Origin Records Reviews

David Friesen with Orchestra and Quartet - Testimony
by Mattie Poels, Music Frames (Holland)

In a beautiful concert we hear jazz bassist and pianist David Friesen from the Ukraine together with his quartet and the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine.

On the album Testimony we hear two concerts that were both recorded in the Ukraine (Kiev) where the bassist, pianist and arranger David Friesen comes from. Friesen is a master of themes: catchy melodies that sound familiar and worldly. His timing is reminiscent of that of the... read more

Josh Nelson - The Sky Remains
by Michael Doherty, Music Log

I've been residing in Los Angeles for approximately two decades, and there are things I've come to really love about this city. Certain places, certain buildings, even certain roads. There really is a special feel to this city, which when looked at in a certain light can be almost magical. Fellow Los Angeles resident Josh Nelson explores different areas of the city on his new album, The Sky Remains. He is interested in capturing and conveying... read more

Florian Hoefner - Coldwater Stories
by GÁSPÁR KÁROLY, JazzMa (Hungary)

"The cold shower that warms the heart"

In a "modest" way, I quote from a recent report: the universe of jazz is unknowable! We can meet again and again with the recordings of unknown artists, and we can run into music that we immediately fall in love with. I feel like I'm in such a galaxy now, in connection with the new piano album by the pianist Florian Hoefner, "Coldwater Stories." I started to listen to the puppet totally "Hoefner's". As I... read more

Geof Bradfield - Our Roots
by Brian Zimmerman, Downbeat

EDITOR'S PICK The idea for saxophonist Geof Bradfield's intrepid new album Our Roots sprang from a concert series in Chicago called the Fulton Street Jazz Record Art Collective, in which musicians perform a classic jazz album in its entirety. Since its inception, visiting artists have covered works by all the usual suspects - John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach - but when it was Bradfield's turn, the Houston-born... read more

Josh Nelson - Exploring Mars
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

4 1/2 STARS - Mars, the forth planet from the sun - that blood red star arcing across the sky - has been investigated by many in the arts. Before NASA landed four rovers on the red planet's surface, science fiction writers took up the task of exploring our planetary neighbor: Edgar Rice Burroughs with his fantastic Barsoom series, beginning with Princess of Mars (1917), Ray Bradbury with the poetic Martian Chronicles... read more

Lincoln Goines - The Art of the Bass Choir
by Marty Gunther, Chicago Blues Guide

Here's something different: California-born, New York-based Lincoln Goines is one of the best bassists of his generation with a career rooted in the jazz world and recordings with Dizzy Gillespie, Idris Muhammad, Paquito D'Rivera, Carly Simon and other giants. But he delivers azure notes aplenty in this thoroughly enjoyable, classy and primarily instrumental set.

A longtime professor at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, Goines... read more

John Stowell - Solitary Tales
by Peter Westbrook, Cadence

Solo guitarist Stowell, heard on Solitary Tales, has a sound harking back to Classical guitar playing with none of the rhythmic stiffness sometimes associated with it. The opening track, "Everything I Love," moves from chiming rubato passages to an improvisation that alternated between thoughtful, climbing episodes and swinging single-note lines. I was reminded of Joe Pass' solo recording for Pablo--but where Pass occasionally overwhelmed me... read more

John Moulder - Bifrost
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide

At the beginning of Bifrost, the sound from John Moulder and his half-American, half-Norwegian quintet is fairly exploratory, ambient. By the end of that first title track, though, the sound has developed into full electric guitar mania. Moulder has his way with his guitar, to say the least. Quickly going into the next piece, though, Moulder and the band morph into an early morning, introspective sound. It may sound an odd comparison, but from... read more

Looking for a specific review?

This is just a small collection of the Origin Records reviews. Click here to view all reviews or try to Search for your favorite CD title.