Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Ben Patterson - Push the Limits
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
It took no more than a quick Google search to find that every member of trombonist Ben Patterson's quintet is (or was) also a member of the U.S. Air Force's flagship jazz ensemble, the Airmen of Note. On Push the Limits, Patterson challenges his fellow airmen to cruise through ten of his elaborate compositions and arrangements, a mission they carry out with what seems to be relative ease. In other words, the technical excellence of the group is... read more
Bill Anschell - More To The Ear Than Meets The Eye
by Joseph Blake, Times Colonist, January 7, 2007
Seattle-based Bill Anschell's latest CD features a stellar ensemble of that city's finest jazz musicians playing an exciting repertoire of cleverly reshaped standards and Anschell's soulful, poignant originals. A pair of rhythm teams (Jeff Johnson and John Bishop, Doug Miller and Jose Martinez) anchor the recording's fluid, playful melodies, providing an elastic, always-swinging foundation for Anschell's edgy, smart improvisations. Thomas... read more
Various Artists - The Cool Season: An Origin Records Holiday Collection, Vol. 2
by Derrick Bang, The Davis Enterprise
I've saved on of the best [discs] for last, although not intentionally; Origin Records' "The Cool Season" (Origin82494) arrived literally as this column was being prepped for layout. It's a tasty collection from an extremely tight quartet - Thomas Marriott, trumpet and flugelhorn; Bill Anschell, piano; Jeff Johnson, bass; and John Bishop, durms- that thinks and plays as one.
These are fairly lengthy tracks that for the most part are handled... read more
Laurie Antonioli - Songs of Shadow, Songs of Light
by Mike Jurkovic, Elmore Magazine
Tribute records come and go, all but a few failing their vaunted goal. Sound-alike's abound: rote country versions, routine roots variations and strident schizo-genre adaptations. Gratefully, Antonioli's nod to Joni Mitchell, Songs of Shadow, Songs of Light is brazenly infused with the fearless creativity that we, and she, salute Ms. Mitchell for time and time again.
Though none of these 13 songs postdate 1975, Antonioli, an... read more
Hal Galper - Ivory Forest Redux
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The esteemed pianist Hal Galper brings us a remastered reissue of his late '70s masterpiece, Ivory Forest, and this updated version enhances John Scofield's guitar, Wayne Dockery's bass and Adam Nussbaum's drums, too.
The title track opens the listen with a light mood of agile keys, dreamy guitar and well timed drums in the very meticulous and adventurous climate, and "Continuity" follows with a sublime intimacy that showcases Galper's... read more
Jordan VanHemert - Deep in the Soil
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
Energy and enthusiasm fairly leap from the speakers—or headphones—on Sharel Cassity's daring "Call to Order," the opening number on Korean-born saxophonist Jordan VanHemert's fifth album as leader, Deep in the Soil. Alas, that same ardor doesn't reappear until track seven (of eight), trombonist Michael Dease's boppish "ST in the House." In between, VanHemert and his companions (group sizes vary from sextet to duo) offer some agreeable music... read more
Ryan Cohan - Originations
by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
The best jazz recordings of 2020 to date: Savvy listeners already know that Chicago pianist-composer Cohan has a well-honed gift for writing long-form jazz compositions. It reaches a high point in "Originations," a suite Cohan performed to vivid effect at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in 2018. The new recording deepens earlier favorable impressions of the piece, which amounts to a series of tone poems in which Cohan explores his Middle... read more
Big Neighborhood - Neighbors
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
This sax/bass/guitar/drums quartet struck me on first listen as a group that Steely Dan might hire for a recording session. The sound is crisp and clean, modern, with sharp lines and well-defined, ear-grabbing tangents. And democratic, as opposed to a sax-in-front-of-a-rhythm section affair. Then I heard some Pat Metheny shadings when guitarist David White brings the guitar synthesizer into the mix; but the sound is friskier than Metheny's, the... read more
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