Origin Records Reviews



Bill Anschell - Shifting Standards
by Carol Banks Weber, Festival Peak

I'm a Bill Evans type of listener. For me, a musician's touch says more than a fantastic cavalcade of impressive, overly complicated notes, impossibly juxtaposed against a harried orchestra of one. If you can make me feel down to my bones, you've got me.

Seattle's beloved jazz pianist Bill Anschell is cool, because he can do both: move and impress, touch and flash, tone and stack — often on a forgettable, throwaway standard everybody... read more

Marcos Varela - San Ygnacio
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

4-STARS Bassist Marcos Varela, Houston-bred and now New York-based, opens his recording debut, San Ygnacio, with a big, brash version of the standard, "I Should Care." His rhythm section is rounded out by veteran pianist George Cables and drum icon Billy Hart, so a free swinging zest is expected, and delivered. Logan Richardson on alto sax makes it a quartet, with tart tone and stretched notes that bring the legendary alto saxophonist... read more

David Friesen & Bob Ravenscroft - Passage
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly

Bassist David Friesen delivers concise duets with grand pianist Bob Ravenscroft for twenty five intuitive originals. Ravenscroft does some George Winston impressionism on "Perseverance" and Bill Evans romance on "Obedience" while for the most part you hear things like doors creaking open on "Temptation/Overcoming" and bass pickings and strings plucking on "Yielding" or "Family". Was that a saw I heard on "Resolution" or was it Tibetan... read more

BOX - Ten Variations On An Unknown Theme
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide

A trio of Swiss jazzers here combine for a series of entirely improvisatory jazz built in theory around a theme. That said, the theme is also unknown. The goal is to make improvisatory music while creating a theme by way of its variations. By circling in from the outside, the core form will eventually become clear. The players all perform well on their respective instruments, in a basic piano trio (with an occasional outburst of bugle). The... read more

Sam Yahel - Truth And Beauty
by Nate Chinen, New York Times

Painting Sounds Using a Palette of Shadowy Colors From Pop and Postbop

The Hammond B-3 organist Sam Yahel began his second set at the Jazz Standard on Tuesday night with a row of intervals arranged to avoid any hint of resolution. This dash of atonality was fleeting - after a minute or two he plunged into a tune along with guitar and drums - but Mr. Yahel made it an efficient statement of purpose. This was an organ-trio gig, he seemed... read more

Hal Galper Trio - Airegin Revisited
by Dave Sumner, emusic Review

Listening to the Hal Galper Trio perform is like watching fireflies? they?re a swarm of activity as they bounce off one another and flit through the air, but ostensibly pretty as they light up the night. Galper has his own sound. It?s not dramatically different from the pack, but its singular to him, and its never boring, even when it flirts with a straight-ahead modern approach. Joining him are pros Jeff Johnson on bass and John Bishop on... read more

Hal Galper - Live at the Berlin Philharmonic, 1977
by Georg Modestin, Jazz N More (Switzerland)

Born in 1938, he has remained a "musicians' musician" despite a long career as an instrumentalist, band leader, composer, arranger and teacher. He was a member of the Cannonball Adderley quintet for almost three years, followed by a further ten in that of Phil Woods. In the second half of the 1970s he himself headed a band whose line-up is easy to find: the two Brecker brothers Randy and Mike formed the explosive front line, Wayne Dockery (not... read more

Bobby Broom - The Way I Play: Live In Chicago
by Ben Franklin, Cashbox Magazine

Guitarist Bobby Broom has been recording since the late 1970s. As sideman, he recorded with such leaders as Sonny Rollins, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell, Dizzy Gillespie, and David Murray. He led sessions for Criss Cross, Delmark, and Premonition. He is one of the founders of the Deep Blue Organ Trio. Despite these associations, he is less well known than he should be.

His current trio, with bassist Dennis Carroll and drummer Kobie... read more

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