Articles

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

ALBUM REVIEW November 14, 2018

Sam Leak and Dan Tepfer: Adrift

Adrift is an unusual recording featuring two pianos in an original work by Sam Leak. It's hard to neatly categorise since it presumably draws its influences from a variety of sources. It could be described as neo-classical, minimalist or chamber jazz but is most probably a mixture of all these elements since it assiduously resists any generic definition. Leak might have been influenced by a whole swathe of composers; the ghosts of Erik Satie, Arnold Schoenberg, Duke Ellington and perhaps ...

ALBUM REVIEW December 3, 2016

Duncan Lamont Big Band: As If By Magic

By Bruce Lindsay

Mention Mr Benn to people who were young children (or university students) in early 1970s Britain. They may well smile ruefully, develop a far-away look in their eyes and mutter something about things having been much better back then. Nostalgia is a wonderful feeling. At least some of that warm feel-good glow can be put down to the music on this album-- As If By Magic--and its composer, saxophonist Duncan Lamont.The bowler-hatted Mr Benn lived in 52 Festive ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 21, 2016

Henrik Jensen's Followed By Thirteen: Henrik Jensen's Followed by Thirteen: Blackwater

By Phil Barnes

What does it mean to be 'Followed by Thirteen'? It immediately conjures pictures of some cold war spy thriller--Orson Welles in Greene's “The Third Man," Matt Damon in the Bourne films maybe, as the protagonist is followed by shadowy agents through decaying European cities in defence of unspecified freedoms. Good though it is, it seems unlikely that Henrik Jensen's splendid new album of modern jazz could be construed by our governments as a threat to our comfortable western liberal democratic ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 27, 2016

Henrik Jensen's Followed By Thirteen: Blackwater

By Bruce Lindsay

Blackwater is the second album from London-based Henrik Jensen's Followed By Thirteen. There's one change in personnel from debut album Qualia (Jellymould Jazz, 2013)--Antonio Fusco replacing original drummer Peter Ibbetson--but the instrumentation remains the same. Three years on, the band's increasing experience and maturity as a unit is reflected in the compositions and musicianship displayed here.The band may be based in the UK, but its members are an international bunch. Bassist and leader Jensen is Danish, as is ...

ALBUM REVIEW January 19, 2016

Hannes Riepler: Wild Life

By Bruce Lindsay

Austrian-born guitarist and composer Hannes Riepler moved to the UK a decade ago, releasing debut album The Brave (Jellymould Jazz) in 2012. Wild Life is his second album: with a new and slightly stripped-down line-up (no keyboards this time around) it's an equally impressive outing.Most of the tunes are Riepler's originals--there's also experienced saxophonist and new band member Chris Cheek's “Sailing Ships" and a cover of Beck's “Modern Guilt." The tracks are all between four and eight minutes ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 12, 2014

Paragon: Cerca

By Phil Barnes

The art of conversation is surely dying. Too many people prepared to shout out the first thought that comes into their empty head, or repeat some banal corporate half-truth intended to drown out dissenting views. Self-importance, simple bad manners and selfishness rule the world with little space to reflect on or listen to what others have to say. In jazz though things can be different--take Anglo-German collaboration Paragon for example -they describe their music as ..."the sound of four people ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 2, 2014

Paragon: Cerca

By Bruce Lindsay

It's been a decade since Anglo-German quartet Paragon formed. Cerca, recorded on an unspecified two days in Cologne, is the band's third release. The sax and Rhodes frontline, backed up by Matthias Nowak's bass and Jon Scott's drums, creates an elegant repertoire of tunes that draws on influences as diverse as '60s spiritual jazz and hip-hop grooves. Although the band's been around for ten years, Paragon's members can still be classed as part of the younger generation of ...