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.

150

Album Review

Michael Gregory Jackson: Clarity

Read "Clarity" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 12, 2010

Michael Gregory is the quintessential modern troubadour. He may not sing in a Romance language, but he turns his instruments of choice--guitar and voice--into a powerful language that enables him to recreate the sensuous, reverential and spiritual literature that, in turn, enormously enhances his songbook. Gregory turns on the charm on Clarity, a short, but memorable album that provides a telling snapshot of the musician's art. He is joined here by the power trio of alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, tenor ...

255

Album Review

Anthony Braxton / Jerry Hemmingway: Old Dogs

Read "Old Dogs" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 12, 2010

It is very difficult to separate the music of saxophonist Anthony Braxton and percussionist Gerry Hemingway from the actual experience of listening to four-disc, four-plus hour Old Dogs (2007). Each disc represents a morning or afternoon's work, recorded at Wesleyan University in early August, 2007, requiring almost complete immersion--letting go each moment, as it passes. There is little possibility of consuming this music in one sitting; it requires listening in either small bites, or an unfettered approach of allowing the ...

221

Album Review

Project Trio: Project Trio

Read "Project Trio" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 12, 2010

Don't think piano/bass/drums when thinking of Project Trio. Think cello/double-bass/flute, and then think bigger than that. Project Trio is the third self-produced recording by the triumvirate that contains classical, jazz, rock, and hip-hop genera as recital repertoire. Its members are masters at harnessing the percussive possibilities of their respective instruments, as evidenced on the individualistic cover of Guns N' Roses' “Sweet Child O' Mine." Eric Stephenson's cello establishes Slash's harmonic guitar introduction, with Peter Seymour's bass performing ...

234

Album Review

David Bass: Gone

by Karl Ackermann
August 11, 2010

If Dave Bass ever decides to give up his day job as a Deputy Attorney General, he can validate that decision based on the quality of Gone. Bass returns to jazz after more than twenty years, but his priors include stints with Bobby McFerrin, global percussionist Babatunde Lea, and interpretive jazz vocalist Jackie Ryan. His Gone quartet boasts of former colleague, Lea, legendary saxophonist Ernie Watts, and veteran bassist Gary Brown. With one exception, the eleven tracks are Bass compositions, ...

994

Interview

WartaJazz.com: An Indonesian Jazz Mission

by Ian Patterson
August 11, 2010

In his book The Miracle: The Epic Story of Asia's Quest for Wealth (HarperCollins, 2009), Michael Schuman writes, “In little more than a generation, Asia has emerged from centuries of stagnation to become the rising force of the global economy--a transformation so spectacular that some have called it a miracle." WartaJazz.com founders in 2001, from left: Ajie Wartono Ceto Mundiarso, Agus Setiawan and KushindartoGiven the sheer number of people--over 4 billion--the booming economies and important social ...

508

Live Review

Enrico Pieranunzi with Marc Johnson and Paul Motian at the Village Vanguard

by Warren Allen
August 11, 2010

Enrico Pieranunzi TrioThe Village VanguardNew York, NYJuly 9, 2010 The first full week of July 2010 was a hot one for New York City, marked by record- setting temperatures, sweat-choked subways, and scorched sidewalks. But it also saw a rare appearance by Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi on this side of the Atlantic, at the venerable Village Vanguard, alongside two other master players in Marc Johnson on bass and Paul Motian on drums.

159

Album Review

Sonny Simmons: Staying on the Watch

Read "Staying on the Watch" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 11, 2010

Alto saxophonist Sonny Simmons embraces music with his whole body, soul, mind and spirit; that much is clear from Staying on the Watch, recorded in August 1966 and reissued by ESP-Disk in 2010. Not everything that he did got its due: when Simmons came on the scene, he remained too close to Charlie Parker. When he discovered his own brooding voice with that characteristic, sharp intonation that made his alto sound almost like a shenai (Indian flute), he floated on ...

552

Live Review

Newport Jazz Festival: Saturday, August 7, 2010

by Timothy J. O'Keefe
August 11, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 CareFusion Newport Jazz FestivalFort Adams State ParkNewport, RIAugust 7, 2010 Sun rays streamed through mostly blue skies, pelting Fort Adams State Park with heat, as the annual jazz festival returned to the Rhode Island peninsula in 2010. Few people attending probably even realized that a week earlier, tropical storm Colin feigned a move that would have had festival goers singing a different tune. However, the storm ...

225

Album Review

James Sherlock: Solo

by Ian Patterson
August 11, 2010

The title of Australian jazz guitarist James Sherlock's Solo is deceptively simple, because these eleven selections reveal a guitarist and arranger of uncommon sensitivity and advanced technique. Sherlock, perhaps aware of the challenge of concentrating on a single instrument, offers up only 35 minutes of music. However, the performance is absolutely captivating, and only whets the appetite for more. The four covers are interesting, revealing something of Sherlock's openness to all music, ranging as they do from the American show ...

208

Album Review

Beverly Lewis: All Shades of Blues

Read "All Shades of Blues" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 11, 2010

Vocalist Beverly Lewis does not worry about the particulars of proper jazz vocals on All Shades of Blues, because she is also a blues singer, and the two vocal styles often have different agendas. Lewis, however, has but one agenda: stepping up to the microphone and belting out whatever song she is singing con brio and in full command. Couple this inhibition with a very fine band led by guitarist/husband John Fifield, and a brush fire is sure to start ...