Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Cuong Vu - Leaps of Faith
by Steve Greenlee, Jazz Times
When not collaborating with top-ranking improvisers like Pat Metheny and Myra Melford, trumpeter Cuong Vu has spent the past 10 years making ethereal, languorous, cinematic music of his own writing. Standards? Not his thing. Not until now, anyway.
At first blush, Leaps of Faith appears to be an about-face for Vu, whose previous albums have featured original tunes and nothing else. But it takes all of a few seconds to realize that when... read more
José Luiz Martins - Odyssey Mixtape
by Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move
This Brazilian keyboardist immerses us in pure jazz fusion; a genre that demands caution, given that since the 1970s, we've encountered everything from the sublime to the forgettable. Yet here, we have a truly delightful album, one that revitalizes the style by infusing it with cultural depth. And should you have any doubts, a flute is there to remind you: this composer is unmistakably Brazilian, and we are all the richer for discovering his... read more
Kelly Brand Nextet - The Door
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
An album of originals (plus one stray Wayne Shorter number), pianist Kelly Brand's The Door is a nice set of contemporary Chicago jazz. This is nightclub jazz at its best, with attention paid to the compositions and the details, a fine set of backing musicians, and an able leader directing the activities. The compositions are never too complex, but never so simplistic as to be predictable. Brand's playing is careful, never quite reaching for the... read more
Anthony Branker & Ascent - Dance Music
by Karl Ackerman, All About Jazz
Anthony Branker continues to experiment with the standards of large group musical tradition on Dance Music. Leading a revised version of his Ascent ensemble, the composer/musical director takes a different approach than the Latin influences on Blessings (Origin Records, 2009). Only on the last of ten tracks, "Depende," is there a composition in that vein, but that's all for the good, as Branker keeps searching for new ways to articulate a... read more
Diverse - Diverse
by examiner.com, examiner.com
Diverse, the eponymous album by Kansas City Jazz group Diverse, is a true success story, the rarest kind of success story, the kind that almost never develops to such a fruitful outcome. Most of the elements of it are fairly commonplace?all of the right pieces come together, a group of talented musicians meet at college, they begin working on their own original music, they enter a contest, grand prize is a recording contract?these things happen.... read more
Oscar Hernández & Alma Libre - Love the Moment
by Editor, El Chino (Cali, Colombia)
Pianist Oscar Hernández (New York, United States 22-03-1954) presents Love The Moment , the second album he records along with his quintet Alma Libre. The Bronx-born and director of La Spanish Harlem Orchestra, published in 2017 The Art Of Latin Jazz , his first album with this format.
Hernandez, who has recorded in an infinite number of projects since the 1970s (La Conquistadora, Joey Pastrana, Celia Cruz, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, The... read more
David Friesen Circle 3 Trio - Triple Exposure
by Brian Zimmerman, Downbeat
EDITOR'S PICK, DEC, '16 David Friesen's new album with his Circle 3 Trio is a deeply personal statement, from the clean, stimulating compositions that form the bulk of the disc to the original mixed-media collage that adorns the cover. As such, the music here feels buttressed by the support of real life experience, and almost always the listener gets the sense that highly individuated musical concepts are in play. The group wrestles... read more
Benjamin Boone - The Poets Are Gathering
by Raul Da Gama, JazzdaGama
Charlie Parker and Steve Lacy have inadvertently cast gigantic shadows on both the instruments that Benjamin Boone just happens to play. The former, an alto saxophonist is, quite simply, one of the greatest musicians that ever lived; so great, in fact, that when listening to his inventions we often forget that it was Adolphe Sax, who, in fact, gave him the instrument on which to invent. And Steve Lacy took Sidney Bechet's "straight horn" and... read more
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