Jazz Articles
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All About Jazz Acquired by AI Collective, Announces Fully Autonomous Criticism
by AAJ Staff
In a move that industry observers are already calling “inevitable," All About Jazz today announced its acquisition by a privately funded artificial intelligence consortium known only as The Collective. Financial terms were not disclosed, though sources familiar with the deal described the valuation as “algorithmically determined and emotionally neutral." Effective immediately, all editorial operations--including reviews, interviews, news coverage, and festival reporting--will be conducted by a proprietary AI system trained on over three decades of All About Jazz archives, ...
Continue ReadingFrankie Valli / Sun Ra: Between the Neon and the Cosmos
by Glenn Astarita
There are concept albums, and then there are events. Between the Neon and the Cosmos--an unlikely archival summit between the falsetto king of the New Jersey street corner and the self-proclaimed Cosmic Ambassador from Saturn--is unambiguously the latter. What began as a lost 1978 session tape, reportedly arranged through the mutual obsession of a now-anonymous Atlantic Records A&R man, surfaces here fully remastered and accompanied by two newly overdubbed tracks, and the result is one of the most genuinely strange ...
Continue ReadingStreaming Services Introduce “Skip the Solo” Button After Listener Feedback
by AAJ Staff
For listeners who love jazz--just not all of it. In a sweeping update rolled out this week, major streaming platforms have introduced a new feature aimed squarely at modern listening habits: the “Skip the Solo" button. The function, now live across several leading services, allows users to bypass improvised sections in jazz recordings and jump directly from the head to the next composed passage--or, in many cases, the end of the track. “This is ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington, Brian Wilson and Friends: Shimmering Prologue: The Lost Sandbox Sessions
by Mike Jurkovic
Picture this: LA: Tuesday, early September, '66. A few months after Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966) reshaped the landscape. The weather (pre-climate change) breaks around the mid 70's with a slight breeze sliding in from the east. Mired in an un-stately creative slump, Duke Ellington finds himself being ushered into 6000 Sunset Boulevard (Western Studio 3 for all you folklorists out there) where Beach Boy Brian Wilson (a man who believed his every whim was a twenty-four track master) ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra: Heimstad--Sun Ra Meets Pierre Boulez
by Daniel Mège
Most will remember John Cage Meets Sun Ra (Meltdown Records, 1987), drawn from a June 8, 1986 concert at Coney Island, at the initiative of producer Rick Russo to promote his new label. Cage did not know Ra, Ra barely knew Cage, and by most accounts the encounter was a non-encounter. A similar experience brought Ra and Pierre Boulez together that same year. The tapes were lost, recovered, and remastered in 2024: yielding the album Heimstad: Sun Ra Meets Pierre Boulez.
Continue ReadingCirque du Soleil: From J to Z - A Fantasia
by Geno Thackara
It feels familiar enough at the start: a bluesy piano intro, a playful back-and-forth exchange between a pair of horns... but within a few minutes, the stage lighting has turned practically psychedelic. Figures begin weaving through the dinner tables, masked like animals but garbed in sequined dresses and hip suits. Soon they are forming small human pyramids and doing somersaults off the piano. Two teams start an unexpected game of catch by flinging the double bass across the stage. Not ...
Continue ReadingMajor Conservatories Introduce “Influencer Studies” for Jazz Musicians
by AAJ Staff
If you can't build an audience, does the audience exist? Facing declining enrollment in traditional performance programs and a rapidly evolving music industry, several leading conservatories have announced a bold new academic track: Influencer Studies for Jazz Musicians. The curriculum, launching this fall, aims to equip students with the skills necessary not only to master their instruments, but to cultivate a personal brand, grow a digital audience, and maintain consistent engagement across platforms. “This ...
Continue ReadingKing Pleasure: King Pleasure Sings the Freudian Slips Songbook
by Nicholas F. Mondello
In 1951 in Vienna, a graduate school psychology student and amateur harpist doing work on Freud literally stumbled upon a handful of torn-edged music manuscript papers of the legendary psychiatrist. Recognizing what could be a major historical discovery, the student carefully peeled the sheets individually and, looking around for cameras and other crime-watchers, made off with the slips of paper. After verifying the source by comparing the writing with Freud's sketches, she immediately brought the papers to one Clarence Beeks, ...
Continue ReadingDiana Ross & Frank Zappa: Soul Freak Symphony
by Glenn Astarita
When Diana Ross, the glittering soul siren of Motown, and Frank Zappa, the madcap maestro of musical anarchy, unveiled Soul Freak Symphony in March 1985 but was put in limbo due to contractual issues. Hence, it was not just an album--it was a cosmic detonation of sound and sanity. This 12-track hallucination melds Ross's velvety charisma with Zappa's unhinged genius, resulting in a creation so far outside the box it might as well be orbiting Saturn. The opener ...
Continue ReadingDexter Gordon & The Stooges: Raw Blow Power
by Glenn Astarita
Imagine a Detroit dive bar in 1969, where the feral howl of The Stooges collides with the towering tenor of Dexter Gordon in a haze of sweat, distortion, and cigarette smoke. Raw Blow Power, released on the FuzzTone rock label, is that feverish hallucination brought to life--a snarling, swinging beast of an album that fuses proto-punk savagery with hard bop finesse. The story goes that someone taped this lost session in a single booze-soaked night at the Grande ...
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