John Fedchock Quartet Live: Fluidity

Fluidity could have just as easily been called A Night In The Life Of A Jazz Musician. There's no high profile or out-of-place guest here to sell records, no world famous stage for this quartet to grace, and no abstruse concept to push the music with. This is just four men doing what they do on any...

Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff

Intrepid pianist and composer Vijay Iyer's Break Stuff is an intimate work brimming with an intense poetry and a subtly dramatic ambience. The latter results from the complementary and contrasting elements, which are intricately interwoven within each of the dozen tracks that comprise the album. On...

Yes: Yes: Progeny - Highlights From Seventy Two

Progeny: Highlights From Seventy Two consists of ninety minutes of live recordings exhumed from Yes' 1972 tour, some of which were released as Yessongs (Atlantic, 1973). Culled from seven previously unreleased recordings of complete concerts, and sequenced to approximate a setlist of the time, this...

Steve Slagle and Bill O'Connell: The Power Of Two

The initial impetus behind the creation of this recording was the passing of Kenny Drew Jr., an exceptional and underappreciated pianist who saxophonist m: Steve Slagle worked with, both in the Mingus Big Band and on one of his own leader dates--Reincarnation (SteepleChase, 1994). On the...

Luis Perdomo: Twenty-Two

In 1993, a twenty-two year old pianist named Luis Perdomo left Venezuela and arrived in New York City, eager to further his education and pursue his musical dreams. Now, twenty-two years later, Perdomo can certainly look back with a sense of accomplishment, having made a significant impact on the sc...

Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet: Desire

It's been three years since the Yuri Honing Quartet's True (Challenge Records, 2012), a sumptuous all-acoustic affair that was in stark contrast to the powerful, duel electric guitar-driven Wired Paradise. That particular group hasn't recorded since White Tiger (Jazz in Motion Records, 2010), though...

Isaac Darche: Team and Variations

While guitarist Isaac Darche is clearly a fan of punny titles, his music is no joke. On Team and Variations--the follow-up to the California-bred, New York-based guitarist's debut, Boom-Baptism (BJU Records, 2012)--Darche digs deep, delivering five stimulating originals and three classics that focus i...

Laurent Coq / Walter Smith III: The LaFayette Suite

In The LaFayette Suite, two exceptional musicians--French pianist m: Laurent Coq and American saxophonist m: Walter Smith III--continue the spirit of collaboration which interestingly enough began around 1777 between French nobleman / military officer Marquis de Lafayette and P...

Dave Douglas: There's Wisdom Everywhere in the Universe

We're republishing this June 2013 in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of Dave Douglas's Greenleaf Music record label. When All About Jazz last spoke with trumpeter, multi-bandleader, teacher, composer, marathon runner, podcaster, and record label head honcho Dave Douglas in November, 2011, he...

Laurent Coq / Walter Smith II: The LaFayette Suite

In The LaFayette Suite, two exceptional musicians--French pianist m: Laurent Coq and American saxophonist m: Walter Smith III--continue the spirit of collaboration which interestingly enough began around 1777 between French nobleman / military officer Marquis de Lafayette and P...

Interactivo: Que Lindo Es El Amor

With all the hoopla surrounding the lifting of the ridiculous Cuban embargo, some might think that the Cuban people, especially musicians, are sitting around waiting for this to happen. Well, think again. Though many of the premier musicians have gone into exile for a myriad of reasons, those who re...

Hayden Chisholm: Breve

Saxophonist m: Hayden Chisholm, who hails from New Zealand, has set up shop in in Germany. His debut set as a leader for Germany's Pirouet Records, Breve, features a teaming with fellow Kiwi, bassist m: Matt Penman, and British piano legend John Taylor, The sound, untethered...

Reggie Quinerly: Invictus

Drummer Reggie Quinelry's second release as a leader Invictus is a collection of short, tightly woven and compelling pieces that Quinerly and his quintet interpret with understated fervor and sublime elegance. Quinerly showcases his compositional and leadership skills while shunning the spotlight hi...

Oliver Lake / William Parker: To Roy

Bassist m: William Parker has formed productive liaisons with some wonderfully expressive alto saxophone players in the past--m: Rob Brown and m: Jemeel Moondoc both spring to mind. But To Roy represents his first time on record with m: Oliver Lake, best...

Joe Locke: Joe Locke: Love is a Pendulum

Since signing with MotA -- ma Music a couple years back, vibraphonist Joe Locke has been releasing some of the best and most diverse music in a career now entering its fourth decade. Form the near-fusion energy of 2012's Signing--the long overdue studio followup to the Joe Locke / Geoffrey Keezer group...

Charles Lloyd: Wild Man Dance

Wonders seem to never cease where Charles Lloyd is concerned. In a career spanning more than half a century, Lloyd's well of creativity has never run dry. He remains peerless when it comes to producing transcendent music. While plenty of musicians tend to slow down as they get older, the opposite se...

Joanna Pascale: To Tell a Story in Song

Among jazz vocalists, there are two main categories: those who belt out a tune with flourish, ornamentation, punctuation, and improvising known as "scat." m: Ella Fitzgerald is the prime representative of that approach. Then there are those who omit the superfluous, carefully crafting eve...

Pete Rodriguez: El Conde Negro

Pete Rodriguez isn't a purist. He knows his salsa, as one would expect of the offspring of famed salsa vocal icon Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, and he knows his jazz. But this trumpeter-vocalist sees no need to draw strong separation between the two. In creating El Conde Negro, Rodriguez mines Nuyorica...

Steve Tibbetts: a€oeNorthern Songa€ and the Sounds of Silence

It's a chilly, overcast afternoon in jny: Oslo, Norway in late October 1981. This close to the Arctic Circle, the days are already rapidly shortening with winter's approach, the sun beginning to disappear over the horizon by mid-afternoon. In a darkened studio, guitarist {{m: Steve Tibbetts = 10...

Hiroshi Fukutomi: Memory Stones

Osaka-born, Berklee-trained and currently plying his craft in Tokyo, guitarist Hiroshi Fukutomi's second release as leader following Rings of Saturn (D-Musica, 2010) is a satisfyingly melodic affair. These ten originals reveal Fukutomi's ability to pen a good tune, as well as his dexterity on both e...

Rich Keith: Pure Jazz Radio

As a jazz performer with a career spanning decades, I've seen the music industry and jazz scene continually evolve, embracing radio, television, the internet, and beyond to grow and interact with the audience. Rich Keith, part time on-air host at WBGO and, since 2009, owner and general manager of...

Jakob Bro: Gefion

Throughout his career, Danish guitarist m: Jakob Bro has continued to refine and improve his musical expression. It has been a constant search that has taken him in many different directions, from the refined chamber-playing and melodic purity on the Balladeering-trilogy to remix experim...

Blood, Sweat, Drum + Bass with Palle Mikkelborg and David Liebman: Blood, Sweat, Drum + Bass: In the Spirit of...

The 25-30 piece Danish big band Blood Sweat Drums + Bass isn't your typical big band. The juggernaut steered by Jens Christian "Chappe" Jensen meshes traditional jazz sections of trumpet, saxophone and trombone with electronics and electric guitar, and has incorporated DJs and rappers on occasion. A...

Katie Thiroux: Walking a Classy and Swinging Line

Katie Thiroux, a young musician out of jny: Los Angeles, plays the bass and sings with equal conviction. Her musical experiences began with classical, but a career in jazz is what she eventually focused on and Thiroux--who received several accolades while climbing the tricky stairway of such a c...

Polar Bear: Same As You

Polar Bear's seventh album, Same As You appears barely 12 months after album number six, In Each And Every One (Leaf Label, 2014). It's far from being a "more of the same" follow-up though--this is a softer, more-at-peace Polar Bear sound than its predecessor, a mellower vibe. There are just six tra...

Burt Eckoff: A Pianist's Close Encounters With the Greats of Jazz

Active in the jny: New York City jazz scene since the 1960s, pianist m: Burt Eckoff played with many jazz greats, among them m: Howard McGhee, m: Maynard Ferguson, m: Art Blakey, m: Sonny Stitt and m: Archie Shepp. He is known fo...

Liam Noble: A Room Somewhere

A Room Somewhere is Liam Noble's second solo album: a mix of standards and improvised pieces that showcases this fine pianist's talents to excellent effect. Occasionally, critics refer to second albums as "difficult." The assumption is that the first album draws inspiration from 20 years of the arti...

Thomas Bergeron: Sacred Feast

On the surface, the late Olivier Messiaen was no lover of jazz. When the topic came up in an interview that he gave in the mid '80s, he was quick to say that jazz, as a style, was something of a stylistic "robber" or borrower rather than an innovator, and that he'd "never been fond of jazz." So what...

Henry Threadgill Zooid: In For A Penny, In For A Pound

No artist manages to marry compositional specificity and independent thought to the degree that Henry Threadgill does. And while his singular vision(s) with groups like Air and Very Very Circus have already earned him a place in the history of this music, when all is said and done, his work with Zoo...

Michael Oien: And Now

And now, the arrival of And Now--the debut leader date from bassist Michael Oien. Oien, who's worked with everybody from saxophonist m: Uri Gurvich to guitarist m: Nir Felder to pianist m: Roy Assaf, is primed to make a strong statement here. He's done his homewor...

Mike Fletcher Trio: Vuelta

Vuelta is the debut release from the Mike Fletcher Trio, a band with a strong emphasis on improvisations based on Fletcher's melodies. The result is an accessible collection of tunes that draw on the creativity and technical skills of all three players.The trio is based in Birmingham, the major city...

Take Five with Devin Roth

Meet Devin Roth: Originally from Kelowna, BC, Canada, Devin Roth is an accomplished pianist and composer. He is in demand as a composer and orchestrator in the film industry in jny: Los Angeles and has worked on projects including The Book of Life, Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas, Empire (TV seri...

Polder: Polder

Polder is a Dutch quintet, led by bassist and composer m: Guus Bakker. Bakker has been a professional musician since the mid-90s, with an extensive resumA(C) as a sideman, so it's perhaps surprising that Polder is his debut as a bandleader and writer. His unhurried pace is rewarded by a va...

Eivind Aarset: The Edge Between Intimacy and Courage

Guitarist and composer m: Eivind Aarset is one of the most imaginative exponents of the spirit of open diversity that defines and differentiates the Nordic Jazz soundscape. Coming along a progressive-rock line of influence enriched by a world music heritage and refined by electronics, hi...

John Patitucci: Brooklyn

Brooklyn is where it all started for John Patitucci. While the renowned bassist may have initially made his mark in sunny California, working with jazz luminaries and establishing himself as a strong presence in the studio scene in the '80s, his New York childhood helped to get him there. It's that...

Keith Jarrett: Keith Jarrett: Creation

It's been four years since pianist Keith Jarrett--an ECM recording artist since the early '70s--last released a solo piano recording, 2011's Rio. While its more consistently buoyant, optimistic nature reflected similar changes in Jarrett's life, it was not a recording that, for example, ranked as hi...

Andy Sheppard: Tales From the Bristol Underground Jazz Revolution

"Jazz has always been an underground thing. It doesn't have the power and might of opera, but it should," says Andy Sheppard, shortly after the UK premier of Surrounded by Sea (ECM, 2015) at the Bristol Jazz and Blues Festival. "Everyone in the music industry has a respect for jazz music, and they sho...

Harvie S / Sheryl Bailey: Plucky Strum

Two musicians, two acoustic string instruments, and ten original works recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, edits, or fixes of any sort. That's Plucky Strum in a nutshell, but that's also unfairly reductive in its explanation of the project. For when the two musicians under discussion are a...

Allison Neale: I Wished on the Moon

There was a time, roughly half a century ago, when West Coast jazz was seen as the hippest music on the planet, its leading lights known and praised far and wide for espousing a brand of "cool jazz" that stood in stark contrast to its more heated East Coast counterpart. Much like any other trend, th...

Babelfish: Chasing Rainbows

Lightness. Lightness of touch, of voice, of mood. That's the defining characteristic of Chasing Rainbows, the second album by UK quartet Babelfish. The line-up is the same as that on debut album Babelfish (Moletone Records, 2012). Vocalist Brigitte Beraha and pianist Barry Green are the band's write...

Theo Jackson: Shoeless And The Girl

Theo Jackson's second album, Shoeless And The Girl, is an old-fashioned kind of record. That's "old-fashioned" as in melodic, swinging, understated, lyrically engaging--old-fashioned in a really good way.Jackson's debut, Jericho (Self Produced, 2012), was impressive but the lengthy songs sometimes l...

Jax Jazz Collective: All the Things You Are: The Music of Jerome Kern

This is a marvelous approach to making jazz recordings: picking one Great American Songbook composer at time and exploring a set of his tunes, with a personal touch. Pianist Oscar Peterson released a series of tributes to the Standards tune-smith's on Verve Record back in the 1950s, tagged "Songbook...