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.

241

Album Review

Peter Evans: Nature/Culture

Read "Nature/Culture" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
October 6, 2009

Far from unprecedented, solo trumpet records are still not part of humdrum experience. Since his revelatory debut More is More (psi, 2006), Peter Evans has pitted himself against a widening swathe of improvisers in both North America and Europe, while at the same time affectionately dismantling the jazz tradition with his own Quartet and Moppa Elliott's Mostly Other People Do The Killing. For his second take on the genre, Evans utilizes two different approaches on this double CD: the first ...

168

Album Review

Joshua Redman: Compass

Read "Compass" reviewed by Jeff Stockton

by Jeff Stockton
October 6, 2009

No jazz musician with Joshua Redman's pedigree, chops and talent wants to be tagged as “cautious" or “cerebral," but that was Redman's reputation, perhaps right up until Back East was released in 2007. That CD, a return to straight-ahead acoustic playing after a brief digression, found the saxophonist fronting a few different rhythm sections (and standing next to a couple of guests) and generated natural comparisons to Sonny Rollins' classic Way Out West. Compass simultaneously extends the ...

580

Album Review

Kornstad: Dwell Time

Read "Dwell Time" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 5, 2009

Since emerging in the 1990s with Wibutee, saxophonist/flautist Håkon Kornstad has gradually evolved into one of Norway's most exciting and innovative players--a description that would, no doubt, be applied by a broader international audience were he to recieve the exposure he so richly deserves. In recent years, combining unparalelled extended technique on his instruments with equally imaginative use of live electronics, Kornstad has become a solo artist like no other. Single Engine (Jazzland, 2007) demonstrated this intrepid player's ability to ...

1,398

Interview

Harris Eisenstadt: From Mbalax to Canada Day

by Clifford Allen
October 5, 2009

Over the past decade, drummer, bandleader and composer Harris Eisenstadt has been a force in improvised music, active in both Los Angeles and New York (where he now resides). It's a testament to his creativity and energy that his ensembles have run the gamut from free-bop in the vein of post-Blue Note small groups, to orchestral works and the recasting of traditional Senegalese popular song into improvisational vehicles. Canada Day is the name of his latest ensemble and disc (Clean ...

401

Album Review

Acoustic Ladyland: Living With A Tiger

Read "Living With A Tiger" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
October 5, 2009

Living With A Tiger, Acoustic Ladyland's fourth album, is the first to feature guitarist Chris Sharkey and bass guitarist Ruth Goller. They join with the founder members, leader and writer Pete Wareham on saxophone and drummer Seb Rochford [who are both also members of Polar Bear], to create one of the most distinctive and powerful quartets on the British music scene. This is loud, raucous, frenetic and inventive music that defies easy categorization, despite labels such as “punk jazz" that ...

558

Live Review

Flemish Jazz Meeting 2009

by Martin Longley
October 5, 2009

Unaccustomed as I am to inhabiting the trade/music business function end of things, a sojourn at the Gent Jazz Festival and Jazz Middelheim in Belgium inevitably led to a swiftly-following weekend at the Flemish Jazz Meeting in the scenic city of Brugge. This is the third edition of a September band showcase that's designed to spread the musical wares of Belgium's Flanders region across the entire European jazz network. Therefore, most of its delegates are drawn from the world ...

647

Album Review

Dan McMillion Jazz Orchestra: Nice N' Juicy

Read "Nice N' Juicy" reviewed by Robert J. Robbins

by Robert J. Robbins
October 5, 2009

For over a decade, brass master Dan McMillion, an alumnus of the Woody Herman and Buddy Rich ensembles, has been maintaining the legacy of Maynard Ferguson to a very high standard in the Central Florida region, winning a Grammy nomination for Up Your Brass (Sea Breeze, 2002). This sixth release--dedicated to the memory of McMillion's wife Lillian, who passed away earlier this year--continues in this vein, with McMillion fronting a fifteen-piece band consisting of some of the finest musical talents ...

232

Album Review

Darius Jones: Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing)

Read "Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing)" reviewed by Lyn Horton

by Lyn Horton
October 5, 2009

Alto saxophonist Darius Jones' birthplace was Virginia, where, historically, slavery was as indigenous to the state as the cotton fields. Inheriting a tradition of story- telling through music, Jones considers his debut, Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing), “one sonic tone poem" that describes different aspects of growing up on a farm, in a loving family setting, where he listened to music ranging from reggae to classical. Jones composed five of the record's eight tracks, with co-writing credit on ...

259

Album Review

The Joshua Breakstone Trio: No One New

Read "No One New" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins

by Woodrow Wilkins
October 5, 2009

The trio is a tried-and-true format for jazz. Every now and then, the form is tweaked a little--instead of piano/organ plus bass and drums, it's guitar, bass and drums. The Joshua Breakstone Trio is part of this sect, and delivers with No One New. The title refers to the leader, who has been a front man for about 30 years. He counts among his influences Lee Morgan, Charlie Parker, and Clifford Brown. Experiences seeing such performers as Jimi ...

300

Album Review

Joel Frahm and Bruce Katz: Project A

Read "Project A" reviewed by Marcia Hillman

by Marcia Hillman
October 5, 2009

Tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm has teamed up with pianist/organist Bruce Katz for Project A, a tribute to Aretha Franklin and containing material with which she is associated. Although Frahm's foundation is jazz, there is a soul-filled side of him that enjoys working with the likes of Katz, renowned for his work with the Allman Brothers Band. The pair are joined by Chris Vitarello (guitar), Marty Ballou (acoustic bass), Jerry Jemmott (electric bass), Lorne Entress and Ralph Rosen (drums), with baritone ...