Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Chris Walden - Chris Walden: Symphony No. 1 - The Four Elements
by Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide
**** 4-stars
German-born Chris Walden is best known as a jazz performer (he created his own big band), for his writing for film (he has scored over 40), and for his orchestral arranging (his clients are as diverse as Paul Anka, Sheryl Crow, Barbra Streisand, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). His first symphony is the first piece of absolute music he has written for orchestra and marks a move toward reaching out to a more traditionally... 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
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
Yumiko Endo Schlaffer - Rhapsodie
by Alison Young, Harp Column
Like the luscious glamour of her CD cover, Japanese harpist Yumiko Endo Schlaffer plays with a luxurious richness as soft as the velvet she lightly places herself on. Rhapsodie is sheer grace and elegance.
I am convinced a great deal of planning went into this CD. It?s not just one beautiful number after another with several French pieces that leaves us breathless and relaxed?Yumiko takes us far afield. One of my favorites is from her native... 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
Tom Collier - Mallet Fantastique
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Mallet percussionist Tom Collier finally educates listeners on the difference between the vibraphone and marimba: it is the sound. These mallet-driven instruments make a great alternative to the piano, both in solo and ensemble settings. They are rich instruments, the vibraphone with its resonant presence and the marimba with its organic woodiness. Mallet Fantastique houses six extended compositions for mallets that Collier recorded between 2004... 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
Dan Dean - Songs Without Words
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
TOP TEN OF 2017 - And lastly - something not jazz: Bassist Dan Dean has created a set of sounds as innovative, in its way, as the 1968's Moog synthesizer-driven Switched on Bach (Columbia Masterworks, 1968), from the forward thinking Walter (Now Wendy) Carlos. Crafting a polar opposite of sorts of the legendary Carlos set, Dean - with just his bass and his overdubbed voice - shapes a gorgeous, soaring, ephemeral sound, drawing from Bach,... read more
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