Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Hal Galper - Ivory Forest Redux
by S. Victor Aaron, Something Else!
Around the early 90's when my John Scofield fascination led me back to his catalog prior to his Miles Davis association, I picked up his 1978 Rough House CD. While the guitarist's advanced bop vocabulary was already fully developed by this time and he also demonstrated emerging composing chops this early on, this was a very different record than the ones he has made from, say, Still Warm onward. His signature tone wasn't fully in place yet and... read more
Sam Yahel - Truth And Beauty
by Larry Hollis, Cadence, Oct-Dec, 2007
If one were to go back and listen to Sam Yahel's debut disc "Searchin'" on the Naxos label, after giving a quick listen to "Truth and Beauty", it might seem like one was hearing two completely different oragnists. That effort sported the horns of Eric Alexander and Ryan Kisor on four of the nine numbers while his following recordings have all been within the trio context of organ, drums, and either guitar or saxophone. Brian Blade was on his... read more
Nnenna Freelon - Time Traveler
by Stephen Graham, Marlbank (Ireland)
Remember where you are when you hear Time Traveler. It will be easy to. If you are in your car you'll be pulling over to the side and need to switch the engine off. If you are in a place where the radio is on you'll be waiting for the DJ to say who the record is by. You'll hear about it word of mouth probably first of all. It has that kind of aura to it. Because from note 1 you will know if you are a classic vocals-jazz fan that you have come... read more
Benjamin Boone | Philip Levine - The Poetry of Jazz
by Tom Vitale, NPR - All Things Considered
Poet Philip Levine discovered jazz on the radio when he was a teenager.
"Like any young person, I wanted to find an art form that the older people in my family would reject, naturally you know," he said to me in a 2004 interview. "I had found T.S. Eliot in poetry: 'God, what kind of garbage is this?' You know. And I heard jazz — rhythmic, driving, sometimes very lyric — and it was very exciting."
Levine would be awarded a Pulitzer... read more
Lorin Cohen - Home
by Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
4-STARS What's "home?" Is it where somebody's born and raised? Is it where a person resides at a given time? Or is it any place where an individual finds a high level of comfort, joy, and possibility? For Lorin Cohen, it's all three. This talented bassist-composer makes that fact plainly apparent on this, his leader debut.
With Home, Cohen pays tribute to the city that fostered his musical growth and development through... read more
Lincoln Goines - The Art of the Bass Choir
by Cedric Hendrix, CirdecSongs
When it comes to more experimental records, there's a fine line between innovative and self-indulgent. Bassist Lincoln Grimes has successfully remained on the right side of the tracks. Along with a stable of legendary bassist guests — among them Victor Wooten and John Pattitucci — Goines looks to push the bass in fascinating directions without giving the listener more information than is necessary. Goines also has the good taste to step back... read more
Kelly Sill / Jim McNeely / Joel Spencer - Boneyard
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
An excellent trio session from pianist Jim McNeely, bassist Kelly Sill, and drummer Joel Spencer. The Chicago-based trio has been collaborating in various forms for years, and the tightness of the ensemble is apparent in the interplay between musicians here. McNeely takes the lead for much of the album (being the pianist, of course), and shows off some noteworthy chops on standards like "In Your Own Sweet Way" and originals (such as the... read more
Michael Dease - MSU Jazz Trombones: Spartan Strong
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
4 STARS
Michael Dease, widely admired as one of the world's foremost jazz trombonists but rather less-known as an educator, dons his professorial garb on Spartan Strong, supervising a splendid session by a special corps of undergrads (and students in his trombone studio) who together comprise the MSU (Michigan State University) Jazz Trombones, twenty-three members in all when one counts Dease and the group's half-dozen bass... read more
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