Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Peter Erskine & The JAM Music Lab All-Stars - Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner
by Luca D'Alessandro, Jazz'N'More (Switzerland)
4-STARS The film music composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner left their hometown of Vienna in the early 1930s to seek their fortunes in California. Many years later, in the late 1970s, Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine encountered Korngold's work for the first time when Joe Zawinul suddenly played a Korngold melody on tour. This sparked a fascination in Erskine that continues to this day. Peter Erskine, with the all-star... read more
Maja Jaku - Blessed & Bewitched
by Tim Larsen, JazzViews (UK)
For many American listeners, Blessed & Bewitched will be an introduction to Maja Jaku, a Kosovo-born singer who has already built a strong reputation in Europe. She brings a voice that can be powerful and direct, yet she's just as comfortable pulling it back to a hushed intensity, shaping phrases carefully and letting the meaning of the lyrics come through. That sense of control traces back to a musical household — her father was a trumpet... read more
Bobby Broom - Song And Dance
by Mike Joyce, JazzTimes
Lennon and McCartney, Leon Russell, Jimmy Webb
Don't let the fine print fool you. For all its ties to contemporary pop tunesmiths, Song and Dance aims to please mainstream jazz fans who are open to fresh and often surprising interpretations, among other pleasures.
That much is evident from the outset when veteran guitarist Bobby Broom and his trio mates - bassist Dennis Carroll and drummer Kobie Watkins - open this 10-track... read more
Matt Otto - Umbra
by Ed Sapiega, Jazz Views (UK)
Matt Otto, saxophonist and leader, is an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at Kansas University and an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers. Otto's website mattotto.org contains articles and lessons for and about music. Otto has spent over thirty years becoming a master improviser.
For this CD Otto uses Kansas City and St. Louis musicians. Some, like the bassist and the drummer, have played with Otto for sixteen years. Otto and the keyboardist... read more
Charlie Ballantine - East by Midwest
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The Baltimore resident and guitarist Charlie Ballantine is joined by Quinn Sternberg and Dan Weiss for these 9 Americana tinted songs that aren't short on grooves.
The shimmering guitar of "Storyteller" opens with much warmth and grace, and "Runaround" follows with Weiss' scrappy drums complementing the meticulous guitar playing.
Landing close to the middle, "Strawberry Fields Forever" is a reflective moment that also benefits from some... read more
Rodney Whitaker - Common Ground: The Music of Gregg Hill
by Tomas Peña, JazzDeLaPena
Bass player Rodney Whitaker moves in the highest circles of the jazz world. But when he meets a self-taught artist, his ears perk up. "They'll say 'you don't want to listen to me, I'm not trained.'" Whitaker says. "But I do. People who have figured things out themselves really know something." So when Whitaker met Gregg Hill, a self-taught jazz composer, he was ready to listen.
Whitaker has worked with the likes of Wynton Marsalis and Roy... read more
Brent Jensen with The Acoustic Jazz Quartet - The Sound of A Dry Martini
by Dave Nathan, All Music Guide
Educator, clinician, and A-one alto sax player, Brent Jensen honors one of the most self-effacing musicians in the history of jazz, Paul Desmond. The title comes from Desmond's ambition to "sound like a dry martini," probably very light on the vermouth. There are many "Desmond-isms" that he liked to use to describe his work. On the secret to his unique tone, he said "I honestly don't know! It has something to do with the fact that I play... read more
Dan Cray - Meridies
by Dan Healy, Chicago Jazz Magazine
Judging especially from the liner notes, life change and forward motion are a major theme of Dan Cray?s new quartet CD, Meridies. As a virtuosic pianist who has recently made the journey from Chicago to New York, the sidemen selection seems only natural. Cray and bassist Clark Sommers have both worked in Chicago and New York, while saxophonist Noah Preminger and drummer Mark Ferber are both established New York musicians. In the instance of this... read more
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