Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Benjamin Boone | Philip Levine - The Poetry of Jazz
by Tom Vitale, NPR - All Things Considered
Poet Philip Levine discovered jazz on the radio when he was a teenager.
"Like any young person, I wanted to find an art form that the older people in my family would reject, naturally you know," he said to me in a 2004 interview. "I had found T.S. Eliot in poetry: 'God, what kind of garbage is this?' You know. And I heard jazz — rhythmic, driving, sometimes very lyric — and it was very exciting."
Levine would be awarded a Pulitzer... read more
Chris Walden Big Band - Home Of My Heart
by George Fendel, Jazz Scene
Although one has to deal with smog, jammed freeways and 16 jillion people, LA's okay if you're a big band leader. That's because you can find monsters like Bobby Shew, Pete Christlieb and Carl Saunders to play in your band. And if you know your turf pretty well, there are tons of additional first rate players to fill those band chairs. This is what leader Chris Walden has done. His is music with swagger; arranged to showcase both the... read more
David Friesen & Bob Ravenscroft - Passage
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
After decades of recording in small ensemble formats, bassist David Friesen offered up Testimony (Origin Records) in 2020, an outing which found him backed by his quartet and the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine on his best and most ambitious recording. He followed that up in 2021 by going back to the—for him— familiar territory of the art of the duo, enlisting pianist Bob Ravenscroft in the creation of Passages.
The... read more
Ben Patterson Jazz Orchestra - Groove Junkies
by Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene
In the liner notes to Groove Junkies by Harry Schnipper of Blues Alley Jazz, the music of arranger-composer Ben Patterson is accurately described as "hard-driving, bone-chilling, electrified funk." While there is no shortage of contemporary funk recordings, 13-horn 17-piece ensembles that perform in this style are not exactly common.
The Ben Patterson Jazz Orchestra, which is based in Washington DC, plays five originals by its leader and... read more
Hal Galper Trio - Airegin Revisited
by Bob Bernotas, Just Jazz Newsletter
?Rubato? is the concept. ?Playing without intention? is how they achieve it. Pianist Hal Galper and his colleagues, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop, collectively and intuitively stretch time, expand harmony, and invent melody on what Galper aptly describes as a journey with no road map and no destination. Don?t ask any questions, don?t expect any answers. Just get on and enjoy the... read more
Nnenna Freelon - Time Traveler
by Mandalit Del Barco, NPR Weekend Edition
Nnenna and Phil Freelon were a power couple: He was the lead architect for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History & Culture, and she was a Grammy-nominated jazz singer, composer, actress and playwright. They enjoyed an exciting, full life of work, travel, friends and family.
Phil Freelon died in 2019. Now, Nneenna has started new podcast to share her grief, and recorded a new album dedicated to her late... read more
Michael Bisio & Timothy Hill - Inside Voice / Outside Voice
by Peter Aaron, Chronogram
The title of this heart-stopping collaboration by Gloversville bassist Michael Bisio (Matthew Shipp Trio) and Beacon vocalist and acoustic guitarist Timothy Hill is rich in layered meaning. Recorded in one continuous take—with no edits or pauses—this sublime set takes its sweet, soft time meandering through jazz standards (Coleman's "Law Years," Coltrane's "Wise One"), Great American Songbook ballads (Cahn and Styne's "I Fall in Love Too... read more
Mamutrio - Primal Existence
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
From Belgium it came, a new sax trio that fuses art jazz with Euro sensibilities making for some grand egghead jazz in the way that ECM did it in their younger days. Angular sounds that are carefully plotted in their execution, these three have it going on and manage to fuse jazz from different trio modes in to one, well done whole. A must for sitting down jazz... read more
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