Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
James Moody - 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005
by Will Friedwald, New York Sun
All-Star Celebration of James Moody's 100th Kicks Off the 2025 Blue Note Jazz Festival
The jazz great was born in Savannah and raised by a single mother in Newark, which is why that city's performing arts center names its annual fall jazz festival in his honor.
Somehow, my favorite bebopper, James Moody, was also my favorite rapper. In 1946, the 21-year-old veteran of the Army Air Corps joined Dizzy Gillespie's pioneering... read more
John Moulder - Bifrost
by John Ephland, Downbeat
***1/2 stars
The first thing one may notice is Moulder's penchant for going back and forth between his acoustic and electric guitars. That he plays his six- an 12-string acoustics in a manner that at times might recall Ralph Towner's music with Jan Garbarek (thanks to the full-bodied tenor saxophone sounds of Bendik Hofseth) is not surprising. Bifrost sports Hofseth with fellow Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, both whom help give the... read more
Jessica Williams - Songs For A New Century
by Robert Doerschuk, Downbeat, December 2008
On Songs For A New Century (****) Jessica Williams proves that she excels in the solo format. These pieces may owe something to her decision to remove the music stand and fall-board, unfold the front part of the lid and lower the level of her seat. What matters more is the results of this tinkering, and while outside effects do crop up, such as the sparking string plucks on "Toshiko," the effect is one of consonance and elegance, more... 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
John Moulder - Decade: Memoirs
by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
BEST OF 2018 It's difficult to say which is most profound: Chicago guitarist Moulder's compositions, his ferocity as guitarist or his gifts as bandleader. All converge on this album, a major statement of vast expressive and stylistic reach, from the epic "Memoirs by the Sea" (Parts 1 and 2) and the incantations of "One Last Call" to the acoustic-guitar whisperings of "About Us" and the fragile lyricism of "Remembrance." Ample atmosphere, color... read more
The H2 Big Band - It Could Happen
by Ric Bang, Jazz Scan
The world boasts many excellent musicians, but very few top-of-the-line arrangers. They know who they are, of course, but the listening public usually doesn't even know their names. That's a real shame, because they're often the individuals who transform a good combo into a great one.
Dave Hanson, who arranged every track on this release, is my current favorite in this category.
The H2 Big Band was created by two Denver-based... read more
Jessica Williams - With Love
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
Successful musicians play "the truth." If you want to hear some truth there are certain artists you can seek out. Thelonious Monk couldn't play anything but the truth, right from the beginning. Pianist Jessica Williams came upon the truth - a purer form of it, at least - after experiencing "the fix of Illness" that she has discussed on her website and in interviews. Her first "fix" came about via her struggle with hypothyroidism, and... read more
Matt Jorgensen - Tattooed by Passion: Music inspired by the paintings of Dale Chisman
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
Drummer Matt Jorgensen pushes a bit out of the relative comfort zone of his longstanding Matt Jorgensen + 451 ensemble, to pay homage to his late father-in-law, abstract expressionist painter Dale Chisman, with Tattooed by Passion. With his + 451 group, Jorgensen crafted a distinctive modern-leaning sound on CDs Hope (Origin Records, 2004) and Another Morning (Origin Records, 2008). He carries that tradition forward on... read more
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