Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
John Stowell / Michael Zilber - Basement Blues
by Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury News
Michael Zilber and John Stowell might be making their best music yet
The ice and fire front line of the John Stowell/Mike Zilber Quartet gives the band a sound that's quietly dramatic and consistently alluring. Stowell, a guitarist based in Portland, Oregon, possesses a less-is-more aesthetic, rarefied harmonic palette and pleasingly cool tone. Zilber, a longtime resident of Albany, is a muscular tenor and soprano saxophonist working... read more
Corey Christiansen - Lone Prairie
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Guitarist Corey Christiansen has released two previous recordings on the Origin label in Roll With It (2008) and Outlaw Tractor (2010). Both were well received and featured Christiansen's ethereal playing, characterized by a deep reverb beneath a slightly overdriven tone. These recordings are uniformly fine, but generally lacked a thematic center (not that one was required).
Having said that, Christiansen provides here a disc with a central... read more
John Stowell - Solitary Tales
by Mike Joyce, JazzTimes
Guitarist John Stowell went straight to the source when choosing a setting for his latest solo release - the home of Portland, Ore.-based luthier Mike Doolin. Using a pair of Doolin guitars - a nylon acoustic-electric and an electric tuned a major-third lower - Stowell recorded "Solitary Tales" live in front of a small, appreciative audience.
Concert recordings don't get more intimate than this, and Stowell's thoughtful approach to pieces... read more
Alon Farber Hagiga - Dreams I Dream
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The saxophone extraordinaire Alon Farber celebrates 25 years together with his ensemble via these cultured 8 tracks that welcome swing, Moroccan, funk and Brazilian ideas.
"Cookies" opens with Farber's detailed sax amid Yonatan Rosen's lively drumming, and "Minor Trap" follows with Katia Toobool's frisky keys that guide the upbeat and melodic climate.
"Mingus Dream" occupies the middle spot and makes great use of Assaf Hakimi's... read more
Geof Bradfield - melba!
by Martin Z. Kasdan Jr., LEO Weekly, Louisville
Saxophonist/composer Geof Bradfield enlisted his longtime employer, pianist Ryan Cohan, to play in his suite honoring Melba Liston. She was one of the first African-American women to make her name as a jazz instrumentalist (trombone) and arranger, associated over four decades with pianist Randy Weston, among many other projects. (Weston himself rightly praises Bradfield's work.) Bradfield tells Liston's story in musical movements,... read more
The Acoustic Jazz Quartet - Organic
by George Fendel, Oregon Jazz Scene
With the exception of Alone Together, the AJQ, as they may one day be known, provides only original material here. I've heard tenor David Sills play bop and ballads and admire his warm, "reeled-in" sound. Playing mates Jamie Findlay, guitar; Zac Matthews, bass and Dean Koba, drums, all lend to a tightly knit quartet with a clean and precise approach. But where's the Monk, Miles and... read more
Chris Walden & the LMR Jazz Orchestra feat. Tierney Sutton & Kurt Elling - Missa Iubileum Aureum: Golden Jubilee Jazz Mass
by Margarita Zaberska, Bulgarian National Radio
The album was released in August 2022 featuring the LMR Jazz Orchestra, lead vocalists Kurt Elling and Tierney Sutton, the St. Dominic Catholic Church Choir and organist Simon Berry.
The Jazz Mass was commissioned and the brainchild of California's Napa Valley trombonist and entrepreneur Ted Hall, (in honor of his 50th wedding anniversary), who dreamed of a monumental work combining the traditional Latin liturgy and jazz.
Ted Hall's dream of... read more
Roberta Brenza - It's My Turn to Color Now
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
On the cover, vocalist Roberta Brenza doesn't wear her singing influence on her sleeve, but on her T-shirt, as a picture of bop pioneer Sheila Jordan peeks through with a smile. Her presence is felt and heard here, as Brenza mixes bop and modern jazz with a team of Stacy Dillard/ts-ss, Dawn Clement/p-key, Cameron Brown/b and Matthew Wilson/dr. Jordan jumps in for a couple tunes having a hoot of a time with Brenza and tenorist Dillard on a snappy... read more
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