Origin Records Reviews

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

Eva Cortes - Crossing Borders
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record

A crowd funded Latin jazz vocalist funded by a crowd that knows their apples, if this feels like a Brazilian record that you just can't put your finger on, it's because she's from Honduras and the crew is playing with pan Caribbean chops. It might not be Brazilian, but it has all the sound and feel of the Brazilian jazz vocal set you've been jonesing for lately. Killer stuff throughout from an international star that really needs to plant a... read more

Dave Hanson - Blues Sky
by Ferdinand Dupuis-Panther, Jazz'halo (Belgium)

All About Jazz reads: "After decades as an in-demand composer/arranger, and a co-leader of Denver's acclaimed H2 Big Band, pianist Dave Hanson took his 2024 week-long Artist in Residence at Denver's Dazzle Jazz club to put focus on his piano playing and his small group arranging, resulting in this debut quartet recording. With saxophonist Wil Swindler, bassist Mark Simon, and drummer Paul Romaine, Hanson pays tribute to a melting pot of towering... read more

Various Artists - The Cool Season: An Origin Records Holiday Collection, Vol. 2
by John Barron, All About Jazz

With no shortage of holiday music blasting through shopping malls and restaurants this time of year, it's easy to understand why some might want to escape the incessant bombardment of the overdone and out-of-date. If one looks hard enough, however, hope for Christmas music burnout can be found. One place to look is Origin Records' The Cool Season: An Origin Holiday Collection, Vol. 2. With fresh and swinging vitality, trumpeter Thomas Marriott,... read more

Storms/Nocturnes - VIA
by Jerome Wilson, Cadence

Via features a more experienced British musician, saxophonist Tim Garland, working together as a trio with American pianist Keezer and vibes layer Locke, as they did a decade earlier. I've seen this group compared to the team of Gary Burton and Chick Corea, but of course there was no saxophone in that group. Garland adds an extra drive to the formal prettiness that Keezer and Locke set up whether he is dancing ceside them on soprano sax or... read more

Aaron Germain - Chance
by Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes

Californian Allison Adams Tucker is far from the first artist to parlay an album-length playlist into an around-the-world travelogue. But she comes by the concept more honestly than most, having circled the globe multiple times, performing everywhere from Tuscany to Tokyo, all the while developing credible fluency in six languages. Nor has her musical maturation been strictly linguistic. She began singing at age 5, in her native San Diego, and... read more

Dominic J. Marshall - Spirit Speech
by Bruce Lindsay, All About Jazz

Dominic J Marshall has clearly absorbed a lot of influences in his 24 years. The pianist, born in Scotland and now resident in Amsterdam, brings many of them to Spirit Speech, the third album by his trio. Hip-hop, jazz, classical, folk: it's a disparate bunch and while it isn't exactly chalk and cheese there's still a risk that mixing them all together could create something unpalatable. Marshall neatly sidesteps the risk. Spirit... read more

Amit Friedman - Unconditional Love
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly

Amit Friedman plays mostly tenor and a bit of soprano sax with his core team of Tom Oren/p, Gilad Abro/b, Yonatan Rosen/dr and guests Rony Iwryn/perc, Doran Talmon/voc and Joca Perpignan/voc on this mix of moods of mostly originals.

Friedman shows his warm tone and clean intonation on a duet with the Bill Evansy piano of Oren on " Rill-Cool" while the Oren goes dark to Friedman's fluffy notes on the title track. Rony Iwryn's percussion... read more

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