Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Rich Pellegrin - Episodes IV-VI
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI.org
University of Missouri prof. Pellegrin's second album is a masterwork. The pianist is joined by an extraordinary cadre of musicians, especially tenor player Neil Welch in a Coltrane like exploration of ascending enlightenment. Basically these compositions are meditations on scales....American ragas. This record will certainly make my top... read more
Amy Stephens - My Many Moods
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide
The third album from pianist Amy Stephens shows off a noteworthy maturity in composition. While portions of the album rest in somewhat stereotypical nightclub-style balladry, the majority of the works are in a highly structured modern jazz vein. Stephens suggests Keith Jarrett on the keys from time to time, with some dexterous moves inspired it would seem by classical training (there are hints of third stream embedded in some of the compositions... read more
Seattle Womens Jazz Orchestra - Meeting of the Waters
by Ric Bang, The Davis Enterprise
The "almost all" women's orchestra - a few brass players, the drummer and musical director are guys - draws upon a cadre of 29 musicians who live, work and perform in the Seattle area. They utilize a standard 17-piece unit for this album and their concerts.
Most of the musicians also play with other groups in that locale, so they certainly qualify as professionals.
This CD is the ensemble's second release. Unlike the first, which consisted... read more
Randy Napoleon - Puppets - The Music of Gregg Hill
by Joe Ross, Roots Music Report
Guitarist Randy Napoleon plays with precision and delicacy as he and his sidekicks present music from Michigan jazz composer Gregg Hill. Following their 2019 collaboration on Brothers, Napoleon's vision for this latest project was to team up with vocalist Aubrey Johnson for a sweetly blended sound. Napoleon emerged as the lyricist for "Puppets," "The Unknown Ballade" and "Wide River," while Gregg Hill's lyrics are sung to the "Truck Driver's... read more
Charlie Porter - Immigration Nation
by Paul Rauch, All About Jazz
4 1/2 STARS Jazz has always carried with it a social narrative with historical ebbs and flows reliant on the polarizing issues of its time. With Immigrant Nation (OA2, 2019), Portland based trumpeter Charlie Porter embraces the forever narrative of American immigration, the historical force of humanity that has formed and enriched this country from its beginnings. The linear timeline of American immigration that widened at the beginning... read more
Mai-Liis - Mai-Liis On Life
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
If Elizabeth Gilbert wanted to be a jazzbo, the results might have been something like what we have here. Coming into her own after years of stops and starts, Mai-Liis isn't a thrush or a cabaret type mainly using jazz to give her voice a voice. It's jazz for women of a certain age that want to hear a voice that knows what they are... read more
Sara Leib - Secret Love
by Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
A cursory glance at the track listing for Secret Love may paint it as another simple celebration of standards, but that's not the case. Singer Sara Leib takes the road less traveled by delivering ear-opening, metrically twisted, stylistically broad interpretations of oft-covered classics with a to-die-for cast of cutting-edge collaborators.
Leib, who holds degrees in music from the New England Conservatory and the University of... read more
Gustavo Cortinas - Esse
by Jeff Potter, DownBeat
4-STARS Drummer/composer Gustavo Cortiñas' second disc as a leader intends to unite his dual passions of music and philosophy. The music, he explains, was "inspired by prominent figures in the history of Western philosophy," and his 11 compositions were meant to "illustrate their concepts of being." That could potentially be a red flag for an intellectual slog. But nothing could be further from the truth. Cortiñas' music is uplifting,... read more
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