Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Florie Rothenberg - Voices Of Trees
by Adam Greenberg, All Music
Little-heard are modern compositions most of the time, with most classical musicians as well as fans opting more often for the classics, as it were. Seattle-based clarinetist Florie Rothenberg wanted to push the envelope a bit in response to this, finding compositions from modern female composers specifically for the clarinet and piano. The recording opens with the title composition, a fairly pastoral series written just for the album by... read more
Dan Dean - Songs Without Words
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Wanna know what heaven is going to sound like? Grab a hold of this album and you'll at least have a hint.
Dan Dean supplies layers of his voice as well as an occasional bass and whistle to this wonderfully arranged collection of "classic" classics. His wordless vocals create an ethereal mood that floats with sublime joy on Bach's "Air on a G String" while he makes you feel like you're in a dream on "The Sheep May Safely Graze." Dean creates a... read more
Idit Shner & Yumiko Endo Schlaffer - Fissures: 20th Century Music For Saxophone And Harp
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Multi-reedist Idit Shner made quite a splash with her debut recording, Tuesday's Blues (OA2, 2009). On that album, Shner led a straight- ahead quartet through some not so straight-ahead arrangements of traditional Jewish music. On Fissures she joins harpist Yumiko Endo Schlaffer in presenting 20th century compositions for saxophone and harp. The format is not so different from the classical violin sonata (pairing the violin with piano). That... read more
Doug Lofstrom - Concertino: The Music Of Doug Lofstrom
by Daniel Coombs, Audiophile Audition
**** (4-stars)
Composer and bassist Doug Lofstrom has been composing prolifically since the 1970s. His diverse scores reflect his ongoing involvement in theater, dance, film and symphonic music. In the 1990s, he was composer-in-residence for the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra and during the 80s, musical director of Chicago?s Free Street Theatre. His works have been performed by the St. Louis, Atlanta and Oregon Symphony Orchestras, and... read more
Jim Gailloreto Jazz String Quintet - The Pythiad
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Take some lesser Greek mythology, mix it with some 50s flavored jazz into classical and you get a modern thing that sounds like it could be equally at home with the art minded or as a diversion for kids almost ala "Peter & the Wolf". Not exactly something you'd expect to be coming out of Chicago, this is a wild and wonderful set that exists in a time zone all it's... read more
Idit Shner - Le Merle Noir
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Dr. Idit Shner has released two previous recordings for the Origin Arts imprint: Tuesday's Blues (2009) and Fissures: 20th Century Music for Saxophone and Harp (2010). The multi- reedist returns with her second Origin Classic release addressing the music of a host of 20th Century composers, including Philip Glass and Olivier Messiaen. She plays alto and soprano saxophones, producing from each a studied, vibratoless tone that, in the case of the... read more
Gwendolyn Dease - Beguiled
by Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
4-STARS While this fourth album from marimbist Gwendolyn Dease is rightly seeing release on the classical arm of Origin Records, it wouldn't have been completely out of place if it had landed on the jazz side of that imprint. Dease bypasses contemporary marimba fare and late twentieth century favorites from the usual suspects like Ney Rosauro, Casey Cangelosi, Joseph Schwanter, Keiko Abe, and Jacob Druckman, focusing instead on newly... read more
Dan Dean - Songs Without Words
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
4 1/2 STARS Bassist Dan Dean's original plan for this project was the hiring of sixteen string players to join him in the studio to record a set for solo bass with string orchestra: Vivaldi's Concerto For Lute and Orchestra in D Major, along with music from JS Bach, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Albononi. The cost for the project proved prohibitive, but the paucity of funds turned out to be the mother of innovation. Dean tackled the... read more
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