Origin Records Reviews

Charlie Ballantine - East by Midwest
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

4 STARS

A bracing guitar/bass/drums trio outing from guitarist Charlie Ballantine, East by Midwest, sounds as if it was recorded in a large, high-ceilinged warehouse with a cement floor, that floor buffed into the next dimension to a high polish, this giving the music a beautiful resonance. Retro? Think Link Wray or Dick Dale and The Deltones. Modernistic? Think John Abercrombie on some of his early ECM Records efforts. Or... read more

Chris Walden Big Band - Full-On!
by Jack Goodstein, Blogcritics.org

It's been seven years since the last big band album from composer/arranger Chris Walden, the Kurt Marti Suite for big band and choir-much too long. But if it takes waiting that long for an album as fine as the newly released Full-On!, how can you complain? Los Angeles-based Walden has busied himself conducting and arranging for artists as diverse as Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Diana Krall and Rihanna, and a raft of others - so... read more

Cuong Vu - Leaps of Faith
by Matthew Miller, New York City Jazz Record

For all of his sonic manipulations, kinetic energy and creative focus, trumpeter Cuong Vu never strays far from a strong melody. It is a unifying element in a professional career that has spanned nearly 20 years with his own idiosyncratic groups and associations with artists like Pat Metheny, David Bowie and Laurie Anderson, among many others. On two new releases, Leaps of Faith and Speak, Vu is joined by a coterie of like-minded musicians who... read more

Tito Carrillo - Opening Statement
by Neil Tesser, Chicago Examiner

Carrillo, celebrating the release of his debut album "Opening Statement" (Origin), has built on the hard-bop foundations of modern jazz to construct a strong and supple style that's at home in several of the city's most exciting current bands.

At the Green Mill, Carrillo's band stars most of the heavy hitters from his album - saxist Geof Bradfield, pianist Benjamin Lewis, and bassist Lorin Cohen - along with drummer Max Plaskota replacing... read more

Kiki Valera - Vivencias en Clave Cubana
by Paul Rauch, Earshot Jazz

The legacy of Cuban cuatro master Kiki Valera began with one of the most influential bands in the history of Son Cubano—La Familia Valera Miranda. The current Seattle resident has released an album of twelve original compositions on the highly regarded Origin Records label.

Valera's innovative approach to improvisation is well within the Son tradition, the music and dance of the eastern hill country of Cuba. There is however, a freedom and... read more

Abate Berihun & The Addis Ken Project - Addis Ken
by Hanna Kay, Cult News (Paris)

There is something of the sunrise in Addis Ken, of a horizon between the liturgical traditions of the Jews of Ethiopia, jazz, blues and African rhythms. A dialogue between Ethiopian saxophonist and singer Abate Berihun and the trio of Israeli pianist Roy Mor, Addis Ken tells as much a personal story as a collective adventure. Roy Mor looks back for us on this musical encounter where jazz becomes a bridge between cultures and a universal... read more

Michael Dease - Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill
by George Kanzler, The New York City Jazz Record

Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill is the seventh album to be released featuring the music of 78-year-old Michigan composer Gregg Hill, and it's Michael Dease's second Hill project. "Something I really dig about Gregg's writing is that his melodies are direct," says Dease in the liner notes, "they're unpretentious to me and they balance lyricism with a mathematical sense of logic. That's where you get these cellular bits that repeat, that... read more

Dave Slonaker Big Band - Convergency
by Lance Liddle, BeBop Spoken Here

One of the best big band albums I've heard in many a long day's listening. Convergency gives me the same kick that I got from when I first heard the big bands of Boyd Raeburn, Stan Kenton, Dizzy, Woody, Gil, Thad and Mel and yes, even the great Ms Schneider. Slonaker is up there with them.

The big band era as it once was may be gone inasmuch as large ensembles no longer criss-cross America playing one-nighters, riding in band buses that... read more

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