Articles

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

INTERVIEW July 11, 2020

Clovis Grognuz: Young Man with Horn of Plenty

With thousands of viewers and followers on Facebook and You Tube, Swiss saxophonist Clovis Grognuz has become a worldwide saxophone-playing sensation. Astonished eyes and ears have witnessed this talented and dedicated young man performing the legendary saxophone solos—those of John Coltrane ("Giant Steps"), Charlie Parker ("Just Friends"), et al—simultaneously and note for note with the great Masters. And, amazingly Clovis is only 10 years old! The Clovis Grognuz story has other resonating personal dimensions. Hectored and bullied as “different" in ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 11, 2020

Francesco Cataldo: Giulia

By Dan Bilawsky

There's pure, undiluted beauty emanating from the jewel of an introduction on Francesco Cataldo's Giulia. The Italian guitarist's patient and pristine lines set the scene for “I Tuoi Colori (Prologo)," and his equally graceful band mates—pianist Marc Copland, bassist Pietro Leveratto and drummer Adam Nussbaum—join him, slowly drifting out toward cool blue waters like those spied through the window on the album's cover. There's mystery in the setting, for sure, but also an easy satisfaction. And so it goes for ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 11, 2020

Frank Macchia / Brock Avery: Rhythm Abstraction: Ruby

By Dan McClenaghan

Multi-instrumentalist Frank Macchia released his full length CD Rhythm Kaleidoscope (Cacophany Records) in 2018. The compositions were created over a foundation of Brock Avery's multi-layered improvised drum and percussion solos, with Macchia orchestrating a sea of woodwinds and synthesizer sounds, some brass and some prepared piano samples, resulting in a lush and feisty twenty-first century jazz-classical-fusion hybrid of the highest order. This mode of operation apparently caught his fancy. He follows up in 2020 with a three EP set--released between ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 11, 2020

Pauli Lyytinen Magnetia Orkesteri: Hypnosis

By Friedrich Kunzmann

It can be interpreted as quite the democratic statement when an album from a saxophonist is introduced with an almost two-minute long drum solo that solely focuses on the percussive qualities of the instrument. Which is exactly what drummer Mika Kallio does on the opening segment of the Finnish saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen's sophomore album with the Magnetia Orkesteri. It doesn't take a professional translator to figure out that this quartet's name has something to with magnetism and is referred to ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 11, 2020

Daniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra: Night Devoid of Stars

By Jerome Wilson

Daniel Hersog is a Canadian trumpet player and composer, here presenting his first big band album, a set of sweeping and progressive orchestral jazz which reflects the current state of the world with shifting moods of unease and cautious optimism. Hersog has a expansive style of writing that draws as much from classical music as jazz. His compositions here are written to feature two main soloists, tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger and pianist Frank Carlberg, much as Gil Evans ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 11, 2020

Arthur Satyan: Playing Around

By Hrayr Attarian

Pianist Arthur Satyan has been a stalwart of the Lebanese jazz scene after moving from Armenia in 1996. In addition to heading the jazz department at the national music conservatoire, Satyan is a sought after performer whose reputation goes beyond both his native land and his adopted home. Among his international accolades is his second place award at the 2018 edition of 7 Virtual Jazz Club competition, and it is with the same trio that he recorded Playing Around. On ...

THE JAZZ LIFE July 10, 2020

My Early Years with Bill Evans, Part 2

By Peter Rubie

Bassist and composer Chuck Israels was raised in a musical family. He studied the cello and played guitar in junior high school. Later musical training took place at Indian Hill, a summer workshop in the arts directed by his parents, and at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. A year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology provided access to the considerable jazz activity in Boston where Herb Pomeroy, Charlie Mariano, Joe Gordon, Serge Chaloff and bassist John ...