Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

RADIO August 6, 2020

Revenge of the Cosmic Panda

Does harp music fill you with images of celestial angels, or a (relatively) tamed Pharoah Sanders? Either way, there's something for you here in this brief overview of “cosmic" jazz. We start with a good, long look at the early career of Pharaoh Sanders and his brief gig with displaced resident of Saturn, Sun Ra, then move on to Alice Coltrane's contribution to the formation of cosmic/spiritual music. Finally, two exemplars of the genre, including one who's active and trending ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 6, 2020

Kadi Vija Key Project: Roaming in the Contemporary Society to Make Peace With It

By Troy Dostert

Although her album's title is a bit unwieldy, vocalist Kadi Vija's summer 2020 release does convey the artist's distinctive approach to living in challenging times. Rather than aiming for dramatic gestures or the boldest imaginable change, perhaps the more sensible strategy is simply to figure out how to keep going—not resignation, exactly, but a willingness to yield, and to remain open to whatever new possibilities may appear. With a well-chosen quartet attuned to this vision, Vija's music has a lilting, ...

RADIO August 6, 2020

New Releases from Felice Clemente, Jorma Tapio, Øyvind Skarbø and More!

By Bob Osborne

This week I have a selection of new releases from Europe with music from Finland with Jorma Tapio, from Norway with Øyvind Skarbø and friends, and Russian jazzers BROM. I am also focusing on an excellent solo album from Italian saxophonist Felice Clemente. There's some Latin sounds from Bocana and John Finbury and to round things off some new singles and two cuts from Sun Ra and His Arkestra live at Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Playlist Jorma Tapio ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 6, 2020

Dave Pietro: Hypersphere

By Paul Rauch

You may not know the name Dave Pietro offhand, but it is likely, if you are a jazz fan of any sort, that you have heard him play. As a saxophone/woodwind artist, composer, educator, sideman, and bandleader, he has performed across a broad spectrum of projects since his becoming a mainstay on the New York scene in 1987. That aspect of his career has enabled a sizable skill set that transfers over into his personal projects. His compositional ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 6, 2020

Suura: Luwte

By Mark Sullivan

Suura is a Belgian band (Ghent based) formed by guitarist Nicolas Van Belle. Joined by double bassist Emanuel Van Mieghem, tenor saxophonist Reindert Spanhove and alto saxophonist Werend Van Den Bossche, they are an acoustic, chamber jazz quartet (no drums). Like other contemporary Belgian improvisational music—as documented by record labels like El Negocito Records and Aspen Edities—their work can best be described as dreamy and atmospheric. Rich timbral soundscapes are often combined with lyrical melodies. “Optiark II" opens ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 6, 2020

Pericopes+1: Up

By Geno Thackara

For a recording titled Up, this one sure spends a lot of time going sideways. Cue the opening track and you're carried away on waves of briskly-flowing piano and saxophone as if there isn't a thing in the world to worry about. The feel becomes a bit more angular with the next, the drums leaning somewhat jittery as the sax breaks up the smoothness with a few heavier wails. It turns out they're only getting started; the players soon takes ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 6, 2020

Third Sound: Heard in Havana

By Chris M. Slawecki

In July 2015, the US and Cuba re-established formal diplomatic relationships with the joint opening of their respective embassies in Havana and Washington, DC. The following November, the American Composers Forum sent ten composers and the instrumental ensemble Third Sound to perform a program of contemporary American music at the 28th Havana Contemporary Music Festival. Heard in Havana simultaneously presents this program and the recording debut of Third Sound: Sooyun Kim (flute), Romie de Guise-Langlois (clarinet), Karen Kim (violin), Michael ...