Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
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
Doug Lofstrom - Concertino: The Music Of Doug Lofstrom
by Robert Iannapollo, Cadence
Doug Lofstrom is a composer who is currently teaching at Columbia College Chicago. While the two main compositions on Concertino - Concertino For Oboe And Orchestra and Concertino for Harp And Orchestra, both 2011 - are both in the classical vein, it?s the third piece on the disc, ?The Plumed Serpent? (1982), that would most likely interest Cadence readers. In the early 80s Lofstrom was an active jazz bassist in Chigcao and he was in a trio... read more
Jim Gailloreto Jazz String Quintet - American Complex
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
For his sophomore effort with the Chicago-based HAWK string quartet in tow, Jim Gailloreto's skill in composition and arrangement for a string quartet has increased notably. Instead of forcing the quartet into a gypsy-jazz romp, Gailloreto keeps the players in their comfort zone -- free from improvisation, and showcasing technical mastery and careful collaboration without sacrificing an austerity of sorts. Over the top of the quartet, though,... 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
Seattle Trumpet Consort - After Baroque: Music For The Natural Trumpet
by Adam Greenberg, All Music
A group created in order to study and exhibit the sound of the natural trumpet (the trumpet prior to the addition of valves), the Seattle Trumpet Consort put together a collection of works created after the Baroque period that showcases the trumpet in its original form, using instruments modeled after museum pieces. Combining with them is a timpani modeled after another museum piece and a pair of flutists using Baroque versions of their... read more
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 - 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
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