Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Benjamin Boone - The Poets Are Gathering
by Skip Heller, All About Jazz
BEST OF 2020 Saxophonist Benjamin Boone's The Poets Are Gathering (Origin) was maybe the most interesting new disc this year. Ever since Ken Nordine crossed swords with Chico Hamilton sideman Fred Katz to spawn the long-loved Word Jazz albums, the two disciplines have had mutual respect but an uneasy coexistence. Boone thrives on the uneasy, and here he is joined by eleven of the finest Central/Northern California poets for a... read more
David Weiss Sextet - Auteur
by Lance Liddle, BeBop Spoken Here (UK)
There have been a lot of excellent albums dished up for review this year and already the contenders for Album of the Year are amassing.
Auteur is one guaranteed to be in the shake-up. It's the kind of music I had in mind when I first started blogging all those years ago - bop, hard bop, post bop and beyond (albeit not too far beyond).
In his notes, Weiss states that, just like in politics, jazz has no middle anymore. adding that, unlike... read more
Bill Anschell - Improbable Solutions
by Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist
If you ask me, the "improbable solution" at which keyboardist/composer Bill Anschell arrived in creating this album had to do with creating a program that draws equally on the straight-ahead jazz verities and on forward-thinking experimentation without sacrificing one for the other. Very few are able to strike that balance, and his achievement here is significant. Compare, for example, the rockish and melodically angular "Is This Thing Even On?"... read more
Maja Jaku - Blessed & Bewitched
by Jonathan Widran, The JW Vibe
Kosovo born vocalist and songwriter Maja Jaku has made exquisitely intimate and charmingly swinging jazzy waves in her native Europe for years, touring with her trio, performing with the Austrian fusion band Attack, performing in musicals and releasing four acclaimed albums.
On her intriguingly titled debut American collection Blessed and Bewitched, she shares those magnificent, deeply lived vocal passions and cool soulful strutting with U.S.... read more
Matt Otto - Umbra
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Tenor saxist Matt Otto blows smoke like a Cohibo cigar on this album of smoky mellow madness. He's teamed with Jeff Harshbarger/b, John Kizilarmut/dr, while mixing and matching Herman Mehari/tp, Matt Villinger/key and Alex Frank/g.
In full band setting, he lets the tenor drift like a nimbus cloud on "Little Things" while showing his influences on the laconic "Hawk" and relaxed swing of "Prez". He creates embers around Harshbarger on "Paw Paw"... read more
Jessica Williams - Songs of Earth
by Ric Bang, JazzScan
Pianist/composer Jessica Williams is an elite musicians who is so well known that she needs little introductory or background verbiage to inflate reviews of her albums. Like many pianists, she began her studies with the classics and switched to jazz during her teens. Unlike most beginners, however ? who start out playing with unknowns ? Williams was associated with icons from the get-go; her first group was headed by Miles Davis drummer Philly... read more
Affinity Trio - New Outlook
by Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene
In 2022, the Affinity Trio (which is comprised of trumpeter Eric Jacobson, pianist Pamela York, and bassist Clay Schaub), recorded their debut recording as a group: Hindsight. New Outlook has the same Chicago-based musicians (who contributed one original apiece) returning to the studio to perform their new material, four standards, and two lesser-known but worthy numbers.
Their music is a lively brand of straight-ahead jazz played with joy... read more
Thomas Marriott - Constraints & Liberations
by Tom Ineck, Berman Music
If it were not for Origin Records, many of the wonderful jazz players of the Pacific Northwest would be unknown to those of us out here in the hinterlands. Among the most creative of these is trumpeter Thomas Marriott, a Seattle native who has had five releases as leader on Origin in the last six years. Constraints & Liberations is the latest, and it may be the best yet.
This time Marriott concentrates on his own compositions,... read more
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