Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Florian Hoefner - Luminosity
by Ken Micallef, New York Jazz Record
On what basis do we judge and review jazz records? Is it on performance, skill, composition and production? Or should our criteria be more emotional? Does it elicit sadness, excitement? Do I get lost in the music and simply float along on its rhythm, pace, melody and movement? Florian Hoefner's Luminosity made me ask myself these questions, as it addresses all these criteria at once, a rare feat.
Hoefner's tunes are seamlessly intertwined,... read more
Anthony Branker - Beauty Within
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
The "Rising Star" status isn't confined to fresh music school graduates. Dr. Anthony Branker, Educator - who, for twenty-seven years, was engaged in a big way with Princeton University's jazz program - has achieved a recent "rising star" tag as a composer. This after releasing seven top notch CDs for Origin Records, including the masterful Uppity (2013).
"Composer/Musical Director" is Branker's title on his recordings. He doesn't... read more
Piet Verbist Zygomatik - Cattitude
by Erno Elsinga, Jazzenzo (Dutch)
In the Netherlands, the Belgian musician Piet Verbist especially as the former bassist of the Jef Neve Trio. Domestically Verbist counts as an old warhorse who has played and recorded with numerous international musicians and he records for the American Origin Records label.
From his debut Zygomatik from 2012 to the controversial compositions on "Cattitude," Verbist makes a leap forward. The rhythmic accompaniment under the powerful mix of... read more
Scenes - Destinations
by Doug Ramsey, Rifftides
Drummer John Bishop, guitarist John Stowell and bassist Jeff Johnson will soon be celebrating two decades together as the trio they call Scenes. Bishop founded the Origin label in Seattle in 1997, and by the fall of 2000 the three veteran Pacific Northwest musicians had combined in a group that has released six records on Origin.
For all the subtlety and intricacy of the group's interaction, their music commands attention because of... read more
John Stowell / Dave Glenn & The Hawčaptak Quartet - Violin Memory
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
John Stowell brings his nylon string guitar and fretless baritone guitar to Dave Glenn's trombone on this highly imaginative listen, where strings occasionally enter the feel good jazz tunes.
The album starts with the warm guitar and soulful brass of "Social Butterfly", where the pair adds much allure to the soothing climate, and "Remembering Laurie Frink" follows with Stowell's guitar acrobatics complementing Glenn's expressive... read more
Phil Kelly & The SW Santa Ana Winds - My Museum
by Ric Bang, The Davis Enterprise
Phil Kelly is a bit of an anachronism: a drummer who's also a prolific jazz composer and arranger.
He has written literally hundreds of charts for dozens of groups. His first CD for Origin - "Convergence Zone" with a Seattle-based band he calls the NW Prevailing Winds - was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award. Having succeeded in the Pacific Northwest (Kelly lives in Bellingham, Washington), he decided to change locales for his next... read more
Hal Galper / Reggie Workman / Rashied Ali - Art-Work
by Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes
Sometimes aesthetic theories are clear (and necessary) only to the artists who invented them. Ornette Coleman has never satisfactorily explained what he means by "harmolodic," but it doesn't matter. The claims that Hal Galper makes for his "Rubato concept" are sometimes abstruse. It doesn't matter. What is clear is that Galper's investigations into the "bending and shaping of tempo" set him free.
Not many artists make stylistic... read more
Clipper Anderson - The Road Home
by John Barron, The Jazz Word
A flowing, uninhibited approach could describe Clipper Anderson's bass playing. With impressive technical flourishes and lyrical phrasing, the Seattle veteran stands front-and-center on his trio release The Road Home. Joined by equally dynamic band mates, pianist Darin Clendenin and drummer Mark Ivester, Anderson explores not only his capacities as a performer but also his range as a composer and arranger. The disc features many of Anderson's... read more
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