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.

409

Bailey's Bundles

Retta Christie with David Evans and David Frishberg: Volumes 1 and 2

by C. Michael Bailey
August 6, 2010

Vocalist Retta Christie exists at the curious intersection of country & western, swing and film music. Country music and jazz may seem strange bedfellows, but bedfellows they have been since the 1920s and bandleaders Spade Cooley and Bob Wills, Jay McShann and Count Basie all slumming together in Great Plains dance halls. It is from this rich loam of land in the middle of the United States that Christie's material comes from. But don't expect “Rose of San Antoine." Christie's ...

378

Album Review

Jim Rotondi: 1000 Rainbows

Read "1000 Rainbows" reviewed by John Barron

by John Barron
August 6, 2010

On his third release as a leader for Posi-Tone Records, acclaimed trumpeter Jim Rotondi leads a stellar quintet of New York heavy-hitters on a straight-ahead presentation of original compositions and standard fare. Featuring the unremitting vibraphone work of Joe Locke, 1000 Rainbows swings hard through up-tempo burners, ballads and laid-back funk grooves. Rotondi and Locke are as like-minded as they come, unraveling shapely bebop- style lines full of vigor and surprise. The two, plus pianist Danny Grissett, ...

397

Film Review

Mulatu Astatke: February 1, 2009

by Chris May
August 6, 2010

Mulatu AstatkeFebruary 1, 2009Mochilla2010 For the first 40 years of his professional life, composer and vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke, the father of Ethio-jazz, remained practically unknown outside his own country. That changed in 2005, when his atmosphere-laden recordings were featured extensively on the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch-directed movie Broken Flowers. Since then, Astatke (sometimes spelt Astatqe), born in 1943, has become a celebrity in jazz and world music circles, and has even ...

346

Album Review

Hilary Kole: You Are There

Read "You Are There" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
August 6, 2010

With her crystal clear voice and precise phrasing, singer Hilary Kole pulls off the delightful and unique You Are There. This is one of a kind, because eleven different top-of-the-line piano accompanists join her, with two appearing twice. You Are There's 13 songs are all ballads, sung passionately, simply, and with no frills. According to the liner notes, most takes were spontaneous, with no charts or rehearsal. Kole's sense of dynamics is also effective, the way she builds ...

494

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

August 2010

by Mr. P.C.
August 5, 2010

Dear Mr. P.C.:There is a certain scenario that continues to present itself when I am playing at a nightclub. I'll be sitting at a table before the gig or on a break, looking at charts or maybe just trying to cool out for a minute. One of the waiters will approach me and say something like, “Excuse me, could you move? We need this table for people."Beyond just getting me to move, what is the larger ...

268

Album Review

Mike Nock Trio: An Accumulation of Subtleties

Read "An Accumulation of Subtleties" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
August 5, 2010

As fine as Mike Nock's recent releases have been--Meeting of the Waters (Jazzhead, 2007) and Live (ABC Jazz, 2004)--the New Zealand-born, Australian-based pianist's primary focus has been on larger ensembles. They may have provided Nock a broader textural palette with which to explore his always-compelling writing, but they've lacked the inherent intimacy and unfettered abandon possible in the more liberated context of the trio, last heard nearly a decade ago on Nock's sublime Changing Seasons (DIW, 2002).An Accumulation ...

302

Album Review

Tommaso Cappellato: Open

by Mark F. Turner
August 5, 2010

The demise of modern jazz has been greatly exaggerated. Countless musicians around the globe are contributing new chapters to the wonderfully complex idiom of composition and improvisation. One such example can be found in Open, the debut from drummer Tommaso Cappellato. His experience stretches from taking lessons with local drummers in Italy at 16; enrolling in the Drummers Collective in New York in 1996; studying with notables like Billy Hart, Jorge Rossy and Reggie Workman; and involvement in versatile works ...

396

New York Beat

Maria Schneider at Birdland

by Nick Catalano
August 5, 2010

The jazz tradition of third stream music initiated by Gil Evans (with Miles Davis) nearly 50 years ago has been dutifully preserved by Maria Schneider since she founded her orchestra in 1992. The tradition seeks to combine the modern harmonies created by 20th century classical composers with the rhythmical, improvisational structures of jazz. The style was also labeled “avante-garde" jazz when writers began describing it shortly after the notable album Sketches of Spain was released in 1960. Although the music ...

399

Album Review

Joe Negri: Dream Dancing

Read "Dream Dancing" reviewed by Jack Huntley

by Jack Huntley
August 5, 2010

Veteran guitarist Joe Negri has nothing to prove to anyone. He's been a professional musician since the late '40s, played with a wide variety of musicians in countless musical settings, taught crops of aspiring musicians through his university positions, worked as a musical director and on-air performer for television, and weathered the ups and downs of the jazz world with his melodic, sophisticated musical style. On Dream Dancing, Negri displays his seemingly effortless chops over a set of aptly chosen ...

197

Live Review

Kendra Shank Quartet Live At The Saville Theater

by Robert Bush
August 5, 2010

Kendra Shank QuartetSaville Theater, San Diego City College San Diego, CaJuly 20, 2010 Jazz vocalist Kendra Shank has been a New Yorker for 12 years. She's quite active on the scene, frequently collaborating with pianist Frank Kimbrough. She's released several critically acclaimed albums recently, specifically Mosaic( Challenge 2009), and Spirit Free: The Abbey Lincoln Songbook (Challenge 2007). Before settling in New York, she lived in Seattle for 18 years, studying with vocalist Jay Clayton, ...