Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Ray LeVier - Ray's Way
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
If drumming is the subatomic glue that holds a jazz performance together, then Ray Levier is the Einstein of jazz drumming. On his debut recording, Ray's Way, Levier provides a veritable masters class on the seamless and relative incorporation of drums into the melody of a song. Add to this that Idit Shner joins Levier in redefining the blues in jazz and Ray's Way becomes that much more provocative.
Levier bills himself as a freelance... read more
Hal Galper - Live at the Berlin Philharmonic, 1977
by Jack Kenny, Jazz Views (UK)
Strange to think that the music on this album was recorded forty-four years ago. It does not seem like that: it has a freshness and immediacy. Pianist Hal Galper played for three years with Chet Baker. He also had a spell with Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods. The group on this album was probably his most successful and most artistically satisfying. Galper's exciting technique of quickening or slackening the rhythm, usually without... read more
John Moulder - The Eleventh Hour
by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
If Chicagoan John Moulder had decided to become a full-time jazz guitarist rather than a Catholic priest who plays guitar, he probably would be quite famous, for his virtuosity as an instrumentalist is matched by his ferocity as a performer. Then, again, he wouldn't be the man he is now, an artist who views faith and music as expressions of the same spirit, which may help explain why he sounds like no one else in jazz. That's clear once again... read more
Bobby Broom - My Shining Hour
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Few guitarists these days possess an identifiable tone; Bobby Broom's one of the guys who does. He's been a perfect foil for tenor guys like Stanley Turrentine and Sonny Rollins, as his #2 pencil thin tone mixed with a duster of a strum is like a signature from a fountain pen.
Most of the standards here are taken at a joyful and midtempo lilt, making "My Ideal" more wistful than longing and "My Shining Hour" brimming with hope.... read more
Carlos Vega - Art of the Messenger
by Luiz Athayde, Class of Sounds (Brazil)
And let's go with jazz, let's go with Carlos Vega. And I'm not referring to the renowned drummer, but to the accomplished saxophonist from Miami, Florida, and, importantly, with Puerto Rican DNA.
The Latin footprint is nothing new in his short solo catalog, composed by Bird's Ticket (2016) and Bird's Up (2017), but it is a natural "up", as is expected in at least most musicians who propose themselves to record a phonographic... read more
Jeff Johnson - My Heart
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'n'More (Switzerland)
After 32 years, this album by bassist Jeff Johnson (*1954) is finally released, with a great quartet: John Gross (ts), Art Resnick (p) and Billy Mintz. Six of the bassist's compositions that he wrote for this quartet and which were perfected at several concerts in the US states of Washington and Oregon before being recorded - in just four hours - in the studio at the beginning of December 1991. Mostly recorded as first takes, they prove his... read more
Jon Hamar - Hymn
by C. Michael Bailey, allaboutjazz.com
Track review of "Comes Love" - Origin Records bassist Jon Hamar effects an intimate trio with alto saxophonist Todd DelGiudice and pianist Geoffrey Keezer on Hymn. Heard most recently, prior to this date, on Richard Cole's Inner Mission (Origin Records, 2007), Hamar's Hymn is heavy on introspective yet muscular originals, as Hamar also chooses some sturdy standards upon which to improvise.
Hamar closes his disc with... read more
The Spin Quartet - In Circles
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
A crew of hitters familiar to fans of the Origin label or contemporary jazz in general, they band together for their first as a band and their well wrought forward thinking tunes will have you on board in no time. Certainly sounding like it's the right time and place for them to step out on their owns, this free-ish jazz is a gasser. High octane, high energy throughout and a sure fire... read more
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