Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Bongwool Lee - My Singing Fingers
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
The music of pianist Bongwool Lee has a hopeful feeling. The Korean-born and now New York-based artist drew her first jazz inspiration - after classical studies in her homeland - from the work of Oscar Peterson, who sent much musical time walking on the sunny side of the street. But where Peterson rolled mostly in the jazz standards/Great American Songbook realm, Lee presents, on her debut recording, My Singing Fingers, a set of compelling... read more
Roy Assaf & Eddy Khaimovich Quartet - Andarta
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide
Two Israeli expatriates who stumbled upon one another on the New York jazz scene, pianist Roy Assaf and bassist Eddy Khaimovich put together a debut that capitalizes on the theme of modernization, updating not only classic compositions with new arrangements and reworkings, but updating the stylings of classic players through the quartet's stylings. The album opens with a groove-heavy rendition of Cole Porter's "All of You," also unveiling the... read more
Benjamin Boone with the Ghana Jazz Collective - Joy
by David Whiteis, JazzTimes
The Ghana Jazz Collective (saxophonist Bernard Ayisa, keyboardist Victor Dey, Jr., bassist Bright Osei, and drummer Frank Kissi) are an Accra-based contingent whose weekly sessions at the +233 Jazz Bar have become legendary among local aficionados as well as savvy-eared visitors from out of town. Their sound might challenge some listeners' stereotypes about African jazz musicians—rooted solidly in American funk-fusion and seasoned with healthy... read more
Anthony Branker & Imagine - What Place Can Be for Us?
by Angelo Leonardi, All About Jazz (Italy)
4 1/2 STARS The adventurous post-bop of the composer Anthony Branker, well expressed by the album Beauty Within by the Imagine quintet, finds new and more complex developments in this What Place Can Be for Us?. The group confirms the guitarist Pete McCann and the couple Fabian Almazan and Linda May Han Oh, expanding to a medium size band with some of the greatest young instrumentalists in New York: the trumpeter Philip Dizack, the... read more
Clay Giberson - Pastures
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
As I listen to Clay's superb jazz piano work (for the third time through the album now), one word comes to mind - POWERFUL! His strong style first enchanted my ears in issue # 162, and he got (very) high marks from me on that release as well (in fact, I went back and listened all the way through that album, too - as I often do with jazz players who exceed all expectations). On this (even better) release, he's joined by Donny McCaslin on... read more
Anthony Branker & Imagine - Songs My Mom Liked
by Anna Steegmann, The New York City Jazz Record
Dr. Anthony Branker (who turns 66 this month) is a man of many talents. He started as a trumpeter with the Spirit of Life Ensemble and took new musical paths after brain surgery for arteriovenous malformation. In the jazz world, he is highly regarded as a composer and arranger, a leader of three jazz ensembles, and an educator who has taught jazz studies at Princeton University for 27 years.
Songs My Mom Liked, his tenth album with Origin and... read more
Bill Anschell - Rumbler
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI - Irvine, CA
Bill Anschell is a pianist arranger who provides here that subtle miracle of jazz performance, making an elephant walk on stilts. Deep in tone and soul his tunes and a couple of covers, (most notably Monk's "Misterioso" with a super performance from Seattle's Richard Cole on sax),have solidity and assuredness, and yet seem casual and airy at the same time.... read more
Anne Drummond - Revolving
by Hrayr Attarian, Jazziz
Flutist and pianist Anne Drummond's third album as a leader, Revolving, is breezy, lyrical and quite enchanting. That's not to call it artistically lightweight or categorize it as easy listening. On the contrary, her pastel-colored compositions are like impressionistic paintings and sketcher depicting spaciousness with deceptively simple lines.
A vaguely mystical sensibility permeates the title track. Drummond's agile flute flutters over lush... read more
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