Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Clipper Anderson - Ballad of the Sad Young Men
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Ballad of the Sad Young Men: In which we find the piano jazz trio amiably recreated as a cabaret act with the singing bass payer at the wheel. Digging into the oldies vocal canon and blowing off all the obvious choices for some more daring and overlooked picks, the sum total is a grand set of sophisticated listening by one of those rare male vocalists that doesn't feel the need to ape Robert Goulet or Tony Bennett. There isn't a false note in... read more
Andrew Rathbun Large Ensemble - The Atwood Suites
by Michael J West, DownBeat - Live Review
Guimarães Jazz Fest Doesn't Play It Safe "Aqui Nasceu Portugal," says a sign on the 1,000-year-old stone tower in Guimarães' historic city center. "Here Portugal was born." The decisive battle of Portuguese independence took place in the shadow of the castle wall in 1128. And because of this, Guimarães remains one of Portugal's most important cities, even if its 52,000 inhabitants don't make it one of the largest.
If anything, its... read more
John Stowell | Michael Zilber - Live Beauty
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
...and surely here there is beauty! I've been listening to John's wonderful guitar ever since I moved to the Pacific Northwest (way back in 1980), but this is the first time I've reviewed an album with his playing on it. The excellent opener, "In The Park", brings back mem'ries of some of the great work John did with bassist David Friesen, but Michael's reed work lends a totally different atmosphere to the song. John Shifflett does bass and... read more
Michael Zilber - Originals for the Originals
by George Harris, Jazz Weekly
Michael Zilber uses his compositional skills as well as his soprano and tenor saxes to give tribute to some of his musical inspirations. The core team of David Kikoski/p, James Genus/b and Clarence Penn/dr is used for all of the songs except one, the darkly swinging "Hen House" dedicated to Joe Henderson. Other Selmer stars include a Wayne Shorter, who is shown by the leader's soprano in the Weather Report fashion on the exciting and propulsive... read more
Bob Sneider & Joe Locke - Nocturne for Ava
by Mike Stratton, WLNZ East Lansing, Michigan
This is one of those CDs that I haven't been able to remove from my player since I first put it in. Trumpeter Sneider and vibist Locke have latched onto a concept of celebrating the music of noir; think black and white detective movies from the 50s, or doomed romance, murder, shadow, attitude. If this kind of stuff floats your boat, this is a must have CD. The album opens with Last Tango In Paris, a composition that immediately evokes the... read more
John Moulder - Bifrost
by Steve Greenlee, JazzTimes
Guitarist John Moulder's new album belongs on ECM. It has the distant, icy sound of a Jan Garbarek record, and it builds its layers like one of Terje Rypdal's. Bifrost is a vast, expansive piece of work?a landscape of wide-open spaces and big skies with a decidedly Scandinavian feel (even if Moulder is based in Chicago).
The title track, which opens the disc, starts off innocently enough, with stark lines drawn by Bendik Hofseth's tenor... read more
Scott Reeves - Portraits and Places
by Chris Spector, Midwest Review
A flugelhorn player that has earned his spurs as an arranger and conductor while laboring in the vineyards for a long time for cats as disparate as Dave Liebman and Bob Brookmeyer, he knows his jazz and thanks those long gone for the music that inspired him as well as those still around that taught him. Not nearly a kid and playing like an adult, this is sitting down big band listening music that'll have you bobbing your head and tapping your... read more
Laurie Antonioli - Songs of Shadow, Songs of Light
by Christopher Loudon, Jazz Times
As is common knowledge among even casual Joni Mitchell fans, around the mid-1970s her passion for jazz became increasingly integral to her work; that passion escalated through the '80s and included collaborations with Mingus, Jaco, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. So, at first blush, it seems odd that as jazz-savvy a vocalist as Laurie Antonioli would build a Mitchell salute exclusively around songs that pre-date Joni's jazz musicians.
In... read more
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