Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Michael Waldrop Big Band - Time Within Itself
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
Something you don't always hear in "big band" recordings these days is right here on this superb eight-song album... "swagger" & "proof of life"! Michael's drums "lead" this elegant excursion into the funkiest of big bands you've ever heard, especially on songs like the straight-ahead jazz on the 7:34 "Munich Musings"... this tune is definitely in the "must listen" category. The swirling vocal work on "Tunnell Vision" will thrill those who... read more
John Stowell and Dave Liebman - Blue Rose
by Chris Lunn, Ancient Victorys
Stowell, for the mid-late 70s jazz shows at the Tracks in Auburn, is on a roll of CD releases. We reviewed another duet in the Fall 2013 issue with Throop, and in April he tours the Northwest with our Kendra Shank to support a duet CD they are completing. Here, he teams with Dave Liebman on soprano, tenor, piano, and wood flute. They did a trio thing in Banff Jazz Workshop with Don Thompson, and that is captured and also available on... read more
Marcos Varela - San Ygnacio
by Britt Robson, JazzTimes
Houston keeps churning out stellar jazz artists. One of the latest, and brightest, is bassist Marcos Varela, who is talented enough to have been mentored by Ron Carter and employed by Billy Hart and Clifton Anderson during his dozen years in New York, smart enough to enlist drummer Hart, trombonist Anderson and pianist George Cables to play on San Ygnacio, and confident enough to forge his own identity on this remarkable debut.
Hart and... read more
Bill Anschell | Brent Jensen - We Couldn't Agree More
by John Barron, All About Jazz
We Couldn't Agree More is a great example of what happens when two like-minded musicians gather for an impromptu session, playing through a list of well-worn standards. Pianist Bill Anschell and soprano saxophonist Brent Jensen deliver a relaxed, humorously inventive duo recording that happily swings from beginning to end.
Recorded in Boise, Idaho, during a break from a tour of the state (Jensen is an Assistant Professor of Music at... read more
Jessica Williams - With Love
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Pianist Jessica Williams produces for the piano in With Love that Rebecca Parris and Beat Kaestli do in jazz vocals...a perfect jazz ballads recording. Williams does so in a solo piano setting not unlike what she has used in the past most recently on Song of the Earth (Origin, 2012), Touch (Origin, 2010) and The Art of the Piano (Origin, 2009). This is a recording the eclipses the majority of what passes for... read more
Jessica Williams - With Love
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
One of the magical things about Williams in performance is that she has the ability to take songs that countless piano bar players have beaten into the ground in various pummelings and make them sound fresh, new and distinct. With a set card here of almost all chestnuts that have been beaten to death in a million piano bars, Williams is playing just for you and like a grand master. Williams is one of those players that proves that she doesn't... read more
Geof Bradfield - Urban Nomad
by Thomas R. Erdmann, Jazz Review.com
Chicago based saxophonist and composer Geof Bradfield was originally born in Houston, Texas. Following high school, he moved to Chicago to attend DePaul University's famous jazz program before moving on to earning a master's degree at CalArts. From there, it was on to New York where he lived from 1994 to 1997. After teaching at Washington State University for three years, it was back to Chicago where he works as one of the areas more... read more
Carlos Vega - Bird's Ticket
by Dick Metcalf, Improvijazzation
In addition to Carlos's totally engaging saxophone, you've got Victor Garcia on Trumpet, Stu Mindeman doing Piano and Rhodes, Josh Ramos with Acoustic Bass and Xavier Breaker on Drum set on this all-original set... the opener alone makes it clear that this is a jazz group you'll want to listen to over & over again, and takes me (way) back to my earliest days in jazz listening... "A Confluence in Chi-Town" clocks in right at 9:00, and will have... read more
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