Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Florian Hoefner - Songs Without Words
by Rob Young, Urban Flux
In retrospect, when I think about music particularly jazz I usually hear it from an abstract prospective. In other words, the seed is planted by the author to generate innovative, alluring melodies and stimulating progressions. From this point, creativity follows to develop a sequence of patterns, colors, and shapes. These of course are the essential elements formulated to create a montage of eclectic, cultured and emotional nuances nurtured... read more
JazzVox - Jazzvox Presents: In Your Own Backyard
by George Fendel, Jazz Society of Oregon
OA2 Records, out of Seattle, has issued a compilation of singers and most of them are well worth hearing. I guess everyone has their own favorites, but here are mine: John Proulx, a singer-pianist with a similarity to Chet Baker (but he's a better singer). He does a Frank Rosolino rarity called "Please Don't Bug Me" and also contributes a delicate love song to his newly born daughter entitled "Welcome to My World." Proulx has a couple CDs out on... read more
Gordon Lee - This Path
by Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times
New York native and longtime Portland resident Gordon Lee, a veteran pianist-arranger-composer and educator, weaves a mesmerizing spell on this singular piano-trio recording. His delicate opener, a modal take on the Chinese folk song "Pao Ma Shan," sets the evocative tone, which continues with interpretations of Jobim's "Portrait in Black & White" and Jim Pepper's "Lakota Song." Miller's "Sitting Bull's Revenge" is a playful reharmonization of... read more
Gordon Lee - This Path
by Ken Dryden, All Music Guide
Gordon Lee comes from a varied musical background, having played a number of different styles as a sideman before turning his focus to being a leader himself. This Path utilizes two separate rhythm sections (either Dave Captein or Kevin Deitz on bass, plus Carlton Jackson or Ron Steen on drums), both of which work hand in hand with the pianist. The opener, "Pao Ma Shan," is a dramatic interpretation of a Chinese folk song in a post-bop... read more
Florian Hoefner - Falling Up
by Serge Julien, Cultuur Podium (Netherlands)
Falling Up is the second album of New York's Florian H�fner Group. An album that is established in the jazz category, but is too wide-ranging to pin down as the music flows between traditional jazz patterns and leaves room for influences from other angles.
The successor to the debut Songs Without Words from 2012, which received rave reviews in magazines such as All About Jazz and Jazz Weekly, contains seven original... read more
Dean Schmidt - I Know Nothing
by Cynthia Mullis, All About Jazz, Seattle
Actually, Dean Schmidt knows quite a lot. Here, on his first outing as a leader, Schmidt takes advantage of this opportunity to express his musical personality from the driver's seat. Bass players are usually in the position of playing a supportive role while often having an unspoken control of what happens to the music. No horn player ever made a bass player sound bad, but the guy in charge of the musical foundation can make or break a band.... read more
Mark Buselli / Claude Sifferlen - Take The Mitsu
by Rick Holland, JazzRadio247.com
If you like beauty and dynamic interplay between two masterful jazz improvisers, Take the Mitsu is a disc for you. These two musicians display great sense of melody and explorative harmonic interplay while creating a very entertaining and listenable set of music. Mark Buselli a Flugelhornist, Trumpeter and arranger from Indianapolis, Indiana, co-Leads with Brent Wallarab one of the finest Big Bands in the country today. (please see BWJO.ORG).... read more
George Cotsirilos Quartet - Refuge
by Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist
From the strutting, spiky "Devolution" to the spidery, boppish "Let's Make a Break for It," the second quartet album led by guitarist George Cotsirilos continues his longstanding practice of writing and playing straight-ahead jazz that sounds like no one else. Here he leads the same combo that accompanied him last time (pianist Keith Saunders, bassist Robb Fischer, drummer Ron Marabuto), and if anything they're even tighter and more supple than... read more
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