Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Jim Norton Collective - Time Remembered: Compositions of Bill Evans
by Jerome Wilson, Cadence
It's always intriguing when a musician's compositions are played by a group where the composer's instrument is nowhere to be heard. So it is here with a CD of Bill Evans works, both obscure and familiar, played by a large band with nary a piano around. This treatment helps you realize how strong Evans' writing was in the first place.
Jim Norton's approach comes close to the old Third Stream discipline. Classical voicings are combined with... read more
Sarah Partridge - Bright Lights and Promises: Redefining Janis Ian
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
If Partridge wasn't the art chick with loads extra, we'd have to be scratching our heads wondering why a jazz tribute to Janis Ian. Well, Partridge brings in Allen Farnham to help with the music and brings in Ian herself to co-write some new ones. Take that homage makers! Long after you've taken Ian for granted, this revival does more than pump air into her lungs. Making music and taking risks? What a concept. Turn your ears Partridge's... read more
New Stories - Hope is in the Air
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
The Seattle-based trio New Stories - with a little help from some friends, and under the producer's baton of trumpeter Don Sickler - has crafted a first rate document to the undersung bop composer/pianist Elmo Hope on Hope is in the Air.
Elmo Hope, back in bop's early days, hung with piano legends Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. According to Nellie Monk, he was Thelonious's favorite contemporary composer, though the sound presented here,... read more
Paul Marinaro - Mood Ellington
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Old School vocalist Paul Marinaro takes a double disc release to prove that you can never have enough Duke Ellington. The takes on 25 tunes from The Duke's songbook, mixing and matching arrangements from small group to jazz orchestra with and without strings from classy charts penned out by the likes of J ohn Clayton, Alan Broadbent and Chuck Israels,to name just a few.
Marinaro acts each part well, going the role of a hep cat on easy... read more
Joachim Mencel - Brooklyn Eye
by Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
4 1/2 STARS Growing up under the weight of communism in Poland in the late '60s and early '70s, Joachim Mencel dreamed of the freedoms and wonders of America. Stateside relatives sent food parcels, offering him his first tastes of Hershey's chocolate and the inviting aromas of Maxwell House coffee; and Polish public radio station Trójka filled his ears with jazz, gifting the sounds of Miles Davis, among other greats. By the time Mencel... read more
John Wojciechowski - Focus
by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
The kids who study music at St. Charles North High School may not realize how fortunate they are. For their teacher/bandleader happens to be one of Chicago's more commanding saxophonists, an artist who surely could build a full-time international career performing, if he so chose.
When I first heard John Wojciechowski, at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in Washington in 1996, I was sure he would take the top... read more
Chris Walden Big Band - Home Of My Heart
by Jack Behrens, Bi Band Days
I've already selected my Large Ensemble Jazz winner for the 2006 Grammys. My ears and mind tell me the sound is better than some winners of recent years. He's that good, I think.
I'm talking about the rich, full-section sound of newcomer Chris Walden and his big band and a just released CD entitled "Love Of My Heart" (Origin Records/2005). This 16 chart, 74-minute tour de force offers a diversity of melodic sounds. Regardless your loyalties... read more
Geof Bradfield - melba!
by Martin Z. Kasdan Jr., LEO Weekly, Louisville
Saxophonist/composer Geof Bradfield enlisted his longtime employer, pianist Ryan Cohan, to play in his suite honoring Melba Liston. She was one of the first African-American women to make her name as a jazz instrumentalist (trombone) and arranger, associated over four decades with pianist Randy Weston, among many other projects. (Weston himself rightly praises Bradfield's work.) Bradfield tells Liston's story in musical movements,... read more
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