Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Dave Slonaker Big Band - Shifty Paradigms
by Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene
Arranger-composer Dave Slonaker has led his big band in Southern California for 15 years. The 16-17 piece orchestra is filled with major names who are not only impeccable section players but top-notch soloists. But while there is solo space on the eight selections on Shifty Paradigms for all but two of the musicians, it is Slonaker's arrangements that give this big band its own personality.
Dave Slonaker supplied all of the arrangements and... read more
Hal Galper Quartet featuring Jerry Bergonzi - Cubist
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
4 1/2-STARS Count pianist Hal Galper as another veteran rising like the brightest of stars into a compelling late career zenith. An alumni of saxophone great Phil Woods' 1980s group, Galper found his inspiration of late with an exploration of the Rubato Style of playing, with its flexible approach to tempo and the disassembling of melodies and putting them, slightly askew, back together again, somewhat in the mode of the Cubist painters.... read more
George Colligan - The Endless Mysteries
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
What do you do when you're Jack DeJohnette's piano man and you feel like improvising but ECM tells you the roster is currently full? You call Larry Grenadier and tell him to bring over his bass, then call John Bishop at Origin and say "have I got a deal for you." This set of originals feels more lived in than improv-ed and a smoking time is had by all. Hot stuff from a crew that doesn't need to be told what to... read more
Andrea Brachfeld - Brazilian Whispers
by Jim Macnie, DownBeat
HOTBOX FEATURE
Courageous redecoration often is a valuable stance when updating classics. I'd never imagined Antônio Carlos Jobim's "Waters Of March" as a shuffle until spinning this salute to the maestro's book by flutist Andrea Brachfeld. The signature esprit of Brazil's samba/bossa nexus gets its due, but a feisty groove dominates her band's rendering, and by the time they reach full speed, the March of the title is more "in like a... read more
Hal Galper - Trip the Light Fantastic
by Ric Bang, Jazz Scan
If you aren't familiar with pianist Hal Galper, you haven't been paying attention. He was a scholarship student at Boston's School of Music, just a few years after it came into existence in the 1950s; he has more than 80 recordings to his credit ? 20 as a leader ? and, in addition to his skill as a pianist, is a composer, arranger, publisher, teacher and author.
Galper always has been ahead of his time. In a biographical note, he recalls... read more
Dawn Clement - Break
by Peter Monaghan, Earshot Jazz
Nuance and soul are both earmarks of Dawn Clement's Break (Origin Records) where the pianist is joined by a fine rhythm section of bassist Dean Johnson and drummer Matt Wilson.
Clear, assured, nimble, and muscular articulation - in the manner of a Phineas Newborn Jr. - is matched to some of the varieties of thought and feeling that he, too, submerged just below the surface of fresh styling.
Clement sings on a few of the tracks.... read more
Greg Yasinitsky - YAZZ Band: New Normal
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
4-STARS As one good album clearly deserves another, Greg Yasinitsky, who wears many hats—composer, arranger, woodwind specialist and educator among them—has released New Normal, the second impressive outing by his admirable Washington state-based ensemble, the YAZZ Band, which varies in size from septet to tentet. Unlike Yasinitsky's earlier album, YAZZ Band, which was recorded basically in one session with fixed personnel, the... read more
Benny Powell - Nextep
by Will Smith, JazzTimes, Jan/Feb 09
It's most encouraging to hear some of jazz's senior citizens (Sonny Rollins, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Clark Terry and Hank Jones, among others) remaining active and creative in their sunset years. At age 78, trombonist Benny Powell may have lost a step or two with regard to his solo work on Nextep, his first recording in five years, yet he's still out there offering an abundance of music worth hearing with an often sprightly, burnished... read more
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