Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Michael Bisio & Timothy Hill - Inside Voice / Outside Voice
by Ed Sapiega, Jazz Views (UK)
This is a very intriguing album. The two artists blend elements of classical, jazz, and folk music. Bisio is a melodic and immensely talented bassist. Listing Hill as "voice" is too simplistic.
He sings and chants as a lead and as an accompaniment. The Tibetan chanting, referred to as throat singing, coupled with a jazz bass gives this album an otherworldly sound. It was well recorded in one continuous take on an afternoon.
Tibetan... read more
Chris Walden - Chris Walden: Symphony No. 1 - The Four Elements
by Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz
Chris Walden is probably best known to AAJ readers as a big band leader and composer. But his interest in developing other forms has already garnered him two Grammy nominations, and here he ventures into the serious orchestral realm. He takes the four elements?Earth, Water, Air and Fire?and uses them as the basis of four symphonic movements in the post-romantic programmatic style of Richard Strauss, Holst, Sibelius, and others of the late... read more
Ben Thomas Tango Project - Eternal Aporia
by Angela Ballhorn, Jazz 'N' More (Switzerland)
4-STARS Sometimes life takes strange paths. 15 years ago, Ben Thomas would not have thought that his passion for tango dancing and the resulting interest in this music would lead him to this project. Thomas sets melodies and rhythms in his compositions on both the vibraphone and the bandoneon, his colleagues on the violin and clarinet play along magically, while the bass is responsible for the clear rhythmic accents. All elements of... read more
Matt Otto - Red
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
Saxophonist Matt Otto is Los Angeles-based these days, but for his fifth CD, Red, he got together with some musical running mates from his time in New York: guitarist Greg Toughy, drummer Qasim Naqvi, and bassist Danton Boller. Considering its standard jazz lineup of tenor sax and a rhythm section, the band has crafted quite an original sound.
The set of eight Otto orignals sustains a hauntingly restrained mood from start to finish, churning... read more
AsGuests - Universal Mind
by Larry Hollis, Cadence
If one had to choose a solitary word to describe Universal Mind, it would have to be "pensive." Homeported in the Hague, AsGuests was founded some fifteen years ago by vibraphonist Herak and pianist Vanoucek as a duo that eventually evolved into a quartet with a revolving cast of guest artists to augment the ensemble. Here they add a string trio to perform eight compositions written by the pianist. Except for "Solace Cells" and "Guanc,"... read more
Jessica Williams - Freedom Trane
by Tom Ineck, Berman Music
Ever since the death of John Coltrane more than 40 years ago, jazz musicians of every ilk have attempted to get at the core of his sound, the key to its immutable power and transcendent spirit. Aside from Coltrane bandmate McCoy Tyner, perhaps Jessica Williams on Freedom Trane comes as close to the source as a piano player is likely to get.
Four of the eight tunes come from the Coltrane songbook, but the other half were written by... read more
Kiki Valera - Vivencias en Clave Cubana
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Valera comes to making a great record organically. He's part of a 100 year old Cuban music dynasty and he was influenced by seminal jazzbo guitar greats. Then he hit's the bulls eye in crafting the kind of set that maintains it's ethnic purity while being the kind of stuff that completely knocks gringos off their pins. Here's the acid test: if you were to hear this playing at a Cuban restaurant, you'd go back there again for this music and the... read more
Dmitri Matheny - Cascadia
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
4-STARS Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and his quintet play perfectly on Cascadia. There is no surprise there—with a rhythm section of pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Phil Sparks and drummer Mark Ivester backing the front line of Matheny and saxophonist Charles McNeil— perfection is the expectation.
Matheny grew up in Georgia and Arizona, spent a formative and near-obligatory stint in New York City, and played for a time in the band... read more
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