A documentary film is underway, and ...

150

Album Review

Domenic Landolf: New Brighton

Read "New Brighton" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 20, 2010

The term, “Impressionism" has been bandied about with such regularity in recent times that it has all but ceased to mean anything, much less suggest the kind of music that came from the pen of Claude Debussy and, a short time later, from that equally famous French composer, Maurice Ravel. Every once in awhile, however, there is a genuine reminder that the art of impressionistic suggestion is alive as it was at the turn of the 19th century. The latest ...

211

Live Review

Lisa Engelken at Dazzle

by Geoff Anderson
August 20, 2010

Lisa EngelkenDazzleDenver, COJuly 29, 2010 It's not easy to stand out as a female jazz singer. Even though jazz singing is not exactly a mass market commodity, singers are nearly as ubiquitous as Harleys at Sturgis. It takes a little something to stand out from the crowd. Like at Sturgis, bigger and louder won't necessarily do the trick. It might take a little finesse, a little nuance, maybe a bit of panache. If you add ...

292

Album Review

Vijay Iyer: Solo

by Bruce Lindsay
August 20, 2010

Vijay Iyer's trio album, Historicity (ACT, 2009), brought the pianist much critical acclaim and saw him awarded the 2010 Jazz Journalist Association Musician Of The Year. Solo finds Iyer on his own for the first time, on a collection that encompasses jazz standards, a contemporary pop classic and five of Iyer's own original compositions. It's a more thoughtful and reflective album than Historicity but, while it clearly demonstrates Iyer's technical ability on his chosen instrument, it is also a less ...

228

Album Review

Maruja Muci: Tiempos Modernos

Read "Tiempos Modernos" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
August 20, 2010

On her third self-released disc, Venezuelan singer Maruja Muci concentrates on a songwriting side (her two previous CDs were largely cover sets) that reveals strong Brazilian influences, starting with “Primavera," a modern bossa with electronic elements reminiscent of the kind often favored by Brazil's Bebel Gilberto. Muci, however, makes the sound her own with her strong delivery and sparse instrumentation that enriches her voice instead of covering it with excess. She nods to her country's musical influences on “Mantra," an ...

959

Extended Analysis

The Complete Ahmad Jamal Trio Argo Sessions 1956-62

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
August 20, 2010

"When I listen to these records now... when I listen to the Pershing, it's phenomenal, I must say. What they were doing, phenomenal, the lines and the purity. It's so pure ... It was sheer joy working with these two individuals. Master musicians," writes pianist/bandleader Ahmad Jamal in the liner notes to this collection. If there ever was a subject worthy of a Mosaic box set, Jamal is it. For six decades, he has been, for several reasons, ...

752

Live Review

Gent Jazz Festival 2010: Days 6-9

by Martin Longley
August 19, 2010

Days 1-5 | Days 6-9 The Gent Jazz FestivalBijlokeGent, BelgiumJuly 15-18, 2010 It's now customary to expect the biggest players in the jazz universe to alight each night at the Gent Jazzfest. This massively historic Belgian city provides a beautiful setting for the music, with its Bijloke site situated just outside the main centre, in a universe of its own making. The large marquee set-up is now an established success, oscillating ...