Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Ray Vega & Thomas Marriott - East-West Trumpet Summit
by John Barron, All About Jazz
East-West Trumpet Summit is a rollicking showcase for longtime friends Ray Vega and Thomas Marriott. Vega, a New York native and the elder of the two, has served for many years as a mentor to Seattle's Marriott. The two first met when Marriott was a student at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Vega was in town touring with the late Tito Puente. Friends ever since, the two trumpeters share an affinity for hard-blowing,... read more
Alon Farber Hagiga with Dave Douglas - The Magician: Live in Jerusalem
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The sax enthusiast Alon Farber and trumpet extraordinaire Dave Douglas come together for these 4 celebratory songs that were recorded on June 27, 2023 in Jerusalem, and welcome Yehonatan Cohen, Oded Meir, Katia Toobool, Assaf Hakimi and Roy Oliel.
"Persistence Of Memory" opens the listen with Farber's radiant soprano sax and Douglas' soaring trumpet amid Oliel's precise drums and Cohen's intricate clarinet for the rich textures of warmth, and... read more
Bill Anschell - Shifting Standards
by Ian Guin, Earshot
Jazz musicians are mathematicians, carpenters, athletes. With absurd devotion they hone their minds and muscles in ceaseless work, just so that at the end of the ledger the balance reaches zero, so every corner dovetails into a standing cabinet, so the javelin might reach a few inches further. If you need an answer to why jazz musicians work so hard, all the time, the latest release of pianist Bill Anschell has it. Shifting Standards, recorded... read more
Meridian Odyssey - Second Wave
by Abe Beeson, KNKX, New Cool
If you've been following the Seattle jazz scene, no doubt you know a few of the musicians calling themselves Meridian Odyssey. They've played as sidemen with many of the city's top players and spent hours working together in each others' bands. Despite and because of the pandemic, the quintet of friends found room to collaborate in socially distanced Alaska, resulting in a great new album.
For Second Wave, Xavier Lecouturier, the band's... 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
Shawn Purcell - Oblivity
by Az Samad, Az Samad Lessons
The growth of a creative jazz guitarist is not only in how one improvises or performs, but in the music that they release, traditionally via albums. The change that we hear in an icon such as Pat Metheny from Bright Size Life (1976) to MoonDial (2024) documents his spirit of exploration and his aesthetics over a long career.
Social media in particular has made many musicians chase views and virality instead of building a clear creative... read more
Mimi Fox - This Bird Still Flies
by Colin Griffith, Taylor Guitars
Acoustic Flight Path: Interview with Mimi Fox: When we last wrote about internationally renowned guitar virtuoso and music educator Mimi Fox (summer 2018), she was still enjoying the honeymoon phase with her new Builder's Edition K14ce. As Fox shared at the time, she was returning to her acoustic roots and looking forward to using her new Taylor on an all-acoustic album she was getting ready to record. The release, This Bird Still... read more
Michael Dease - Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill
by Jim Hynes, Making a Scene
Around Michigan State University's Jazz Studies Department, composer and East Lansing, MI resident Gregg Hill has taken on the kind of esteemed status one would associate with Charles Mingus or Duke Ellington. Found in Space - The Music of Gregg Hill by trombonist/baritone saxophonist Michael Dease represents the fifth album of Hill's music with a sixth from Dease coming in the future. Most of those recordings, all from MSU faculty members -... read more
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