Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Katie King - Harry's Fight
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
She's not quite a torch singer, but you're likely to get that sense from the album cover and the American songbook selections. For her fourth album (and first in 10 years), Katie King plunges through some admittedly torchy pieces, but also includes a few rather catchy original numbers and adaptations of a few pop (primarily the Beatles) pieces. The album opens with an original that comes out a bit stuttered, almost in the realm of a slow rap... read more
Electric Squeezebox Orchestra - Cheap Rent
by Yoshi Kato, Downbeat Magazine
* * * *1/2 stars!
Humor and camaraderie characterize the thoroughly enjoyable debut from this communal big band with an ongoing Sunday residency at a stylish and comfortable subterranean venue in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.
Led by trumpeter Erik Jekabson, the ESO is an impressively democratic group. On the album, 15 0f the 23 members have solos, and five contribute original compositions. Cheap Rent opens with a... read more
The Vocal Jazz Collective - Redefinition
by C. Michael Bailey, 100 Degrees at Midnight Arts Blog
One need only read the producer's name of this fine multi-vocalists disc to understand its daring and probing personality. Jeff Baker has recorded several releases for the OA2 imprint of OriginArts, including Baker Sings Chet (2004), Monologue (2005), Shopping For Your Heart (2007), and, most recently, Of Things Not Seen (2009).
Baker is a durable, talented vocalist, who also has a talent for teaching and... read more
Barney McClure - Show Me!
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
5-STARS! While organist Barney McClure receives top billing on this exhilarating new album, he is happy to share it, for good reason, with the superlative Central Washington University Jazz Band from Ellensburg. As McClure asserts in the liner notes, "I was no more than a lucky rider on the bus." Well, a bit more than that, Barney, as your dynamic Hammond B3 is as pivotal to its auspicious outcome as the band's inspired performance or Phil... read more
Ben Neuman - Introductions
by Howard Reich, Chigaco Tribune
Fresh out of the University of Chicago, pianist Ben Neuman hasn't yet had much of a chance to build a reputation, but judging by his performance on the aptly named "Introductions" (OA2 Records), he's off to an uncommonly strong start.
Apart from the obvious fluidity of his technique and crystalline quality of his touch, Neuman shows a prodigious mastery of the standard repertory that forms the bulk of this CD. His deeply expressive... read more
Idit Shner - Live at the Jazz Station
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Alto saxist Idit Sner displays a warm and rich tone as she leads her quartet of Torrey Newhart/p-org, Garrett Baxter/b and Ken Mastrogiovanni/dr through a swinging set at Oregon's The Jazz Station a couple years back.
The team is West Coast Cool as they Shner pops through "Yesterdays" to open things up, and Newhart's organ gets into a funky mood as the rhythm team shuffles through "Shake It Till You Hear It Sizzle". The trio shows its wares... read more
Laura Welland - Love Is Never Out Of Season
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
In lot of years of listening I've come across a couple of five star takes on Fats Waller's classic song "Honeysuckle Rose": Benny's Goodman's extended, loose-limbed, rollicking live version on Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert; and Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton's good time rendition -- featuring a characteristic pinpoint precision trumpet solo by Pops -- on Satch Plays Fats. Now I've found a third.
Vocalist Laura Welland chose the classic to... read more
Kelley Johnson - Something Good
by Jonathan Widran, JW Vibe
To paraphrase the title from a whimsical British Invasion hit co-written by Carole King, Seattle based vocal interpreter and sassy scatter extraordinaire Kelley Johnson is truly into Something Good on her fifth album - which also marks the start of her third decade as a recording artist.
More than simply an exquisitely arranged set of slightly lesser known gems composed and/or popularized by Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, The... read more
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