I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, People & Places, from Marc Seales with Ernie Watts and it's tasty. Opening with Rue Cler, with it's suspensive bottom created by Marc Seales on piano and floating lead by Ernie Watts on tenor sax sets a yearning feeling, anchored by Bruce Lett on acoustic bass and Moyes Lucas Jr on drums. Prelude is a quiet piano piece, nicely illustrated by Seales alone. Sensitive and introspective.... read more
Valera comes to making a great record organically. He's part of a 100 year old Cuban music dynasty and he was influenced by seminal jazzbo guitar greats. Then he hit's the bulls eye in crafting the kind of set that maintains it's ethnic purity while being the kind of stuff that completely knocks gringos off their pins. Here's the acid test: if you were to hear this playing at a Cuban restaurant, you'd go back there again for this music and the... read more
Dawn Clement lets you know from the very first tune on this album, that she is a technical master at the 88-keys. Her trio is full of legacy, passion, and tenacity. Clement's original tune is called "Outstretch" and it opens the album with straight-ahead jazz, a flurry of notes, some unexpected breaks in the rhythm, and a melody for the trio to enrich, each in their own improvised way.
"When we first came together as a trio, Buster, Matt, and... read more
A Swiss native, Jonas Tauber has returned to Z�rich after making some important contacts in the United States as he pursued his education. After graduating from the Eastman School of Music, Tauber moved on as opportunities arose for a cellist in orchestras in cities as widespread as New York City, Cedar Rapids Iowa, Philadelphia, Boulder Colorado and London England. After working with Itzhak Perlmanand other classical virtuosos, Tauber underwent... read more
Tom Collier is a bit of a character as, can be attested by the YouTube videos below. He has served as Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Washington since 1980. In 2011, he was appointed Chair of Jazz Studies at the school, and was awarded the Adelaide D. Currie Cole Endowed Professorship in the School of Music for the academic years 2011-2014. He is, indeed, having a good year. His last recording, Mallett Fantasique (Origin... read more
First let it be said of renowned and hip, ever so stylish Chicago based jazz Paul Marinaro that he's the only cat in the genre to follow a tribute to David Bowie (The Bowie Project with the Metropolitan Jazz Octet with another, more bold, ambitious and expansive one to Duke Ellington.
In the spirit of Dave Grusin's 1993 instrumental gem Homage to Duke and Joe Jackson's #1 Billboard jazz album The Duke, Mood Ellington explores the vast... read more
Michael Zilber and John Stowell might be making their best music yet
The ice and fire front line of the John Stowell/Mike Zilber Quartet gives the band a sound that's quietly dramatic and consistently alluring. Stowell, a guitarist based in Portland, Oregon, possesses a less-is-more aesthetic, rarefied harmonic palette and pleasingly cool tone. Zilber, a longtime resident of Albany, is a muscular tenor and soprano saxophonist working... read more
Drummer Clarence Penn has spent much of his career playing with jazz singers like Betty Carter, Little Jimmy Scott, and Diana Krall. He has also played with jazz conceptualists like Dave Douglas, Stanley Clarke and Adam Rogers. His new recording combines these parts of his career on an interesting conceptual record of pop and rock songs written by (or inspired by) some of the great rock and pop drummers. Penn arranged all the compositions with a... read more
This is just a small collection of the Origin Records reviews. Click here to view all reviews or try to Search for your favorite CD title.
Abate Berihun & The Addis Ken Project - Addis Ken
by Hanna Kay, Cult News (Paris)
Abate Berihun & The Addis Ken Project - Addis Ken
by Budapest, Rudolf Radnai
Abate Berihun & The Addis Ken Project - Addis Ken
by Editor, Bman's Blues Report
Jared Hall - Hometown
by Editor, Bman's Blues Report
Dawn Clement - Dear Ms. Dearie
by Editor, Bman's Blues Report
Jared Hall - Hometown
by Dee Dee McNeil, Making A Scene
Affinity Trio - New Outlook
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
Michael Dease Big Band - Return Trajectory
by Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move
Brad Goode Quintet Feat. Ernie Watts - Live Your Dream: Live at North Street Cabaret
by Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move
Maja Jaku - Blessed & Bewitched
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect