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
Enrico Pieranunzi: From Always to Now
by Paolo Marra
Forty-one years after its original release on a little known but quite active independent label from the '70s, Edi Pan, Alfa Music has recently reissued From Always to Now, one the most important records by pianist and composer Enrico Pieranunzi. From Always to Now represents the high point in the pianist's hard-bop phase, during which Pieranunzi's impetuous style was heavily influenced by McCoy Tyner. Shortly afterwards, inspired by his collaboration with Chet Baker, Pieranunzi would embrace the more meditative and ...
read moreJimbo Tribe: Rite of Passage
by Don Phipps
There is much to like about the Italian group Jimbo Tribe's album Rite Of Passage. The trio of pianist Lewis Saccocci, bassist Dario Piccioni, and drummer Nicolò Di Caro are joined by guest trumpeter Anotello Sorrentino, and the quartet offers up imaginative twist after turn. The compositions are engaging and exciting. Changes are planned but feel spontaneously executed. The melodies are--in a word--beautiful. It is as if one were standing alone in the Ufizzi Gallery, lost in the reverie of ...
read moreRaffaele Califano: Horizontal Dialogues
by Mike Jurkovic
There is much to gush about on Horizontal Dialogues, Rome-based drummer /composer Raffaele Califano's second disc as a leader. From the playfully earthy and resonant 7/4 opener A Beetle Romantic" through to the looping fusion of Onin" and Out of the Loop" Califano's sense of conversation, between instruments, between players, between players and listeners, holds forth. Ably abetted by pianist Antonio Magli, who moves from piano to keyboards without a hitch and double bassist Francesco Pierotti, who one ...
read morePericopes + 1: These Human Beings
by Karl Ackermann
Having captured the favorable attention of saxophonist Dave Liebman and fellow Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava, Pericopes + 1 enters the American market with These Human Beings with the +1" representing the addition of New York based drummer Nick Wight. The varied program, musical interactions and progressive thinking behind it are likely to generate interest on this side of the Atlantic. In 2013, saxophonist Emillano Vernizzi, a Professor of jazz saxophone at the Conservatory of Music of Parma, Italy ...
read moreCarol Sudhalter: The Octave Tunes
by Donald Elfman
The notes to this thoughtful and beautifully executed disc suggest this is the first collection in which the tunes share the trait of all starting with an octave interval. True, perhaps, but what sets it apart is smart music passionately and intelligently played by musicians committed to the fine art of communication. Carol Sudhalter is a talented multi-reed instrumentalist and her work on tenor, baritone and flute is of a piece--keen on melody, finely proportioned and always ...
read moreCarol Sudhalter: The Octave Tunes
by Jack Bowers
The title of this album, according to leader/woodwind specialist Carol Sudhalter, refers to the fact that each of its thirteen tunes begins on the interval of an octave. Ten of The Octave Tunes' songs are standards, including a pair of holiday favorites, Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" and The Christmas Song." Of the three originals, two were written by Sudhalter's guests, organist Vito Di Modugno ("Pancake Blues") and precocious teen-age pianist Carlo Barile ("Cheeseburger Blue"), who accompanies Sudhalter on ...
read moreCarol Sudhalter: Shades of Carol
by Andrew Velez
This beautifully orchestrated set showcases Carol Sudhalter, who plays saxophones and flute, in a compilation of four sessions with different musical groupings. It gets off to a jumping, upbeat start with Cedar Walton's Firm Roots, immediately showing off her roots firmly in happy, mainstream swing, Andrea Torozzi's piano providing exhilarating company for the warm tenor sax. What follows is a rarely heard beauty, Victor Young's A Weaver of Dreams, on which Vittorio Sicbaldi's drums provide just the ...
read more