Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Mimi Fox - Standards
by Jim Josselyn, Cadence
The music and the song flow profusely from the gifted hands of Mimi Fox on Standards. As she proves throughout, anybody who can breathe so much new life into yet another version of "All Blues," and truly make the number her own, can PLAY. Done wisely on an acoustic guitar, the choice of so many of the early bluesman, the number is first cast as a Delta blues with Fox scat singing in unison with some bad solo blues lines. Symmetrically, modern... read more
Paul Marinaro - Mood Ellington
by Jonathan Widran, The JW Vibe
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
Cuong Vu - Leaps of Faith
by Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
It may require a leap of faith to entertain Cuong Vu's overhaul of jazz standards, but it was no easy step for Vu either, after 15 years doing his own thing. Innovative, too, the use of two bassists, with Luke Bergman holding down the bottom end and freeing Stomu Takeishi up to roam wide sonic territory. It can't have been easy for Bergman to enter and radically rewire a long-standing trio, nor for Takeishi to assume a new role, but Vu's bold... read more
Ben Patterson - The Way of the Groove
by Jett Walker, Texas State University, International Trombone Association Journal
Composer, arranger, band leader, and former member of Airmen of Note (the premier jazz ensemble of the U.S. Air Force), trombonist Ben Patterson presents the release of his second album in just two years. It features returning collaborators Purcell, Henry, and Harrison, who recorded on Patterson's previous album, along with new contributors Hernandez, Appelman, and Reiger. All the tunes are original compositions (often with witty track titles)... read more
Peter Erskine & The JAM Music Lab All-Stars - Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner
by Bill Milkowski, DownBeat
Erskine's second collaboration with an all-star ensemble from the Vienna-based JAM Music Lab pays tribute to two Austrian composers who escaped Nazi terror, fled west and ended up creating the template for Hollywood film scoring. Principal arrangers Erskine and pianist Danny Grissett have taken some liberties with these old-school film cues, like adding an Afro-Cuban percussive undercurrent and swinging solo section on "March of the Merry Men"... read more
Dawn Clement - Tandem
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
A real piano left fielder, Clement teams up for duets in various formats with real hitter pals of hers she admires. Even the chestnuts on parade take on a new life for the left leaning ears. Not for the feint of heart, this is one of those excursions where so little can say so... read more
Benjamin Boone - Caught in the Rhythm
by Dr. Debra Jan Bibel, Amazon
Benjamin Boone continues his lauded project of uniting poetry with jazz. After the two volumes of The Poetry of Jazz, featuring the poems and narration of Laureate Philip Levine, followed by A Gathering of Poets, 11 narrating their own often dark and angry social commentary, he presents his most interesting, expansive, and musical combinations that Boone himself regards as his best. Again, no text of the poems are provided, forcing the listener... read more
Joe Locke - Subtle Disguise
by Nigel Jarrett, Jazz Journal (London)
It's astonishing to reflect that this super album by vibraphonist Joe Locke is his 36th as a leader. There's nothing about it to dislike, unless it's the fastidiousness that for some might make the arrangements of his tunes feel too neat and its solo eruptions too contained. But that's a reflection of his role as composer - there are just two others represented here: Bob Dylan and Blind Willie Johnson - and compared with many less orderly... read more
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