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 future articles page. Read our daily album reviews.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Paul Quinichette: Like Basie
by C. Andrew Hovan
Like any business concerned with making a profit, the record industry has often resorted to questionable concepts, tributes, or other hooks to lure more costumers to their product. Currently we find ourselves in an era where the quality of original music is arguably on the decline, thus it has become even more prevalent to use nostalgia as a selling point. While ghost bands and one-off tributes may be a way to bring a new audience to the music of some ...
read moreAdam Berenson and Bill Marconi: A Codex of Silent Voices
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist/composer Adam Berenson is a mystery; his Facebook page features nothing about his music-making and, in its photo section, a couple of Jackson Pollock-like abstract paintings along with a Van Gogh-inspired seascape. The song titles on his numerous releases perpetuate the mystery--"Sepulchral Vicissitudes" and “Emotional Idiot," from Contextual (1999),and the title track to The Mystery of the Vanishing Chandelier (2001)--including the title at hand, A Codex of Silent Voices, suggesting Berenson is an artist going deep.Maybe? Maybe not. ...
read moreRalph Lalama Quartet: The Audience
by Woodrow Wilkins
Covers can become trite very quickly, but when arrangements are fresh and performance is equal to the task, they can become as endearing as new masterpieces. The Audience, by Ralpha Lalama Quartet, has that quality with its mix of lesser-known jazz songs, a little pop and some original interludes. Lalama, a tenor saxophonist, has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene for 30 years, many of them spent with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He was also ...
read moreRalph Lalama Quartet: The Audience
by C. Michael Bailey
Dexter Gordon achieved a post-bebop tenor saxophone sound that was Somewhere between the sleepy, vibrato-less tone of Lester Young and the falling-off- the-edge wail of John Coltrane. Yonkers native Ralph Lalama comes It is out of this tradition. On his fifth recording as a leader and his first release since 2008's successful Energy Fields (Mighty Quinn), Lalama elbows his way to the center with his virile, muscular tenor tone.
Lalama has been an important sideman in several seminal bands, including ...
read moreRalph Lalama: The Audience
by David A. Orthmann
A few choice items from the American Popular Songbook, tunes by Wayne Shorter, Duke Pearson, and Stevie Wonder, plus three brief duo improvisations, all rendered in a recognizable mainstream style by a band that includes two primary soloists and a bass and drums team. On the face of it, Ralph Lalama's second Mighty Quinn release appears rather modest relative to the ever expanding, unceasing advance of jazz and improvised music in the 21st Century. Nevertheless, throughout the ten tracks of ...
read moreRalph Lalama: The Audience
by Joel Roberts
Tenor saxophonist Ralph Lalama is a respected jazz journeyman probably best known for his more than 25-year tenure with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He's also played and recorded with the Joe Lovano Nonet, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and drummer Joe Morello's group, among others. But he's had relatively few opportunities to record as a leader. His 2008 release, the well-received Energy Fields (Mighty Quinn), was his first in over a decade and his first ever for a US label. ...
read moreDuck Baker: Everything That Rises Must Converge
by Bruce Lindsay
Richard “Duck" Baker's four decade career as a guitarist has encompassed folk, ragtime, blues, jazz, and avant-garde improvisation. Everything That Rises Must Converge is firmly located within the latter genre--indeed, it's sub-titled “Free Jazz Guitar Solos"--but much of the music on this enjoyable record could only have been made by an artist with a firm grasp of the more “traditional" approaches to playing the guitar. The album is the result of two recording sessions--eight pieces from a ...
read moreRalph Lalama Quartet: Energy Fields
by Woodrow Wilkins
Sometimes, small works better. That's evidenced by the plethora of jazz trio recordings released in 2008. One instrument can make a dramatic difference. That's where the Ralph Lalama Quartet comes in. Energy Fields is like a trio with additional versatility. Tenor saxophonist Lalama is joined on this effort by guitarist John Hart, bassist Rick Petrone, and drummer Joe Corsello. All came of age during the period when John Coltrane and Miles Davis put their stamps on jazz. Collectively, ...
read moreRalph Lalama Quartet: Energy Fields
by Jim Santella
An exciting band with a firm melodic grasp, Ralph Lalama's quartet pours over musical themes with emphasis, as accents fall into place with angular motion and improvised forays push forcefully. The leader's suave tenor, John Hart's sultry guitar, Rick Petrone's driving acoustic bass and drummer Joe Corsello's rhythmic thunder combine gracefully to shape each tone poem with a lyrical message. With “Indian Summer," “Blackberry Winter," “Old Folks" and “Like Someone in Love," for example, Lalama and Hart apply vocal-like phrasing ...
read moreCarmen Leggio Quartet: Carmen Leggio Quartet
by John Barron
New York tenor saxophonist Carmen Leggio has performed with the likes of Gene Krupa, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman and Maynard Ferguson. This self-titled quartet recording finds the veteran reedman swinging hard on eleven standards done in a no-nonsense, straight-ahead manner. Leggio is joined by guitar great Joe Cohn, bassist Rick Petrone and drummer Joe Corsello.
Leggio rips through familiar themes like “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise," “It Had to Be You" and “Emily" with assuredness, speaking through his horn ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 7
