Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Phil Kelly - Convergence Zone
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
If you watch any television at all it's a good bet you've heard Phil Kelly's sound. Kelly has worked for forty years as a composer/arranger in film and TV, including over 700 national TV commercials. For Convergence Zone Kelly has assembled some of the finest studio and jazz players in the Northwest for a swinging, sassy set of big band jazz.
The opener, "Damp Brown Places" ? a sendup of "Camp Town Races" ? sets an immediate tone for the... read more
Brad Goode - The Unknown
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Trumpeter Brad Goode brings together Jeff Jenkins/keys, Seth Lewis/eb and Paa Kow/dr for rich and deeply grooved originals, with a few clever covers. Goode's horn glistens with Jenkins on a sensitive read of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" while a synthy solo sets the mood for Kow to dig in on Caetano Veloso's "Joia". Lewis is a presence throughout, giving a rich line for "The Windmills of Your Mind" and laying down a funky white boy music mood for... read more
Marcos Varela - San Ygnacio
by Britt Robson, JazzTimes
Houston keeps churning out stellar jazz artists. One of the latest, and brightest, is bassist Marcos Varela, who is talented enough to have been mentored by Ron Carter and employed by Billy Hart and Clifton Anderson during his dozen years in New York, smart enough to enlist drummer Hart, trombonist Anderson and pianist George Cables to play on San Ygnacio, and confident enough to forge his own identity on this remarkable debut.
Hart and... read more
Nick Finzer - The Chase
by Brian Keegan, International Trombone Association Journal
The Chase, Nick Finzer's latest release, features the up-and-coming New York trombonist's finest playing and creative composition. The album displays a wide breadth of stylistic influences and a searching, pining quality in both writing and improvising.
"Life Happens," the opening track, has a driving, intense quality, though it has the same small problem that a few of the other selections have; it should continue a bit longer... read more
Amit Friedman - Unconditional Love
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
Once upon a time, jazz, an American creation, was confined for the most part within its borders. But that was once upon a time. Today, any barriers that once kept jazz within a prescribed realm have long since vanished, and the music Americans once embraced as their own has flourished around the world, performed with increasing awareness and dexterity by artists who have built upon the patterns created in the land of its birth to weave colorful... read more
Michael Waldrop Big Band - Time Within Itself
by Andrzej Fikus, MULTIKULTI PROJECT (Poland)
4 1/2 STARS American drummer and vibraphonist (Michael Waldrop) debuts in the role of bandleader. And, what a debut! Musically having to his credit a doctorate at the University of North Texas, where he was a member of the famed One O'Clock Lab Band. Another 10 years spent at a sideman for Jack Cooper in his Jazz Orchestra of the Delta in Memphis. The last decade he has also worked on the faculty for Eastern Washington University. Well... read more
Giacomo Gates - Centerpiece
by Elliott Simon, All About Jazz/New York
A product of vocally imitating complex bop solos, vocalese grew into a respectable singular art form under its most famous practitioners, King Pleasure and Eddie Jefferson. On the swinging Centerpiece, Giacomo Gates uses these two giants as touchstones and makes the genre his own.
In addition to his deep, rich tonal quality, Gates' impressive vocal arsenal includes whistling, scat and mood-inducing intros. He uses these talents to lead us... read more
Brent Jensen / Rob Walker Quintet - Art of the Groove
by Mark Gallo, Jazz Review
This 9-song set features 7 superb originals from the pens of principals Brent Jensen (alto) and Rob Walker (flugelhorn), alongside gorgeous takes on "It Could Happen To You" and, especially, "You Go To My Head." Backed by the New Stories Trio of pianist Marc Seales, bassist Doug Miller and drummer John Bishop, Jensen and Walker bring clever compositions, tight arrangements and outstanding performances to the program. This gem is loaded with... read more
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