Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Dave Slonaker Big Band - Shifty Paradigms
by Thierry De Clemensat, Paris-Move
5 STARS
If, from the opening moments of this album, you sense a faintly cinematic and slightly mysterious atmosphere in Dave Slonaker's music, it is probably rooted in a fascination that took hold early in his life: the sound world of great orchestras. As a teenager, that curiosity led him to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, where he immersed himself in the mechanics of orchestration and large-scale composition. Decades later,... read more
Anthony Branker and Word Play - Uppity
by Ken Franckling, Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
A medical condition that led to a seizure and two brain aneurysms in 1999 forced jazzman Anthony Branker to give up the trumpet, but not his talents as a conceptualist and composer. (He is also an educator ? the founder and director of the jazz studies program at Princeton.) His newest release, featuring his all-star sextet Word Play, is both beautiful and provocative. Favorites: ?Three Gifts (from a Nigerian Mother to God)? and the title track... read more
Michael Waldrop - Time Frames
by Michael Ferber, Michael's Jazz Blog (Switzerland)
Drummer, percussionist and composer Michael Waldrop has released a fantastic album featuring the marimba called 'Time Frames'. The 15 songs, most of them originals by Michael Waldrop, present a wide spectrum of styles and sounds, from the origin of the marimba as an African instrument to eclectic contemporary compositions. Waldrop surrounds himself on the album with other renowned and musically diverse percussionists like Gordon Stout, Brad... read more
Allison Adams Tucker - WANDERlust
by Dee Dee McNeil, Musicalmemoirs' Blog
This vocalist is quite extraordinary. She sings well in English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Japanese on this groundbreaking recording. Yes, six languages and all sung with emotion, passion and sounding very authentic to this listener's ear. The singer and her longtime pianist, Josh Nelson, flew to New York and recorded with an International group of musicians. The results is a unique and pleasurable project. Tucker majored in... read more
Laurie Antonioli - The Constant Passage of time
by Raul da Gama, JazzdaGama
Anyone who is in the know of vocalist and pedagogue Laurie Antonioli and the music she creates, espouses and teaches will know that lyricism and the art of musical seduction is at the heart of her lucid and tuneful music. A somewhat melancholy poet of song, Miss Antonioli's music is rich in allusion to life - even lived experience - which is something that makes her music draw you in with its utter honesty and truthfulness. Her soft nasal... read more
Jessica Williams - Songs For A New Century
by Thomas Conrad, All About Jazz
It is hard to think of a jazz musician who has gone her own way more resolutely than pianist Jessica Williams. She works only on her own solo and trio projects, never as a sideperson. She engineers her own albums for her own label, Red and Blue, and sells them on her own website, which she designs and maintains herself. She plays only in the venues she chooses (and she almost never chooses clubs). Even her place of residence is individualistic:... read more
Sam Yahel - Truth And Beauty
by Francis Davis, The Village Voice
As organ combos go, Sam Yahel's Truth and Beauty is unusual, first of all for including an Ornette Coleman tune: "Check Up," a rubato ballad wherein Brian Blade's drums carry the melody. The other departure from convention is no tenor honking?together with the minor-key mysterioso of Yahel's compositions and his light foot on the bass pedal, the swiftness and high-pitched yearning of Joshua Redman's solos and duos with the Hammond B-3 lift the... read more
Carl Schultz - The Road to Trantor
by Editor, Jazz2Love
Like a smooth, quenching claret, The Road to Trantor is saxophonist Carl Schultz's vision of something that audiences will find aurally scrumptious. He refers to his creation of all original material as "a soundtrack to a science fiction movie that only exists in my head." The compilation is more comparable to classic 1950's ballroom dance meets whimsical 2020's symbiotic parlance. The rapport among the musicians sizzles and tranquilizes,... read more
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