Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Sam Yahel - Truth And Beauty
by Bill Wood, Amazon.com
This is wonderful, confident music, full of thought and surprise and understated humor, a modern music that has the self-assuredness not to announce itself as such. These three musicians are possibly the very best we have on their respective instruments, but there is no question but that Yahel's is the sensibility in charge. His writing is cliche-free, yet unashamedly connected to a full spectrum of musical traditions, from bop to pop, from... read more
New Stories - Hope is in the Air
by Larry Nai, Cadence
The New Stories trio - pianist Marc Seales, bassist Doug Miller, and drummer John Bishop - flies both alone and special-guest-augmented on this bracingly fine tribute to pianist Elmo Hope. One of the most tragically fascinating figures of the Bop family, Hope's highly percussive, nervous keyboard style is less imitated than intimated here by Seales, who shows an obvious kinship with the 14 compelling Hope compositions performed. His exciting... read more
Tito Carrillo - Urbanessence
by Carmel de Soto, Jazz Music Archives
Tito Carrillo's latest album, "Urbanessence" on Origin Records, is a must-hear. This trumpet player and composer is mixing it up, blending jazz, salsa, Latin jazz, gospel, blues, funk, and soul to create a unique and magical musical experience. Carrillo even included an original track from Phil Koceril to mix things up even more.
Carrillo's ensemble is a powerhouse, featuring himself on trumpet, Troy Roberts on tenor and soprano saxophones,... read more
Hans Fahling - Hamburg: Port of Call
by Nils Jacobson, All About Jazz
Hamburg guitarist Hans Fahling wrote eleven compositions for Hamburg, each accompanied by a Patrick Haskett painting in the liner notes. The artistic intent behind this dual presentation (funded by a number of international sponsors) is well-realized through a series of shifting moods and styles. However, the interdisciplinary approach on Hamburg disguises the high-level improvisational bent of the music considered on its own.
Fahling's... read more
John Stowell | Michael Zilber - Live Beauty
by Jason Bivins, Cadence
Live Beauty is filled with fine, probing modern mainstream that has a wide rhythmic range of reference but a lyrical heart. From instrumentation to idiom, it's indebted to sessions from the likes of Abercrombie/Surman and Scofield/Lovano, two key points of influence that shouldn't require any positive elaboration. Stowell is based in Portland, and Zilber's from the East Bay, and it's nice that they're documenting their longstanding collaboration... read more
Michael Waldrop - Origin Suite
by Brian Morton, Jazz Journal (London)
4-STARS The heart sinks a little at the threat of a concept suite celebrating the span of human history, then bucks a little with the thought that there have been some very good ones: Mingus's Pithecanthropus Erectus, Grachan Moncur III's Evolution, George Russell's The African Game...
This latest attempt, written in emulation of Buddy Rich's epic suites, actually only occupies the first 10 minutes of a long and richly varied CD and... read more
Hal Galper - Live at the Berlin Philharmonic, 1977
by Lance Liddle, BeBop Spoken Here (UK)
Six tracks - the shortest at 9:31, the longest at 24:36 - spread over two CDs recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977 gave me the feeling of being there. This feeling helped on by the audience's enthusiasm.
If Michael Brecker had blown these choruses at a JATP concert 30 years earlier he'd have been accused of exhibitionism or playing to the crowd. However, by this time, such pyrothechnics had been absorbed into most saxophonists'... read more
Rich Thompson - Who Do You Have to Know?
by Editor, Jazz Rochester
Welcome to the first in what I hope will be a growing series of posts about new albums being put out by one of the talented jazz musicians or groups in and around Rochester, NY. The first is by local drummer (and Eastman professor) Rich Thompson, who is asking that perennial question of those breaking into anything new with his new album Who Do You Have to Know? on Origin Records out of Seattle, Washington. The quartet on the album includes... read more
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