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
Frank London: Touzle Your Kurchy
by Glenn Astarita
Trumpeter Frank London has never been one to color neatly inside the historical lines. Known for his groundbreaking work with the Klezmer Conservatory Band and The Klezmatics, the restless downtown maestro has spent decades detonating cultural boundaries. With the Loisaida Fife and Drum Corps, he turns his sights toward eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Americana, dragging dusty martial traditions into a sweaty, musical block party. The album borrows its title from an antique Scots-English fife-and-drum tune--a flirtatious dare to rumple someone's kerchief--and that ...
Continue Reading...Mike Jones, George Benson, Dawn Lambeth, Ayumi Tanaka, Brittany Pitt, Matthew Wilson's Good Trouble & More
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast includes new music from Mike Jones, George Benson, Dawn Lambeth, Ayumi Tanaka, Brittany Pitt, Matthew Wilson's Good Trouble, with birthday shoutouts to Doris Tauber (Them There Eyes, Drinkin' Again) Champian Fulton, Marcus Goldhaber, Christie Dashiell, Lorraine Feather, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the world that A Woman's Place is in the Groove. Many thanks for tuning in.
Continue Reading...Amber Weekes: To Oscar With Love
by Jacob Sylvester
Los Angeles-based jazz vocalist Amber Weekes has returned with a remarkable new musical project that showcases her immense talent and deep appreciation for classic American jazz storytelling. To Oscar With Love serves as her fifth album release and continues her tradition of artistic excellence on her own Amber Inn Productions record label. Executive produced by Weekes herself and skillfully produced by Mark Cargill, the record brings together a stellar lineup of talent to honor a true legend of American culture: ...
Continue Reading...Skip Heller on Dizzy, Joy, and Never Taking a Music Lesson
by Mike Jones
This week Mike Jones sits down with the great Skip Heller: composer, guitarist, bandleader, arranger, and one of the most restlessly curious musicians you will ever meet. Skip grew up in Philadelphia a few blocks from Dizzy Gillespie's old house, never took a real music lesson, and built a life in music that runs from bebop to rockabilly to exotica.They get into his new Dizzy Gillespie project with his band Voodoo 5, why joy is the fuel in ...
Continue Reading...Dave Hanlon: Studio Sessions
by Jack Bowers
Once upon a time, movie trailers would sometimes promote their latest big-screen spectacle by ending with the phrase ..."and a cast of thousands!" Although Syracuse, NY-based drummer Dave Hanlon does not quite match that figure on Studio Sessions, he does use 24 musicians on its nine tracks, none of which encompasses a group that is larger than an octet (including vocalists). So what does all that talent add up to? Perhaps somewhat less than one might have hoped. ...
Continue Reading...Julius Hemphill: Marty Ehrlich and Tim Berne Remember a Musical Visionary
by Dave Kaufman
Julius Hemphill, a brilliant alto saxophonist and extraordinary composer, was a towering figure in avant-garde jazz and creative music. Yet his body of work remains surprisingly little known, even among aficionados of this sort of adventurous music. Hemphill's music demonstrated a deep feeling for the blues and other African American traditions. His creative vision extended well beyond jazz performance, incorporating chamber music, theater, dance, and other forms of artistic expression. Hemphill came of age during a period when Black experimental ...
Continue Reading...David Virelles: Creative Inspirations
by Mike Jurkovic
Though we can likely assume that any music brought to life by pianist David Virelles, with his uncanny ability to make even the most jagged improvisation sound like yesteryear's standard, bassist Reggie Workman, who at eighty-eight still plays like the young turk afire alongside John Coltrane at the Village Vanguard, and drummer Andrew Cyrille who, at eighty-six, still epitomizes free jazz drumming, to move about freely through space and time and go where it will. Creative Inspirations comes at you ...
Continue Reading...Finely Tuned Elephant, Federico Malaman, Christian Frentzen, Kam Falk, Senri Kawaguchi
by Len Davis
From Ottawa, Finely Tuned Elephant bring some seriously good fusion, then Italian bassist Federico Malaman joins Frank Gambale, and German keyboardist Christian Frentzen teams up with Nir Felder. Producer and keyboard player Kam Falk joins drummer John Favicchia, while Japanese Drummer Senri Kawaguchi is captured live at Blues Alley. Also from Japan, cellist Mariko Muranaka teams up with Marco Minnemann, and Russian violinist Anna Rakita joins French guitarist Nguyen Le. Stick Men bring some progressive sounds, while Stanley Clarke revisits ...
Continue Reading...Idiotek: IDIOTEK
by Daniel Mège
One of the basic principles of physics holds that materials can respond to force in three ways: elastic (reversible), plastic (irreversible), or viscous (progressive over time). Combining all three, the possibilities are limitless and hard to master. IDIOTEK's material is mastered, and it explores the domain of viscoelasticity. Time stretches and contracts at the whim of the polyphonies and polyrhythms. Nothing is irreversible, but time can do a great deal. IDIOTEK is the debut album by guitarist and ...
Continue Reading...Janis Siegel, Skinny Hightower, Twin Talk & Gergana Velinova
by Joe Dimino
Step inside the 976th Episode of Neon Jazz and get ready for another deep dive into the sounds, stories, and soul of jazz from around the globe. We open the hour with the acclaimed singer Gergana Velinova, featuring music from her powerful 2026 album Free. From there, we hit the Neon Jazz mailbox, digging into quotes, reflections, and thoughts from artists including Tom Kennedy and Michael Bede Dunlop. Then we turn up the volume with heavyweight jazz from Todd DelGuidice, ...
Continue Reading...
