Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Matt Jorgensen - Tattooed by Passion: Music inspired by the paintings of Dale Chisman
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
Music based on visual art is nothing new (many know of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition if nothing else), but can be a mixed bag in terms of quality. Though both art forms can show improvisation and structure, musicians have to walk a fine line: too literal in their transcription of color and strength and they risk making terrible music; too free with the aesthetics of their own musical ideas and they risk ignoring the visual... read more
Tom Collier - Alone in the Studio
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
One of the most eclectic multi-instrumentalists you are ever going to run across, Collier pulls the sum total of 50 years at this gig together with a set that has you rapt by things like vibe solos played with such an innocence and lack of guile you almost forget where you are. It's the chops---they're well done. Smart and sly jazz that takes you from classics to originals, he's been everywhere with everyone and it's easy to see why.... read more
Chris Walden Big Band - Home Of My Heart
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide
A young big band conductor. A rarity to be sure, but not necessarily an oxymoron. Chris Walden proves that in this album, a surprisingly versatile primer of the big band. Walden can use traditional techniques, with a soloist over the top of a soft backing of horns, as you'll hear in the Christopher Cross-penned "Rainy Day in Vancouver," as well as his own Film Noir series. He can invoke the spirit of Tadd Dameron's bop big bands, which you'll... read more
Dave Glenn - National Pastime
by George Fendel, Jazz Society of Oregon
One month of watching 18 baseball games in six cities created the inspiration for Dave Glenn to write eight pieces for this sextet. The title tune depicts the feeling of anticipation on entering a stadium: the smell of beer and hot dogs, etc. Other tunes pay tribute to baseball heroes like Roberto Clemente or Hank Aaron, while still others express, as ABC used to say, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Dave Scott's trumpet and Rich... read more
Jessica Williams - The Art of the Piano
by Andrea Canter, The Jazz Police
Although piled high with critical accolades, awards, and grants over her nearly five-decade career, pianist Jessica Williams remains a somewhat obscure if Herculean talent. Seldom performing outside of the west coast, and most often in solo, the Baltimore native is known to discerning audiences primarily through her vast discography and sheaf of original compositions. Nominated twice for a Grammy for best instrumental album, Jessica should get a... read more
Amit Friedman - Sunrise
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
This seems to be shaping up as the year of the "Sunrise." Two outstanding sets by that name have been released in 2012: one by the Masabumi Kikuchi Trio on ECM Records, the other a self-produced gem by the Indo/American chamber ensemble, Karavika. Israeli saxophonist Amit Friedman makes it a triptych with his own Sunrise, on Seattle's Origin Records.
Friedman has a knack for memorable melodies enmeshed in sophisticated and lively... read more
Bobby Broom - The Way I Play: Live In Chicago
by D. Oscar Grimes, O's Place Jazz Letter
Guitarist Bobby Broom leads a trio with Dennis Carroll (b) and Kobie Watkins (d) for this live session at Pete Miller's Steakhouse in Chicago. They are playing bebop - eight covers of classic tunes. Bobby takes the bull by the horns on Parker's "Donna Lee" and Rollins' "Unit 7" with great fills from Watkins. Performing in a restaurant is always challenge but at least a few of the patrons were captured by Broom's work and there was lots of... read more
Ted Moore Trio - The Natural Order of Things
by Dave Rogers, WTJU, Virginia
Recording artist, composer/arranger, drummer, bandleader and educator, Ted Moore is based in Berkeley, CA, and is the leader of The Ted Moore Trio. The trio, which consists of Ted on drums along with Phil Markowitz (The Sax Summit Band) on piano and Kai Eckhardt (John McLaughlin) on bass, has just completed its first recording project at the famed Skywalker Sound studio in Marin County, CA, consisting of all original compositions and... read more
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