Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Rich Thompson - Less Is More
by Jeff Krow, Audiophile Audition
A cast of heavyweight talent?
****1/2 Stars
Origin Records has pulled in first string talent for drummer Rich Thompson's second release for the label. Thompson, who has been a jazz educator for the Eastman School of Music, as well as having a tenure with a Count Basie tribute band, has a quintet with all-star pedigree, including the virtuosic trumpeter Terrell Stafford, and multi-instrumentalist Gary Versace, both who... read more
John Moulder - Trinity
by Rick Holland, Jazz Radio 247
John Moulder has released a gem on Origin, entitled Trinity. This album is an excellent introduction to the man, the musician and the scholar. For those who do not know John Moulder, Father John, is an ordained priest at St. Gregory's in Chicago. He is a brilliant scholar, composer and artistic musician.
The compositions on this album reflect not only his brilliance as a composer and master improviser, but they give you an insight to his view... read more
Dave Liebman | John Stowell - Petite Fleur: The Music of Sidney Bechet
by Dan Bilawsky, JazzEd
Sidney Bechet is rightly hailed as one of the seminal figures of this music, putting his stamp on the NOLA clarinet tradition shortly after its dawn, codifying and expanding the soloist's language through his early recordings, and blazing a trail on soprano saxophone. But he was also a fine melodist, a fact which is often overlooked when his accomplishments are considered, weighed, and packaged for historical use. With this engaging duo date,... read more
Anthony Branker - Beauty Within
by Asher Wolf, JAZZIZ
Anthony Branker must know how to craft a catchy tune - an idea that is concise, simple and lyrical - because the compositions on Beauty Within realize the polar opposite of that formula. Each piece challenges the listener with an aural jigsaw of stubborn intensity, an entropic whirlwind sensitively parsed by his star-studded ensemble.
Composing for a small combo can be daunting, lest the performers' personalities drown out the... read more
Anthony Branker & Imagine - What Place Can Be for Us?
by Richard Kamins, Step Tempest
Dr. Anthony Branker is quite an accomplished person with a list of achievements that would fill this page. I spoke to him in 2017 at the time Origin Records released "Beauty Within", his seventh album of original compositions (and six issued by the Seattle, WA-based label). At that time, he had recently stepped down as the head (and founder) of the Jazz Studies Program at Princeton--he currently is Adjunct Professor at the Mason Gross School... read more
Josh Nelson - Exploring Mars
by Brent Black, Critical Jazz
A dazzling exploration of harmonic possibilities, Exploring Mars is a triumph!
A very cerebral recording, Exploring Mars continues his influences drawn from a personal love of science fiction, Exploring Mars embraces an almost three dimensional sonic depth of field. The conceptual aspect causes only few minor bumps in the road as the spoken word passage on the buoyant "Spirit" adds very little if anything to a composition that... read more
Les DeMerle - Gypsy Rendezvous, Vol. 1
by David Franklin, Cadence
Drummer Les DeMerle's long career has included playingwith Harry James for a dozen years, fronting his own Fusiongroup for a time, and more recently leading various straight-ahead VOL. 1 ensembles. Gypsy Pacific, comprising violin, two guitars, and bass, is a unique Jazz band based in Maui, Hawaii. DeMerle happened tohear the quartet in a club there and one thing led to another. Many of the tracks do suggest the famous duo of violinist Stephane... read more
Dana Hall - Into the Light
by Brian Baker, City Beat
Dana Hall isn't merely a Jazz drummer ? he's a magician who elicits the same jaw dropping reaction with a kit and sticks that David Copperfield gets when he makes aircraft carriers or the Statue of Liberty vanish.
The gifted rhythmatist started out by earning a degree in aerospace engineering at Iowa State before getting his Bachelor of Music from New Jersey's Paterson College and his Masters in composition and arranging from DePaul (he's... read more
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