Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Marcos Varela - San Ygnacio
by Bob Protzman, Downbeat Magazine
***1/2
If you were a young bassist-composer releasing your album debut as a leader, you'd want Ron Carter writing your liner notes.
Such was the case for Marcos Varela, whose San Ygnacio unites eight of the finest musicians in New York for an admirable 11-track program. Varela is keenly aware of the significance and influence of Carter, but the young bassist should certainly be commended for the smart choices he makes on this... read more
Mattias Svensson - Embrace
by Mike Gates, UK Vibe
4-STARS There's a quiet confidence running through "Embrace" that comes from musicians who know instinctively when to push and when to listen. Bassist Mattias Svensson has long been one of the understated anchors of Scandinavian jazz - many will know his work with the Jan Lundgren Trio - and this project feels like a natural extension of that lineage, enriched by the presence of two masterful collaborators.
Svensson first crossed... read more
Gene Argel - Luminescent
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
Gene's piano work on this quartet outing is full of life and joy, yet he does it without a touch of embellishment... pieces like the opener, "Annette", will make you introspective, but you'll come away with a touch of nostalgia for music that could have been (if only you'd listened to the piano teacher - lol... talking to myself there). Gene is joined by highly talented players, too... Jay Thomas on alto/tenor sax and trumpet, Chuck Deardorf on... read more
Greg Yasinitsky - YAZZ Band: New Normal
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
A proven swinger rallies his troops up to the fact that the tracks they started before Covid got started will have to be finished remotely if they are to be finished at all. This is one leader that doesn't have to worry about getting fragged by friendly fire as they rise to the challenge. Sounding delightfully seamless, this hard charging crew makes it easy to say that big band is hear to stay. A real pulse pounder that feels like a throw... read more
New Stories - Hope is in the Air
by Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times
This Elmo Hope revival project exudes class. It includes cameos by seven guest musicians (most notably producer/trumpeter Don Sickler and alto saxophonist Bobby Porcelli), but is defined by New Stories: pianist Marc Seales, bassist Doug Miller and drummer John Bishop, who have constituted the best piano trio in Seattle, Wash., for 17 years.
Elmo Hope composed quirky, beautiful, unforgettable music, now all but lost in the shadows of history.... read more
Bobby Broom - Song And Dance
by Ron Netsky, Rochester City Newspaper
Over the last three decades Bobby Broom has played with the giants, including a long stint with Sonny Rollins and a short one with Miles Davis. But there's more room to showcase his mastery of the jazz guitar on trio albums like Song and Dance. Broom's technique, reminiscent of Grant Green and Wes Montgomery, is put to good use on an unusual mix of standards ("Smile" and "You And The Night And The Music"), recent pop tunes ("Where Is The Love"... read more
Florian Hoefner - Luminosity
by George Grella, The Big City Blog
Luminosity is the third album from German jazz pianist Hoefner. This is finely made jazz that sits right in the pocket of the mainstream of contemporary style - a prevalent minor key feel, driving rhythms with more than a little rock feel - that is the long tail of Keith Jarrett's European Quartet. The sound is familiar, but this is not a criticism, because it's also involving.
The story behind Hoefner's third release is that, having... read more
Ben Black - Remembered Faces / Private Places
by Dave Nathan, All About Jazz
Seattle-based cabaret singer Ben Black's second album deals with a set of tunes, most unfamiliar, that deliver a set of messages about being kinder to each other both as individuals and to society as a whole. The play list has an international flavor with songs from Armenia, Ireland, Japan and Latin America as well as the U. S. Black has a high pitched, but never shrill, tenor which on such songs as the medley of "Old Friend"/"Old Friends" comes... read more
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