Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Ben Paterson - For Once In My Life
by Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes
The jazz audience contains people, present company not necessarily excepted, who are resistant to the charms of the Hammond B-3. They find it a somewhat vulgar instrument, with unpleasant, artificial sonorities. They all need to meet Ben Paterson. He may be the most purely musical organist out there. He is not into shrieking and raising hell. He is not about sweat and grease. His virtues are ones not normally associated with the B-3, such as... read more
Les DeMerle - Feelin' Good
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
A while back, we met a couple that played jazz on cruise ships and it changed our opinion, moving our head away from the usual Sammy Joey jive ass bulls*** you all too often find in those situations. This cruise ship jazz crew kicks it off with a snazzy version of "Speak Low" that not only sends you off into a good time mood, it'll also change your opinion about who will be entertaining you in captive situations. Hell, even George Wein got... read more
Benjamin Boone with the Ghana Jazz Collective - Joy
by Benjamin Kirk, Fresno State College of Arts & Humanities
It was hot! It was the summer of 2018 in the city of Accra, about 400 miles north of the equator, and Benjamin Boone and the Ghana Jazz Collective had gathered in the UVSL recording studio — a white concrete building down one of the many dirt side roads. Even with the high-tech equipment, to get clean recordings, the studio had to turn off the air conditioning during recording sessions.
The heat and humidity was unbearable. Between... read more
Thomas Marriott - Human Spirit
by Larry Hollis, Cadence
A younger Hammond practitioner is present in Gary Versace on 'Human Spirit'. Trumpeter Thomas Marriott apparently has been a busy beaver of late. His release 'Constraints and Liberations' (with Versace on piano) was covered last issue (Apr/May/June 2011, p.225) and he and Taylor were both on 'Flash Point' (same issue, p.126) by Randy Halberstadt, both under the Origin company auspices. Where those two issues utilized a piano, this one is... read more
Benjamin Boone - The Poets Are Gathering
by Paul Rauch, All About Jazz
4 1/2 STARS Saxophonist Benjamin Boone continues his ambitious foray into jazz and poetry, this time recruiting an impressive cadre of poets for his aptly entitled release, The Poets are Gathering (Origin, 2020). The union of poetry and jazz has never been so powerfly presented, reflecting the past year of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, the universal role of the poet, and the power of art and voice to raise awareness and... read more
Peter Erskine & The JAM Music Lab All-Stars - Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner
by Peter Erskine, All About Jazz - Liner Notes
Hollywood called...
...and Max Steiner was the first of this dynamic duo to answer, arriving there in 1929, initially working for the RKO Studios as an orchestrator and then as a composer. This was not his first affiliation with Hollywood, however; he functioned as Fox Studio's musical director, adding live music to silent films presented in New York theaters where he had already established himself on Broadway. The call to come west must have... read more
Hans Fahling - Hamburg: Port of Call
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide
An interesting collaboration between painting and music modeling itself loosely upon the work of Mussorgsky. Accompanying this set of fine modern jazz as performed by quartets on both sides of the Atlantic are a series of paintings by Patrick Haskett with a relatively contemporary style (Norman Rockwell with some impressionism, and something more that music critics shouldn't attempt to describe). The jazz is exceptional, using a guitar as a lead... read more
Jordan VanHemert - Survival of the Fittest
by Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene
Tenor saxophonist Jordan VanHemert's fifth album as a leader, Survival Of The Fittest, was partly borne out of anger and distress after losing a teaching job due to budget cuts (he has since found one at a different college) and his experiences with racism in general. Despite that, the music on this release (five originals, "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise," "Come Sunday," a Korean folk song, and a blues) is generally hopeful,... read more
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