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Article: Album Review

Ernest Dawkins: Afro Straight

Read "Afro Straight" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 21, 2012

Afro Straight is Saturday music. That day following a work week where you take off your suit and tie or uniform, and put on that favorite sweatshirt and pair of jeans to kick back and relax in the familiar confines of your home. The familiar is your solace, and saxophonist Ernest Dawkins delivering time-honored standards is ...

Article: Interview

Mats Gustafsson: Share The Moment

by John Sharpe
October 29, 2012

Reedman Mats Gustafsson resides at the center of a hurricane of activity: relentlessly touring, curating festivals and begetting record labels. He boasts one of most distinctive sounds in free jazz, combining the extremes of scalp prickling howls with adventurous exploration of minimalist tone and timbre. Although he's come a long way since his early days in ...

Article: Book Review

Is Jazz Dead? Or Is It Just Pining for the Fjords?

by Duncan Heining
October 5, 2012

Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has It Moved to a New Address?)Stuart Nicholson288 pages, softcoverISBN: 978-0415975834Routledge2005Stuart Nicholson's Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has It Moved To A New Address?) came out in 2005 and has proved a remarkably successful book for both author and his publisher. ...

Article: Album Review

Matteo Fraboni Quintet: This is My Music

Read "This is My Music" reviewed by Alex Franquelli

by Alex Franquelli
October 5, 2012

There is a fragile red line separating the concept of revolution from history. While the latter is strictly connected with time, the former is an exception to it: it is a nihilist diversion aimed at rebuilding our perspectives and ultimately our history. This is My Music is an intriguing challenge to the known canons of jazz. ...

Article: Album Review

Josh Berman & His Gang: There Now

Read "There Now" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 22, 2012

Josh Berman is a gambler. There Now initially gives the impression that the cornetist's reversion to the music of Eddie Condon and Pee Wee Russell is only a bluff. His gang of young Chicago improvisers weaves in and out of the 1920s, inserting free jazz passages and improvised duos that could not be anticipated in the ...

Article: Interview

Ron Miles: Jazz Gentleman

by Florence Wetzel
July 16, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [Editor's note: Last month, All About Jazz contributor Florence Wetzel conducted a two-hour interview with Ron Miles. The result is the most extensive interview piece ever written about the Colorado-based trumpeter. Part 1 covers his early years and education; Parts 2 and 3, bringing Miles up ...

Article: The Moment's Energy

Marion Brown: The Freshness after the Rain

by Nic Jones
April 11, 2012

[Editor's Note: For the inaugural installment of his new column, in which he monkeys around on the margins of jazz and improvised music, Nic Jones takes a look at the often overlooked and undervalued multi-instrumentalist, Marion Brown.] Reed player and percussionist Marion Brown's music is a singular thing. Through his associations in the 1960s--not ...

Article: Live Review

Roscoe Mitchell: London, England, March 9, 2012

by John Sharpe
March 24, 2012

Roscoe MitchellCafé OtoLondonMarch 9, 2012 Saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell followed an increasingly well trod path. Dalston's Cafe Oto has a strong track record in bringing great names from the free jazz past to the north London stage, with previous guest artists including trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Ted Daniel, and saxophonists Joe ...

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Article: Interview

Dave Douglas: A Creative Consciousness

by Dave Wayne
December 5, 2011

Considering trumpeter Dave Douglas' musical career, one word that comes to mind is “consistency." Sure, he's led a dizzying variety of bands playing in all sorts of styles. Yet, of the 30-odd recordings he's led, not one veers from the central mission of presenting challenging, original jazz. An inveterate musical risk taker, Douglas has always led ...

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Article: Live Review

Erica Seguine / Shannon Baker Jazz Orchestra: New York, October 20, 2011

by Daniel Lehner
November 9, 2011

Erica Seguine/Shannon Baker Jazz OrchestraSomethin' Jazz ClubNew York, NYOctober 20, 2011 Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz postulated that the present becomes the past only when a new present emerges. The existence of the contemporary big band--exemplified by restless creativity but a somewhat limited playing capacity--seems to belong to a handful of ...