Featured Jazz Articles
Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.
John Coltrane: Top Ten Live Albums
by Chris May
This article is a companion piece to John Coltrane: An Alternative Top Ten Albums, which listed ten albums widely regarded as essential items in John Coltrane's discography and discussed another ten of comparable importance. John Coltrane: Top Ten Live Albums narrows the focus to club and concert recordings. Coltrane's live performances had a trajectory which was largely independent of his studio albums; he did not build set lists around his latest release. For instance, Coltrane never “toured" ...
read moreThe Unstoppable James Brandon Lewis
by Eric Gudas
Tenor saxophonist, composer, and writer James Brandon Lewis is driven by a restlessness that makes him one of his generation's standout players of, and thinkers about jazz. Although he was voted Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in the 2020 DownBeat Magazine International Critic's Poll, most might say, after listening to his recent releases, that his star has already risen. Hailing from Buffalo, New York, Lewis apprenticed at Howard University, CalArts, the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, ...
read moreJohn Patitucci: The Quintessence of Acoustic and Electric
by Jim Worsley
John Patitucci had his life's work in mind at age twelve, At a time when most of us were worried about junior high school and pimples, Patitucci concluded that he was to be a professional musician. This was no typical young boy fantasy of playing center field for the Yankees, being an astronaut, or even being the next great rock star. No, wise beyond his years, he modestly knew that he had the skills and musicality. It takes more than ...
read moreShabaka Hutchings: Black to the Future
by Chris May
Though he is far too modest to make any such claim himself, most observers agree that saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings is the standard-bearer for the new wave of jazz musicians who have emerged in London since around 2015. Hutchings is a few years older than most of the cohort. He made his debut recording in 2007 while still a student at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, on keyboard player Funsho Ogundipe's The Afrobeat Chronicles Vol. 2 (Flying ...
read moreGary Bartz At 80: On Jazz Is Dead, Miles Davis And Why Improvisation Is A Dirty Word
by Rob Garratt
It's hard to talk to Gary Bartz about music. Not because he's a difficult or reluctant interviewee—quite the opposite. In fact, the 80-year-old saxophonist is refreshingly unguarded and garrulous when looking back over his formidable six-decade musical career. It's just finding the right words that's the tricky part. Like many musicians, jazz isn't one of them he's a fan of—for the word's pejorative roots as much as its genre pigeonholing. Which is why, as a quick-fast rule, it ...
read moreJohn Pizzarelli: The Metheny Project
by R.J. DeLuke
Guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli has been a road warrior in a long career spanning some five decades. He's known for following in the footsteps of his father, the great jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, as a champion of the Great American Songbook working with classic jazz musicians and singers. He eventually became one of those singers that keeps classic works alive: a crooner, at times, who can also play music from well beyond the swing era. He cuts it as ...
read moreDean Brown: Global Fusion on Acid
by Jim Worsley
From the outset, the equation was simple enough. Jazz + rock = fusion. However, whether it was Miles Davis, Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin, or any of the pioneers of fusion, the music has always been far from simplistic. Musical depth has long been the trademark of a genre that has been through many incarnations and traversed a multitude of directions. Jazz and rock has been supplemented through time by funk and Latin and other enriching flavors of sound.
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