Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Jim Gailloreto Jazz String Quintet - American Complex
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
For his sophomore effort with the Chicago-based HAWK string quartet in tow, Jim Gailloreto's skill in composition and arrangement for a string quartet has increased notably. Instead of forcing the quartet into a gypsy-jazz romp, Gailloreto keeps the players in their comfort zone -- free from improvisation, and showcasing technical mastery and careful collaboration without sacrificing an austerity of sorts. Over the top of the quartet, though,... read more
David Friesen and Glen Moore - Bactrian
by Chris Lunn, Ancient Victorys
This is the third recorded collaboration of these musical giants known for their compositions, bass playing, and associations with each other and other major players and groups. They have toured the United States as a duo and have graced Europe with concerts, clinics, and workshops. Both bass players in a 2006 jazz poll were voted in the top twenty bass players of all time. In this recording, they both play bass (Friesen a Hemage and Moore an... read more
Bad Luck - Four
by Scott Murphy, Heavy Blog
Bad Luck - Four (ambient jazz, avant-garde jazz)
Man, what a great album to kick off the column with. The first of my two numerically-titled picks is also the most easily-labeled "jazz" album of all my selections from the past few months. This isn't meant as a knock against Bad Luck, the moniker of duo Neil Welch (saxophone, live electronics) and Christopher Icasiano (drums). I'm guilty of seeking out the most non-jazz jazz albums I can... read more
Benjamin Boone | Philip Levine - The Poetry of Jazz
by Raul da Gama, JazzDaGama
Benjamin Boone and Philip Levine's The Poetry of Jazz continues the extraordinary tradition of Charles Mingus and his iconic recordings A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry (Bethlehem, 1957) and Weary Blues (Polygram, 1958) with Langston Hughes the recordings of the great Oscar Brown Jr., such as Sin and Soul (Columbia, 1960) and those by Gil Scott-Heron Pieces of a Man (RCA, 1971) and Winter in America (Strata-East, 1974). Mr Levine, a... read more
Greta Matassa - Favorites From A Long Walk
by Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
SEATTLE'S HIDDEN GEM
If the vision of Seattle as grunge city and the spawning ground for acts such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana and the Foo Fighters suggests that the only form of music with a significant presence in the city is rock, think again. Sunday's performance by Seattle singer Greta Matassa in Beverly Hills at a fundraiser for the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation offered convincing evidence of the high-quality jazz in the Northwest's largest... read more
Dmitri Matheny - Cascadia
by Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist
Here's the challenge when you're a jazz flugelhorn player: avoiding sounding like a TV commercial soundtrack from 1979. It's not your fault; it's just that the flugelhorn has such a sweet, soft tone that it was the favorite vehicle for easy-listening music during that heavily easy-listening decade. So what does Dmitri Matheny do? He takes the dangerous path: he embraces the softness of his instrument, but puts it to work delivering sharp,... read more
Bruce Barth Trio - Dedication
by Jim Marks, Dusted Magazine
Jazz pianist Bruce Barth has an impeccable pedigree, having played with some of the greats of previous generations, including Stanley Turrentine, as well as leading his own groups over the past 30 or more years. His latest, a trio offering with longtime collaborators bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Montez Coleman, delivers exactly what one would expect given that pedigree in the form of eight compelling originals, most dedicated, as the title... read more
Geof Bradfield - Our Roots
by Bob Weinberg, JAZZIZ
Jazzing up down-home blues is nothing new. Everyone from the Adderley Brothers to Charles Mingus made use of motifs lifted from field hollers, tent revivals and juke houses. While these artists may have sought to distance themselves from painful associations with the South, a younger generation of musicians embraces these roots with reverence.
On their latest recording, Our Roots (Origin), the Geof Bradfield Quintet reinterprets... read more
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