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.

325

Album Review

Celine Bonacina: Way Of Life

Read "Way Of Life" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 29, 2010

It may not approach the freak-show proportions of the bass saxophone Adrian Rollini popularized in the 1920s, but the baritone is still an impressive beast, one that has frequently been employed as much for its visual impact as for the notes it produces. Ever since Little Richard introduced the unwieldy instrument to his touring band in the 1950s--at one time his reed section consisted only of two baritones--rock & roll and rhythm & blues groups have employed it primarily for ...

193

Album Review

Bobby Avey: A New Face

Read "A New Face" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 29, 2010

A New Face is a somewhat misleading title for this album. True, this is the debut recording as leader by the 25-year-old Bobby Avey but he's been on the jazz scene for some time. Most notably, he joined star saxophonist Dave Liebman on Vienna Dialogues (ZOHO, 2006) while he was still a student and his regular trio--bassist Thomson Kneeland and drummer Jordan Pearlson, both featured effectively here--has been together since 2005. Avey composed all eight tunes on ...

493

Live Review

Vision Festival 2010: Day 3, June 25, 2010

by John Sharpe
July 29, 2010

Prologue | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 Fay Victor, Sabir Mateen, John BlumVision FestivalAbrons Arts CenterNew York CityJune 25, 2010After the exceptional programs for the first two nights of the Vision Festival at the Abrons Arts Center, the Friday night show was always going to find it hard to compete. That seemed to be the view ...

512

Rhythm In Every Guise

Steve Johns with the Bob DeVos Organ Trio

by David A. Orthmann
July 29, 2010

Bob DeVos' Organ Trio is a prime example of a band that possesses a recognizable sound yet resists facile categorization. Since 2005, along with organist Dan Kostelnik and drummer Steve Johns, the Northern New Jersey-based guitarist has played numerous live gigs and recorded two compact discs, Shifting Sands and Playing For Keeps, both released on Savant Records to wide acclaim. The group doesn't necessarily invite comparison to the fashionable, John Coltrane-influenced, Larry Young-Grant Green-Elvin Jones Trio from the mid-1960s. Likewise, ...

501

Album Review

Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim: Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings

Read "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 28, 2010

Finally.The Complete Reprise Recordings compiles every tune--all 20--that America's supreme vocalist recorded with Brazil's preeminent composer during their legendary late 1960s summits. The first ten comprise the famous, fantastic Francis Albert Sinatra / Antonio Carlos Jobim album arranged and orchestrated by Claus Ogerman, released by Reprise in 1967. Sinatra and Jobim reconvened two years later, with Eumir Deodato replacing Ogerman as arranger, to record 10 more tunes for a second Sinatra-Jobim album that the Chairman withdrew from the ...

783

Interview

Lage Lund: Looking Forward

by Matthew Warnock
July 28, 2010

Growing up in Norway, a young Lage Lund dreamt of moving to New York, though not to play guitar, but to break dance in the NY subway system. Luckily for jazz guitar fans, this dream was never realized. Instead, Lund picked up the guitar at the age of thirteen and hasn't looked back. Since then, he has recorded on numerous records as a sideman, released three albums under his own name, and won the most prestigious jazz competition in the ...

290

Album Review

Janiva Magness: The Devil is an Angel Too

Read "The Devil is an Angel Too" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 28, 2010

Just one listen to The Devil is an Angel Too, Janiva Magness' ninth album and second for Chicago's venerated blues label Alligator, immediately reveals why she's the Blues Music Awards' reigning “Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year" and “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year" (only the second female to cop the “Entertainer" honor--Koko Taylor was the first).For sure, Magness knows about the blues. Once a foster child deemed “at risk," Magness' musical talents illuminated her life's path; ...

915

Book Review

The Jazz Fiction Anthology

by Florence Wetzel
July 28, 2010

The Jazz Fiction AnthologySascha Feinstein and David Rife, EditorsSoftcover; 500 pagesISBN: 978-0-253-22137-7Publisher2009 This fine anthology of jazz fiction is a treasure trove of stories and characters that illuminate the multicolored world of jazz. The editors--Sascha Feinstein and David Rife--are to be commended for their impeccable judgment in selecting the short stories and two novellas that comprise the collection. In the introduction, the editors state their ambitious aim: “to ...

305

Album Review

Clutchy Hopkins: The Story Teller

Read "The Story Teller" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 28, 2010

Clutchy Hopkins is one of the most inscrutable musical characters you'll ever meet, if you could meet him. No one seems to know who he is, including and especially his record label, or even if Clutchy Hopkins is a singular him or a collective them. Complicating the matter, The Story Teller has vocals but not one single lyric. So how does this person who may not even be a person use no words to tell a story?The same ...

488

Live Review

Vision Festival 2010: Day 2, June 24, 2010

by John Sharpe
July 28, 2010

Prologue | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 Muhal Richard Abrams, Joseph Jarman, John TchicaiVision FestivalAbrons Arts CenterNew York CityJune 24, 2010 Never has the Vision Festival tradition of honoring the lifetime achievement of seminal figures in the avant jazz world seemed more timely. In an eight-day period, which saw the passing of previous honorees Bill Dixon ...