Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Karen Marguth - Until
by Michael Steinman, Jazz Lives
I've heard some jazz fans of a certain age say that the best days of the music they love are far behind them. "When I want to hear real _______, I just put on my [insert twentieth-century date] records by [dead people]. Nobody's playing / singing like that now." And an even more widely stated assertion is, "Nobody's making great CDs now because no one buys CDs anymore."
With her new CD, the remarkable singer Karen Marguth proves that both... read more
Randy Napoleon - Rust Belt Roots: Randy Napoleon Plays Wes Montgomery, Grant Green & Kenny Burrell
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Tipping the cap to the sounds he loved growing up--the guitars of Montgomery, Green and Burrell as heard from his perch in Detroit, Napoleon has paid too may dues to manqué it up now. Ignoring the jazz police who thought this bunch was too commercial and didn't always give them the proper respect, Napoleon just lets fly. Even at the easiest moments he's asking what's so bad about feeling good? Whether laying back or playing with break neck... read more
Francesco Crosara - Circular Motion
by Patrizia Marinelli, BackDigit Magazine (Italy)
Francesco Crosara: the musical story of the virtuoso pianist in the album "Circular Motion"
Francesco Crosara recently released his new album Circular Motion. These are 10 selected pieces which in some way tend to summarize the brilliant career of the Italian pianist who has settled for years in Seattle in the United States. Music that draws from compositions of the last 40 years. From the simplest and most "naive" music of the early... read more
Fumi Tomita - The Elephant Vanishes: Jazz Interpretations of the Short Stories of Haruki Murakami
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Bassist Fumi Tomita gives "Jazz Interpretations of the Short Stories of Haruku Murakami" in a jazz vein teamed up with Jason Rigby/ts-ss, Mike Baggetta/g, Art Hirahara/p and Mark Micklehwaite/dr. Tomita takes the band on a bop trip during "Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women" with warm tenor work, while Baggeta's guitar gets a bit elliptical on "Dancing Dwarf." Tomita's touch is warm and glove soft on the lithe title track, giving a rich and... read more
Carolyn Graye with Jessica Williams - Songs
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide
On this album of vocal jazz from Carolyn Graye, a Seattle resident and occasional traveler on behalf of the U.S. government, Graye sings with only the accompaniment of Jessica Williams on piano, giving the album a nice nightclub mood. The vocals are given just the right intonation to keep a smoky atmosphere in the mix, and the piano, while given a good deal of freedom, usually keeps to relatively simple riffing, only occasionally going for... read more
Alex Goodman - Border Crossing
by Ted Quinlan, The Whole Note
Composition and improvisation flow freely into each other on guitarist Alex Goodman's Border Crossing. For his latest recording Goodman has assembled what can best be described as a jazz chamber group. His writing is ambitious and complex, making full use of the wide range of colours available from this outstanding ensemble. Andrew Downing, who doubles on bass and cello, and vocalist Felicity Williams contribute to the group's ability to cross... read more
Danny Green - Altered Narratives
by Kirk Silsbee, Downbeat Magazine
Double bills haven't been part of the Los Angeles jazz landscape for long. The complimentary booking of pianists Danny Green and Josh Nelson and their bands may not have been sufficient to draw comparison to the era when Billie Holiday and her trio alternated sets with the Red Norvo Band at Billy Berg's, but it was certainly an inspired pairing. The Blue Whale, a couple of blocks away from where Charlie Parker made his last stand before his six... read more
Dan Gailey Jazz Orchestra - What Did You Dream?
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
While Origin Records focuses on the Northwest, the offshoot label OA2 has a habit of finding exceptional jazz hidden away in the Midwest. A case in point is Dan Gailey, a jazz director from the University of Kansas who has a following as a composer for large ensembles. Here, he gets a chance to show off the reason behind his following. The album opens with "Audacity," mixing the grandiose fanfares of 1970s big bands with bubbling lead horns... read more
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