Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Ryan Cohan - Originations
by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
The best jazz recordings of 2020 to date: Savvy listeners already know that Chicago pianist-composer Cohan has a well-honed gift for writing long-form jazz compositions. It reaches a high point in "Originations," a suite Cohan performed to vivid effect at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in 2018. The new recording deepens earlier favorable impressions of the piece, which amounts to a series of tone poems in which Cohan explores his Middle... read more
Dave Hanson - Blues Sky
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Dave Hanson plays piano and Fender with his team of Mark Simon/b, Paul Romaine/dr and guest Wil Swindler/ts-as on this collection of bluesy originals. On piano, Hanson has that classic warm feel a la Kenny Barron, as he shifts gears on the post bopping "Arnhem" and is lyrically stately around Romaine's brushes during "As It Was And Is", niftily veering through Simon's bass lines on "Cross Steps" and boogalooing with him on "Dylan Dream". His... read more
Clarence Penn - Monk: The Lost Files
by Chris Robinson, Outside-Inside-Out
Drummer Clarence Penn's latest is a super hip and contemporary update on eleven Monk tunes. Along with saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, pianist Vega, bassist Yasuhi Nakamura, and Gerald Clayton on Rhodes for one track, Penn reworked Monk's tunes - sometimes shifting accents to create a new rhythmic feel, or disguising the tune altogether. In doing so, he has breathed fresh life into and offered new ways to hear compositions that everybody... read more
Tom Collier - Across the Bridge
by Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
Ruminations on the past, musical or otherwise, are often weighed down by the sediment of sentiment. But it certainly doesn't have to be that way. Looking back can provide an outlet for the imagination to take control, and vibraphonist Tom Collier seems well aware of that. On Across The Bridge, Collier revisits his youth, delivering nine original numbers that touch on a childhood spent on the opposite side of the West Seattle Bridge from where... read more
Bill Anschell - Figments
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz.com
Bill Anschell is a lot of things. He is house pianist and mainstay at Origin Arts, showing up on a wide range of projects. He also contributes to this publication, writing with grace on craft of jazz. But, late at night, he is a musical James Joyce, spinning musical thread off the top of his head. And so he does on Figments.
Recorded over a series of late nights, after practicing his chosen craft, Anschell clears his mind and...begins... read more
Harvie S - Bright Dawn
by Thierry De Clemensat, Paris-Move
5 STARS
Few bassists in contemporary jazz combine diplomatic stature, compositional ambition and melodic authority as convincingly as Harvie S. A former Jazz Ambassador for the United States, a touring artist across Europe and Southeast Asia, and co-leader of the influential Double Image, which recorded for ECM Records and Enja Records, Harvie S brings decades of global experience to Bright Dawn. But this album is not a... read more
Jared Sims - Against All Odds
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
Any tenor saxophonist with the surname Sims is certain to draw the attention of a seasoned reviewer, if only out of curiosity. The first name in this instance is Jared, not Zoot (well, not John). As it turns out, Sims has an impressive resume as a performer, writer, educator and leader; Against All Odds is at least his tenth album as foreman of his own group. Jared Sims is a capable player who knows his way around a horn; what he lacks is his... read more
Vasilic Nenad - Folk Songs
by Denai Burbank, Jazz Review
This CD is quite an education. There's power in music of one's homeland. Somehow, it transcends all opinions, criticisms, language and cultural limitations.
Vasilic Nenad and his Balkan Band give us an "ear" view into his culture. These folk songs are all native to the former Yugoslavia (Balkans). The jazz interpretation is something else. Collectively, the musicians show their love and share it with you, the listener.
Each track has... read more
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