Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Marc Seales - American Songs, Volume 2: Blues...and Jazz
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Pianist/keyboardist Marc Seales mixes jazz with its blues root on this cookin' session with Fred Hamilton/g, Jeff Johnson/b, Dave Captein/eb and Gary Hobbs/dr. The band cruises like a Ford V8 on the waltzing "Highway Blues" and the gentle "The Open Road" which both spotlight some clean and fresh work by Hamilton's fretwork. Seales' piano is sleek on the grooving "Blue" and his keyboard serves as a bed of feathers for Hobb's brush work... read more
Todd Bishop - Little Played Little Bird
by George Fendel, Jazz Society of Oregon
Okay, along with a lot of you, I haven't explored the music of Ornette Coleman to the extent that I probably should have. I've "always" admired "Lonely Woman," and as Bishop explains, on a disc of Coleman tunes that nobody ever does, "Lonely Woman" is the exception because, he writes, "I've been playing it for 20 years and it deserves to be here." Bishop's quintet includes two reedmen, Richard Cole and Tim Willcox, who join forces... read more
Hal Galper Trio - The Zone: Live at the Yardbird Suite
by David R. Adler, JazzTimes
OVERDUE OVATION
I like to pay my debts," said trumpeter David Weiss in our recent Q&A. So do I, and one of them is to pianist Hal Galper, whose jazz theory course I took at The New School for a full year (1987-88, if memory serves). You did not leave that class the same, not me at least. Now at the age of 86, Hal has been posting some longer commentaries on Facebook, often on the themes we covered that year—and we covered way more than... read more
Anthony Branker & Other Ways of Knowing - Manifestations of a Diasporic Groove & Spirit
by Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move
5-STARS To write about Anthony Branker is to risk superlatives. And yet restraint feels almost dishonest. He stands, more than likely, among the most important and influential American composers working today, not simply because of the sophistication of his craft, but because of the intellectual and moral architecture that sustains it. Once again, Branker delivers a work that is forceful, searching, at moments even unsettled, a score... read more
Jessica Williams - The Art of the Piano
by John Sunier, Audiophile Audition
A fine environment - psychologically and acoustically - allows Williams to make one of her finest recordings yet. 5*****
Such a title might seem excessively self-promotional with most other jazz pianists on the scene today, but not so with Jessica Williams. She's one of the nation's musical treasures and one of the most distinctively original jazz pianists to be heard anywhere. This is her third CD for Origin, recorded live at... read more
Greta Matassa - The Smiling Hour
by Paul Freeman, San Jose Mercury News (Interview)
Seattle-based jazz vocalist Greta Matassa's father was a visual artist, a painter. And a serious jazz buff.
"My dad and I used to stay up until three in the morning, talking about the parallels between jazz music and abstract art," Matassa tells The Daily News. "They are very similar in the spontaneity of the way they're put together. You start with a structure in a piece of music. Or a subject matter in art. And then the act itself of... read more
Chad McCullough Bram Weijters - Urban Nightingale
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
Chad McCullough, with one CD under his own name - the outstanding Dark Wood, Dark Water (Origin Records, 2009) - has also contributed his distinctive voice to recordings by the Kora Band and Tunnel Six, all under the Origin Records banners. But the Seattle-based trumpeter must have a European sensibility; his finest work to date has been in teaming, as co-leader, with artists from the other side of the Atlantic - Slovakian pianist Michal... read more
Xavier Lecouturier - Carrier
by Tom McCarter, KZSU - Stanford
On drummer Lecouturier's debut disc as a leader, the tunes allude to a variety of influences both compositionally and spatially, while displaying a deep connection to jazz tradition. While Lecouturier is the primary force on the record both as a musician and composer, there is a definite collective feel to the effort.
If You Like: Art Blakey, Miles Okazaki, Geri Allen, Wayne... read more
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