Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Paul Marinaro - Mood Ellington
by D. Glenn Daniels, The Jazz Page
The two-album release by vocalist Paul Marinaro, Mood Ellington, offers a luscious journey through the legendary songbook of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Marinaro's warm, resonant voice glides along rich musical landscapes crafted by thirteen top-tier arrangers, including Alan Broadbent, John Clayton and Bill Cunliffe, spanning intimate quartet settings to expansive string-and-horn orchestras. Supported by his Chicago rhythm core of... read more
Chris Walden Big Band - Home Of My Heart
by EJ Iannelli, All About Jazz
Recorded several years ago, in late 2002, Home of My Heart sounds as if it could have been -- were it not for its handful of latter-day charts by eighties pop supernova Christopher Cross and film composer John Williams -- recorded several decades earlier. The prevailing sound is classic big band, delighting in the force of its multitudes while consistently spotlighting its individual soloists.
Walden, who first made a name for himself in... read more
Emma Larsson - Sing To the Sky
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
One of the most denigrated categories is "jazz female vocalists." Most either try to sound like a quirky indie like Norah Jones, or try to jump on the Diana Krall bandwagon by ONCE AGAIN revisiting the Great American Songbook. Well, if you want something else, here is an artist that has the pulse of jazz, but delivered in fresh voice. What a joy!
Emma Larsson writes all of the material here, and it's worth listening to. She bonds with an... read more
Anthony Branker & Ascent - Dance Music
by Karl Ackerman, All About Jazz
Anthony Branker continues to experiment with the standards of large group musical tradition on Dance Music. Leading a revised version of his Ascent ensemble, the composer/musical director takes a different approach than the Latin influences on Blessings (Origin Records, 2009). Only on the last of ten tracks, "Depende," is there a composition in that vein, but that's all for the good, as Branker keeps searching for new ways to articulate a... read more
Western Jazz Collective - Dark Journey: The Music of Andrew Rathbun
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
A collection of musicians who have the Western Michigan University in common, the 7 players on hand flesh out the music of saxophonist/composer Andrew Rathbum with much precision.
"Making No Sense" starts the listen with Matt Landon's frisky guitar lines alongside Rathbun's soulful sax for a timeless jazz spirit, and "Infinite Being" follows with a calmer pace of light drums from benefit much from Scott Cowan's radiant trumpet.
Deeper... read more
Meridian Odyssey - Second Wave
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
A bunch of musical pals from Seattle wind up under lock down in Alaska learning to fly planes and live streaming nu jazz when the mood strikes. With a throw back to some of the groovy stuff that came out of the Midwest in the 70s like Sweetbottom, Matrix, Ross Traut and others, it represents the easier side of fusion with the feel of Oregon, but from the streets, not from the co-op. Tasty stuff that has old enough roots to sound new, it's a... read more
Tom Collier - Plays Haydn, Mozart, Telemann and others
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Tom Collier is a bit of a character as, can be attested by the YouTube videos below. He has served as Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Washington since 1980. In 2011, he was appointed Chair of Jazz Studies at the school, and was awarded the Adelaide D. Currie Cole Endowed Professorship in the School of Music for the academic years 2011-2014. He is, indeed, having a good year. His last recording, Mallett Fantasique (Origin... read more
Piet Verbist - Secret Exit to Another Dimension
by Rick Anderson, CD HotList
I'll be completely candid here: this isn't my favorite jazz album of the year, or even the month. But I'm recommending it because I don't see it as my job simply to share what I like — it's my job to hip you to good music, and this album is objectively excellent, in terms of both the playing and (even more so) its structure and conception. Bassist Piet Verbist leads a trio that includes guitarist Hendrik Braeckman and drummer Lionel Beuvens,... read more
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