Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Corey Christiansen - La Proxima
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Leaving behind the west that has inspired him on past releases, Christiansen digs into his Afro Cuban inspirations for a painting from a different palette. Not a traditional Afro Cuban outing, but for a cat that spends a bunch of the year in Indiana, we'll grant him his askance and enjoy the ride as well. A fun guitar jazz tour de force that takes you on a great... read more
David Friesen - This Light Has No Darkness, Volume 1
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
4-STARS In 2020, David Friesen, an American jazz artist with Ukrainian roots, released his masterpiece, Testimony (Origin Records). The set was an orchestral, spiritual soundscape featuring Friesen's jazz quartet and the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine. Recorded in Kyiv, in December of 2018—about three years before Russia invaded Ukraine—the music was a majestic testament to Friesen's faith, embracing tranquility... read more
David Sills - Down The Line
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
One of the great things about jazz is that there's always room for persuasive new voices, especially those who've mastered the vocabulary and know how to swing. Saxophonist David Sills, now in his mid-thirties, qualifies easily on both counts, as he shows consistently on Down the Line, evidently his second album as a leader of his own group, although Sills has recorded with a number of other first-rank musicians.
Sills has enlisted a clever... read more
Jim Norton Collective - Time Remembered: Compositions of Bill Evans
by Brent Black, Bop-N-Jazz
Like Bill Evans? Looking for some nice piano? Keep moving...The Jim Norton Collective moves past the traditional and into a more avant garde base from which to examine the harmonic intent of Evans. While the liner notes may give one the impression this is a big band release, don't be fooled. At times there are large ensemble arrangements which the more subdued approach is sometimes the melodic road less traveled. Jim Norton has a small arsenal... read more
Jared Hall - Influences
by Paul Rauch, All About Jazz
4-STARS Jazz music has proliferated through generations traditionally by means of the oral tradition—meaning that knowledge is passed on by mentors, some by personal connection and others by more casual means. In modern times, this tradition lives alongside the jazz school phenomenon, where classrooms and studios incubate talent, while students inescapably still must pay their dues on the bandstand, playing with musicians that are more... read more
Anthony Branker & Imagine - What Place Can Be for Us?
by Jan Hocek, His Voice (Czech Republic)
In February, composer and conductor Anthony Branker released his eighth title on the renowned label Origin Records. The content of the new album is the ten-movement suite What Place Can Be For Us? about "seeking and finding a place that can be a refuge, a place of inclusion and belonging for people of color and people persecuted by oppression, war and hunger," as the author himself put it. And he is disappointed that he is not the United States,... read more
James Moody - 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005
by Andrey Henkin, JazzWise (UK)
When saxophonist, flutist and sometimes-singer James Moody died in 2010 at 85, it closed an over-six decade career of dozens of albums, hundreds of credits and reputation for humor, grace and, most of all, musicality. But his impact lives on, not just through his music but also through the James Moody Jazz Scholarship (jamesmoody.com/scholarship), awarded annually since 2015 to an "outstanding high school senior who embodies the qualities... read more
Barry Greene - Giants
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
The Giants singled out by guitarist Barry Greene on his recording of that name include a number of musicians who served as role models and helped shape his singular musical voice. Pat Martino is one, as are Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Russell Malone and Pat Metheny, each one a stepping-stone on Greene's upward path toward self-identity and mastery of his instrument of choice. Greene paid it forward by teaching for more than thirty years at the... read more
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