A Win-Win Proposition
****
Purchasing the new CD by tenor saxist, David Sills, is a winning proposition as it provides both classy jazz by a talented saxophonist with top level sidemen, and a portion of the profits go to the Sierra Club. Such a deal - good music benefiting a worthy cause!
I last reviewed Sills playing on trumpeter Liam Sillery's OA2 Records release, On the Fly, last year and found Sills to be an important part of that... read more
Pianist Jessica Williams thinks deeply about her spiritual relationship with the instrument, and the deep cohesive bond is evident in her recordings. Touch finds her at one of her two favorite pianos in a comfortable space in Seattle, The Triple Door, where the audience is quietly attentive. Williams is a serious blend of the romantic experimenter, in love with the expansive sounds of the piano, and the player who knows the value of space and... read more
Harmonic trio jazz Eric Jacobson Pamela York Clay Schaub - HINDSIGHT: This recent release (it hit the street officially on 20 October, 2023) is some of the most harmonic trio jazz I've ever listened to... I have little doubt you will fall in love with Eric's trumpet, Pamela's piano and Clay's bass as quickly as I did. Though this performance is from over a year ago, it will give you an intimate look at the trio's total talent style...
The... read more
It is a testament to how singular and beloved the music of Thelonious Monk is that the slightest changes to it can be unsettling. Almost from the moment drummer Clarence Penn and his quartet Penn Station launch into "Well, You Needn't," Monk devotees will feel like something is off. The overall tone is more flippant than wry, words are being whispered in the background, and the piano and bass are electric. The intent is not blasphemous: On this... read more
Since the 1960s, Stevie Wonder's "My Cheri Amour" has remained one of the most memorable love songs in popular music. In collaboration with Motown songwriters Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy, the hit song was originally titled "Oh My Marcia"?at the time, a tender ode to Wonder's girlfriend in his adolescent years. The two broke up, the song underwent a name change, and the rest is history.
The Deep Blue Organ Trio offers its own heartfelt... read more
How young is too young when it comes to exposing your youngsters to jazz? According to the producers of this album, a Bay Area couple with a one-year-old daughter, and the arranger, Doug Beavers Rovira, apparently if you can play or sing nursery rhymes to your toddler, you can begin the jazz indoctrination. Enter Matt Catingub and Linda Harmon to sing and swing them, accompanied by a 21-piece band filled with L.A. and San Francisco players, and... read more
The Future Was Yesterday opens with a bass/drum knock and rumble, churning ahead with a loose momentum. A bit after a minute into the song "Inner Vision" the piano chords in with some gentle chimes, and you know right off you're listening to a hell of a rhythm section. Then Brad Wheeler blows into the mix on a robust and searching tenor, and you know you've got a hell of a saxophonist, too.
That opener has me thinking of the classic Coltrane... read more
"The cold shower that warms the heart"
In a "modest" way, I quote from a recent report: the universe of jazz is unknowable! We can meet again and again with the recordings of unknown artists, and we can run into music that we immediately fall in love with. I feel like I'm in such a galaxy now, in connection with the new piano album by the pianist Florian Hoefner, "Coldwater Stories." I started to listen to the puppet totally "Hoefner's". As I... read more
This is just a small collection of the Origin Records reviews. Click here to view all reviews or try to Search for your favorite CD title.
John La Barbera Big Band - Grooveyard
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
Martin Budde - Back Burner
by Paul Rauch, All About Jazz
Alon Farber Hagiga with Dave Douglas - The Magician: Live in Jerusalem
by Dan Ouellette, Jazz & Beyond Intel
John Bishop - Antwerp
by Ed Sapiega, Jazz Views (UK)
Benjamin Boone - Caught in the Rhythm
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'n'More (Switzerland)
Maddie Vogler - While We Have Time
by Dorothea Gängel, Jazz'n'More (Switzerland)
Affinity Trio - Hindsight
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'n'More (Switzerland)
Bobby Rozario - Spellbound
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'n'More (Switzerland)
Jeff Johnson - My Heart
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'n'More (Switzerland)
Michael Dease - The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'n'More (Switzerland)