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.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Stella Bass: Look For The Silver Lining
by Ian Patterson
It is an enviable trait to always look for the silver lining in troubled times. For Dublin vocalist Stella Bass, when gigs dried up during the Covid pandemic, the silver lining was the gift of time. She did not waste it, studying music production with Berklee College, Boston, and music composition & arranging with Studio Orchestrations, Belfast. The seeds planted, work duly followed, with writing, arranging and syncing music for TV, film and gaming. She also decided that it was ...
Continue ReadingChristine Jensen, Sonny Clark, Nina Simone and Others
by Jerome Wilson
This episode, as usual, goes all over the jazz landscape with current names like Christine Jensen and Marius Neset as well as classic figures of the past such as Sonny Clark and Nina Simone. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Coleman Hawkins “Sih-Sah" from 1947-1950 (Classics) 00:58 Sonny Clark “Cool Struttin'" from Cool Struttin' (Blue Note) 4:09 Host Speaks ...
Continue ReadingFavourite Releases of 2023
by Maurice Hogue
For a show that doesn't turn to tradition very often, there is one on One Man's Jazz: the first show of a new year features the host's favourite releases of the outgoing year. 2023 was an excellent year for new albums--post-pandemic inspiration perhaps? Regardless, big props are due to the artists who create this music and to those who support them. Aside from the opening tune, the tracks by sizzling alto player Patrick Bartley, Ouat, Krsytyna Stanko, trumpeter Alistair Payne, ...
Continue ReadingMuriel Grossmann Explores A Musical Universe of Boundless Possibility
by Dave Kaufman
Muriel Grossmann, a talented alto, tenor, soprano saxophonist and composer, was born in France and grew up in Vienna. She has lived in Ibiza, Spain, since 2004. Devotion, her 15th album, was released on December 1, 2023, on Third Man Records. I stumbled across this gem on the Tidal streaming service in early January. Grossman was unknown to me, but the album's captivating cover drew me in and I listened without any preconceptions. I was immediately floored by ...
Continue ReadingJim Snidero: For All We Know
by Dan McClenaghan
The cover photo on Jim Snidero's For All We Know features the saxophonist holding his horn out in front of his body as if he is offering it to us as a holy relic. Holy it is when he plays it; a relic it is not. The album is Snidero's first recorded offering in a trio setting--sax, bass and drums. No chording instrument. His partners in chordlessness, Peter Washington and Joe Farnsworth--bass and drums, respectively--are a perfect choice, ...
Continue ReadingVijay Iyer: Compassion
by Neil Duggan
The term “Supergroup" is often over-used. It usually refers to a group whose members are already successful as solo artists. In rock music, it often referred to members of a successful rock group who got together for a recording, frequently disbanding later. Fortunately, Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey are going from strength to strength, showing no sign of disbanding and wholly justifying the term Supergroup. Compassion is their second album as a trio, following 2021's Uneasy ...
Continue ReadingAlex Hitchcock, Sylvie Courvoisier, Chris Potter
by Ludovico Granvassu
Chris Potter's upcoming album and then two tunes which were recorded without a concern for time constraints, either in studio or live on stage, a place where suddenly the perception of time is altered in the midst of the creative flow. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Chris Potter feat. Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci, Brian Blade “Dream of Home" Eagle's Point (Edition) 0:16 Host talks 5:49 Alex ...
Continue ReadingJudy Whitmore: Come Fly with Me
by Jack Bowers
When the multi-talented Judy Whitmore sings “Come Fly with Me," it is an invitation that is almost impossible to resist, especially as the lovely and charming vocalist is also a pilot who is licensed to fly anything from jets to seaplanes to hot air balloons. On her latest album, backed by a big band and twenty-six member string section with arrangements by Hollywood top gun Chris Walden, Whitmore beckons listeners to fly with her to romantic places around the world ...
Continue ReadingRandom Acts of Roach 3, Trudy Pitts, Pete Rugolo
by David Brown
This week, new and recent releases from Ethan Iverson, Ambrose Akinmusire, Mary Halverson, and others; We'll continue with Random Acts of Roach, a month-long centennial celebration of the legendary drummer Max Roach; and why not, I'll share a bit of my recent obsession with the Pete Rugolo Orchestra, and much more. Old, new, in, out... wherever the music takes us. Each week, we will explore the elements of jazz from a historical perspective. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" ...
Continue ReadingPharoah Sanders: Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt
by Chris May
This little beauty, all sixteen minutes of it, is the opening track of Pharoah Sanders' first own-name masterpiece, Tauhid (Impulse!), recorded in 1966, released in 1967, and the blueprint for Sanders' style of astral jazz. Remarkably, many jazz enthusiasts, including Sanders fans, seem not to have heard Tauhid--and one leading tenor saxophonist on London's alternative jazz scene had never even heard of the album until it was brought to their attention in an interview a couple of years ago. Sanders ...
Continue Reading
