Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Oscar Hernandez & Alma Libre - Love the Moment
by Jaime Torres Torres, National Foundation for Popular Culture (Puerto Rico)
Define jazz as one of the most beautiful expressions of art.
Developed as a musician in New York, it was inevitable that, parallel to salsa, jazz would awaken his interest early, especially when he collaborated with Ray Barretto and Dave Valent'n, who were transiting the genre.
After a career with Ismael Miranda & La Revelación, Libre, the Folkloric and Experimental Group, Barretto and Rubén Blades, among others, they did not miss the... read more
New Stories - Hope is in the Air
by C. Michael Bailey, Grapevine Culture
The three archangels of bebop piano were close friends and inspirations to one another. They were Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Elmo Hope. Who is Elmo Hope? He was said to be Thelonious Monk's favorite jazz composer. Born St. Elmo Sylvester Hope in New York City, June 27, 1923, Hope emerged in the 1950s as a promising bop pianist and composer. Sadly, his life (and discography) was painfully brief because of heroin addiction.
Breaking to the... read more
Chad McCullough & Bram Weijters - Imaginary Sketches
by Herman te Loo, Jazz Flits
"A smashing debut, a deliberate likeable album, to win over the listener."
This quartet recording with trumpeter from Chad McCullough's Seattle is traditional. That does not mean that the group with bassist Chuck Deardorf and drummer John Bishop is mainstream, it's just that the compositions
that the two leaders deliver more right-to-earth feeling than the Belgian quintet [review taken from a double review]. Weijters and McCullough search... read more
John Stowell and Dave Liebman - Blue Rose
by Martin Z. Kasdan Jr., Louisville Music News
Guitarist John Stowell was a guest artist at several of the Bellarmine University Jazz Guitar Workshops and Concerts, and saxophonist (and more) Dave Liebman has appeared here many times over the years, at the University of Louisville and elsewhere. Together, they have crafted an elegant and warm album of duets featuring their interpretations of material from Duke Ellington (the lovely title track, "Blue Rose"), Wayne Shorter (the lilting and... read more
Bobby Broom - Song And Dance
by Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
The veteran jazz guitarist (and frequent accompaniment for Dr. John and Sonny Rollins) brings his unique touch as a leader to an impressive range of songs from outside the "typical" jazz spectrum. With masterful skill, he reinvents the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" as a swing romp, even finding ways to echo "A Love Supreme." "Where is the Love" gets a lyrical ballad treatment, while he and his rhythm section hop and skip through the theme to the... read more
Todd Bishop Pop Art 4 - 69 Annee Erotique: Music of Serge Gainsbourg
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Context can be everything or nothing. Listening to 69 Annee Erotique with no background will spark recognition of well-preserved lounge music of the 1960s/'70s, performed with modern sonics imitating those of the period: A bit of psychedelia wisping into the edges of post-war Western society right before the Summer of Love and the sexual revolution. The music is all well played and entertaining. Portland Oregon drummer Todd Bishop creates a... read more
Aaron Immanuel Wright - Eleven Daughters
by Jayson Greene, emusic Review
Oh how I do love when a group manages to fuse a sense of danger into a set of pretty tunes. Recalling the talent of Clifford Jordan to bring together the roots of jazz and modern compositions, this quintet of tenor/soprano sax, trumpet, piano, double bass, and drums captures those same qualities for a very cool recording. It swings and it prowls, joyful but ready to fight. Modern straight-ahead, but imbued with the spiritual jazz of the sixties.... read more
Bug - The GADfly
by Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times
Thoughtful, provocative fare by a tight quintet of alto saxophonist Peter Epstein, guitarist Jeff Miley, keyboardist and principal composer James Miley, bassist Roger Shew and drummer Brian Hamada. They stride into the alt-jazz camp on spiky numbers like "Gadfly,"
"The Ballad of Ned Flanders" and the hard-hitting "Dark Matter." The buoyant "Wishfull Thinking" and the swinging "Tumble," built on flowing unisons between Epstein's alto and Jeff... read more
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