Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Scenes - ...But Not Heard
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
With 12 years together under this trio's belt, they came along just too late to be the crew that would have made BMG extend the deal on Windham Hill Jazz. Cerebral jazz with a warmer edge than ECM cool school cerebral jazz, this is wonderful set of thoughtful jazz that doesn't make you work to listen to it. The kind of in the pocket music that you can easily mistake for background music until it slowly surprises you by taking center stage,... read more
Michael Waldrop Big Band - Time Within Itself
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
A vet of the North Texas Lab Band, you don't argue with Waldrop's chops. Leading a modern big band like it was something he was born to do, Waldrop has his eye and ear on the proceedings like a mother hawk watching over her young 'uns making sure everything stays straight and true for them. Disregarding any elements that made big band corny in the 50s and 60s as it tried to stay hip, this is first call instrumental music no matter what... read more
Les DeMerle - The Jazz Spirit of Christmas
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide
Presumably taking advantage of some time off touring, Les DeMerle joins up with a small group for a jazz Christmas album. It's nightclub fare in general, with steady instrumental work from the crew and some solid vocals from Bonnie Eisele, DeMerle's wife. Ken Peplowski takes some very nice classic post-bop solos from time to time, playing off of DeMerle's drums perfectly, and bassist Bill McCrossen, though staying in the back for the majority of... read more
Ben Thomas Tango Project - The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The multi-instrumentalist Ben Thomas treats us to 8 songs that are rooted in the traditional rhythms of Argentine tango, and he's got some excellent help for the unpredictable affair.
"The Promise Of Morning" opens with Thomas' animated bandoneon and Gabe Hall-Rodrigues' lively keys making for a unique energy, and "Sonia's Mask" follows with Eric Likkel's rich clarinet helping cultivate beauty amid the bandoneon and piano.
The middle... read more
Chad McCullough & Bram Weijters - Abstract Quantities
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
If solid & pure jazz is what you're after, you won't find any better than this band featuring Chad's trumpet and Bram's great keyboards (along with bass from Piet Verbist and drums from John Bishop) anywhere on the globe. This is their third release... my first listen, but on tunes like the 5:35 "Hesitation", you'll hear just how sensitive the players are to each other... the recording is pure and clean, and if you listen with your headphones... read more
Ben Thomas Tango Project - The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle
by Paul Rauch, Seattle Jazz Beat
Dr. Ben Thomas is an impossible musician to forget, once he makes a first impression. This is the case whether you are witnessing his virtuosity on the vibraphone in a jazz or Brazilian music setting or performing in a tango ensemble on bandoneon. There is the music of course, with melody and harmony seemingly exiting his instrument in free flight, pushing aside time and space and settling in as something as natural as the air that fills the... read more
Eric Jacobson - Heading Home
by Nicholas F. Mondello, All About Jazz
4-STARS Wisconsin trumpeter, composer-arranger, educator and author Eric Jacobson and his team deliver Heading Home, his third album as leader. Offering eight Jacobson originals played by Chicago heavyweights and a New Yorker guest, all Jacobson regulars, the album, a hard bop retrospective, is arguably—if not definitively—the trumpeter's finest outing to date.
"Survival" opens in a speedball frenzy with trumpet and tenor, the... read more
Hal Galper Trio - The Zone: Live at the Yardbird Suite
by Tom Hull, Tom Hull: On the Web
Pianist, a good one, first side credit looks to be Chet Baker in 1964, 30+ albums since 1971, a few struck me as A-list, like his 2009 trio with Reggie Workman and Rashied Ali (Art-Work), and last year's album with Jerry Bergonzi (Cubist). This one, a trio with his label's resident rhythm section (Jeff Johnson and John Bishop), live from Edmonton in Canada, isn't quite such a tour de force, but reminds you how impressive he can be. Note that... read more
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