Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Tim Jensen - A Mind For The Scenery
by David Franklin, Jazz Times
A Mind for the Scenery (Origin), from Portland, Ore., woodwind player Tim Jensen, offers a potpourri of styles, from funk to funereal to free, and there's not a dull moment on it. Its fine soloists tend to favor the mainstream post-Coltrane modal/hard bop approach when not taking the occasional free-jazz flight. But Jensen's arrangements of his own compositions, along with "On Green Dolphin Street" and Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages," demonstrate a... read more
Michael Vlatkovich Tritet w/ Jonas Tauber and Ken Ollis - Queen Dynamo
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
It's hard to say how the average jazz fan comes to an appreciation of improvised music�and we're talking here spontaneous compositions, not merely an improvised solo in the middle of a mainstream song. One avid listener's introduction to the genre occured some years ago at a concert/lecture in a small state college auditorium. Two young musicians�bass and piano�held forth with a very interesting history of twentieth century jazz, from Louis... read more
Nnenna Freelon - Beneath the Skin
by Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene
Nnenna Freelon, who made her first recording as a leader back in 1992, had only recorded two CDs since 2012: Time Traveler from 2018-20 and a children's music record. Fortunately, Beneath The Skin was well worth waiting for.
Ms. Freelon is heard in top form throughout this set and is at her most expressive whether singing with joy or restrained grief. She wrote or co-composed all of the ten songs and really digs into the... read more
Ryan Cohan - Originations
by Georges Tonla Briquet, Jazz'halo (Belgium)
The first notes you catch in the morning often determine your mood throughout the day. One tip: wake up to the tones of American pianist and composer with Palestinian roots Ryan Cohan in his 'The Hours Before Dawn'. A slow unveiling of a whole world that ranges from jazz and classical to influences from the Middle East (Jewish and Arabic) and South America. Music layers that slide over and into each other like tectonic plates in slow... 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
Nick Finzer - The Chase
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
You have to love it when a cat can graduate from Julliard without letting it go to his head. Bone man Finzer takes his sweet time between releases and we are wise not to rush him. Charting some new courses that give us the opportunity to follow him without tripping, this fleet fingered, buoyant jazzbo makes his bone talk while supporting his composing and leading chops making the whole a real gasser. Inventive but keeping it's fun, spirited... read more
Meridian Odyssey - Second Wave
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Drummer Xavier Lecourier leads a post bop team of Santosh Sharma/ts, Martin Budde-Lucas Winter/g, Dylan Hayes-Gus Carns/key and Ben Feldman/b through a collection of modern post bop pieces. He takes the pen to intricate "Interlake" that weaves together work by Sharma and Budde, while the saxist's "Second Wave" is a sophisticated melody propelled by the drummer. Kayes and Feldman lay down a soulful line on "Quarentine Blues" with the bassist... read more
Trio East - Best Bets
by Ed Trefzger, JazzWeek
A WORKING GROUP since 2001, the "power trio" of Clay Jenkins on trumpet, Jeff Campbell on bass and Rich Thompson on drums keeps a regular Thursday gig a few blocks from the Eastman School of Music where all are on the faculty. The absence of piano on this understated CD of mostly originals and a few uniquely arranged standards provides plenty of space for Jenkins' smouldering but clear trumpet, Campbell's driving bottom end and Thompson's... read more
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