Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Amit Friedman - Unconditional Love
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
Once upon a time, jazz, an American creation, was confined for the most part within its borders. But that was once upon a time. Today, any barriers that once kept jazz within a prescribed realm have long since vanished, and the music Americans once embraced as their own has flourished around the world, performed with increasing awareness and dexterity by artists who have built upon the patterns created in the land of its birth to weave colorful... read more
Maja Jaku - Blessed & Bewitched
by Bman, Bman's Blues Report
I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Blessed & Bewitched, by Maja Jaku, and its quiet and dynamic. Opening with The Witch, Maja Jaku applies her vocals like drops of silver on the lush piano chords by Alan Bartus. Michael Rodriguez on trumpet really adorns the track nicely with well-conceived lines making for a solid opener. Another quiet track, Lonely Little Fox, has Jaku's vocal, working nicely on Bartus's piano and... read more
Geof Bradfield - African Flowers
by Areif Sless-Kitain, Downbeat
The green room beneath the Petrillo Music Shell in Chicago's Grant Park isn't the toniest backstage. In fact, the brightly lit cellar looks better equipped to accommodate a fleet of football players than the cast of Chicago Jazz Festival artists. Saxophonist Geof Bradfield is beaming, nonetheless, and with good reason - fresh off stage from a well-received set with Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, filling a coveted slot on the headlining state between... read more
Hal Galper Trio - Invitation to Openness
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Veteran pianist Hal Galper is teamed with like minded mates Billy Mintz/dr and Tony Marino/b for a 2008 "live in studio" session. Galper's touch is classy on his intro to a glowing "Embraceable You" that has the bassist pop the clutch and change gears to turn into a romp, while the leader keeps the current steady for is opening for the flavorful "Ambleside". Mintz rides the whip for the leader's blue ivories on "Winter Heart" and is playful and... read more
Thomas Marriott - Urban Folklore
by Ric Bang, Jazz Scan
Origin Records and trumpeter Thomas Marriott are among this blog's "old friends"; both were featured in some of my earliest reviews. If you scan through the site's listing you'll find 7 CDs where they're featured together. Origin was among the first of the "new breed" jazz labels founded in the very late 20th century, and Marriott was - and still is - a frequent leader or sideman on the company's albums.
Marriott is a West Coast artist,... read more
Andrea Brachfeld - Brazilian Whispers
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Andrea Brachfeld plays flute and the darker alto flute set to a collection of Brazilian themes dominated by Antonio Jobim. She mixes and matches with Bill O'Connell/p-key, Harvie S-Lincoln Goines/g, Roni Ben-Hur/g, T. Porinho-Jason Tiemann/dr and Chembo Corniel/perc with some boppy pieces like her own "Espaco Aberto" and a relaxed "Triste E Solitaria." Jobim's "Double Rainbow" is a soulful keyboard affair with Brachfeld's flute floating to the... read more
Daniel Barry - Music Of The Spheres
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Barry takes the opposite tack of Tsatsanis and Lenti by composing for the future and his approach is novel. Barry recorded Music of the Spheres in a two-million gallon cistern found on the grounds of the Fort Warden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington. The empty cistern has a natural 45-minute reverberation time that surrounds and extends all sounds made not unlike depressing a piano's sustain pedal to the nth... read more
Brittany Anjou - Enamigo Reciprokataj
by Mel Minter, Musically Speaking
When an improvising jazz musician relaxes the reins and lets the music go where it wants, the level of excitement can jump dramatically. Spitfire pianist/composer Brittany Anjou does just that on her new album, Enamiĝo Reciprokataj (pronounced en-äh-mee-joh reh-sih-pro-käh-tye and roughly translated from the Esperanto as either "reciprocal love" or "mutual breakdown"). Throughout the album's 10 original compositions, written across 13 years,... read more
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