Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Hadley Caliman | Pete Christlieb - Reunion
by Carlo Wolff, JazzTimes
This was Haley Caliman's last recording before his death of liver cancer in September. Recorded with his old friend and fellow tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb in November 2009, it finds Caliman in high spirits and full of energy. It's a very good mainstream jazz album featuring that comforting stalwart, the tenor battle. The styles of the two, who hadn't recorded together since they worked in Los Angeles' Central Avenue jazz scene in the... read more
Richard Sussman - Continuum
by Hessel Fluitman, Jazzflits- Netherlands
Take the album 'Continuum' by pianist Richard Sussman. He asked trumpeter Randy Brecker to play in his Quintet. And guitarist Mike Stern participates in 'Mike's Blues.' With which names you expect brute force jazz or explosive work, but the music is regulated. There is intelligent and it's nicely played. Band Leader Richard Sussman, in addition to the piano, also plays the synthesizer, offering up some varying sounds.
Original... read more
Josh Nelson - Exploring Mars
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI, Irvine, CA
A concept album that begins with a jazz bed under a reading from Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" and continues with a variety of styles to evoke mental images and imaginings of the "red planet". I like the offbeat ballad "How I Loved You on Mars", the Metheny like "Sojourner","Memnonia Quadrangle", a guitar meditation, and "Spirit" A reprise of the first cut without the Bradbury narration and with a fine trumpet... read more
Les DeMerle - Hittin' the Blue Notes, Volume 2
by Dick Crockett, Sacramento Radio
A nu-bop version to what's happening then...now! This is hard bop with a west coast swinging so grab your sweet other's hand and do some half time. This is more physical, then cerebral Bacchus celebration. We played Bobby Troup's "Route 66." Let's be clear about this, De Merle would bring the house down in Vegas with this DeMerle-a-la-mena. You open and ratchet up a first listen on this new one and you'll know for sure. The DeMerle Band jumps,... read more
Dave Liebman | John Stowell - Petite Fleur: The Music of Sidney Bechet
by Mac Randall, JazzTimes
Jazz innovator, early soprano saxophone pioneer, gifted improviser with a tone so distinctive it can be recognized within microseconds--this is what musically knowledgeable folks tend to think of when Sidney Bechet's name comes up. Composer? Not so much. But the New Orleans legend's catalog of originals was sizable, and fellow soprano master Dave Liebman has done us all a service by researching and interpreting a few highlights, with the expert... read more
Giacomo Gates - Centerpiece
by Christopher Loudon, Jazz Times
Another extraordinary vocal stylist we never hear enough from is Giacomo Gates. He's often and accurately credited as a contemporary Eddie Jefferson, but with his full bodied baritone and blazing inventiveness, he sounds like the love child of Billy Eckstine and Kurt Elling. As bracing an innovator as he is an interpreter, Gates transforms his third studio album, Centerpiece (Origin), into a cornucopia of delicacies that extends from a smooth,... read more
Dave Slonaker Big Band - Convergency
by Richard J Salvucci, All About Jazz
In December 1910, Virginia Woolf once observed, human character changed and, along with it, so did everything else. Politics, society, religion, sex, all of it, she thought, would leave the ancien regime behind. And, to a point, she was correct. Within a few years, the old world was gone, swept away by war and revolution. It was not coming back. Ever.
Somehow, listening to the marvelous musical products of modern big bands, Woolf seems oddly... read more
Ziggurat Quartet - Calculated Gestures
by Ron Bierman, Jazz Review
One of the ways jazz has grown is by absorbing the sounds and rhythms of other cultures. African and Latin American music were strong early influences. Today, India is making waves. Since classical Indian music has always included extensive improvisation, it seems it might have happened sooner. However, while spirituals, rumbas and African drums readily appeal to Western ears, Indian raga is a more difficult fit, its scales more exotic, its... read more
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