Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Diverse - Diverse
by examiner.com, examiner.com
Diverse, the eponymous album by Kansas City Jazz group Diverse, is a true success story, the rarest kind of success story, the kind that almost never develops to such a fruitful outcome. Most of the elements of it are fairly commonplace?all of the right pieces come together, a group of talented musicians meet at college, they begin working on their own original music, they enter a contest, grand prize is a recording contract?these things happen.... read more
Marc Seales - People & Places
by Editor, Bman's Blues Report
I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, People & Places, from Marc Seales with Ernie Watts and it's tasty. Opening with Rue Cler, with it's suspensive bottom created by Marc Seales on piano and floating lead by Ernie Watts on tenor sax sets a yearning feeling, anchored by Bruce Lett on acoustic bass and Moyes Lucas Jr on drums. Prelude is a quiet piano piece, nicely illustrated by Seales alone. Sensitive and introspective.... read more
Tim Davies Big Band - The Expensive Train Set
by Dave Rogers, WTJU - Richmond
Imagine being the leader of and composer/arranger for two big bands and you'll get the idea of this release. Both have identical instrumentation, though the only player common to both is Tim Davies (drums) himself. One band is in Melbourne and the other in Los Angeles and one song combines the two together. The sound is large and powerful and often "sharp" like the James Bond movie orchestras. All but two of the compositions are by Davies.... read more
Rob Lockart - Parallel Lives
by Charles Winokoor, Cadence, April-June 2008
Fans of hard-hitting, finely-crafted post-Bop will want to check into "Parallel Lives," the first release from tenor sax player Rob Lockart.
With support from an A-list cast of characters this veteran of big bands, ranging from Woody Herman to Doc Severinsen and Tom Harrell to Chris Walden, shows that he's equally at home generating heat in a quartet setting.
The collection of eight songs, six of them original, are not simply an excuse to... read more
Geof Bradfield - Our Roots
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI, Irvine, CA
This tribute to the blues... not the Chicago macho variety, but the deeply spiritual Texas blues of Leadbelly and Blind Willie Johnson is celebrated by the likes of tenor saxophonist Bradfield, trumpeter Marquis Hill, Joel Adams on trombone, Clark Sommers, bassist, and Dana Hall, drums and percussion. I mention them all because this a truly an ensemble, a communion of spirits bringing their own individual talents to stellar performances of... read more
Les DeMerle - Comin' Home Baby
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Nominally under drummer/vocalist Les DeMerle's brand, vocalist Bonnie Eisele, brings to DeMerle's infectious brand of jazz that necessary feminine vector. The repertoire on Comin' Home Baby is tried-and-true, well performed, and perfectly satisfying, as have been all similar DeMerle releases. Eisele proves equally capable on the up-tempo tunes ("Day In Day Out" and "I Love Being Here with You") as on the ballads ("The Nearness of You"... read more
Storms/Nocturnes - VIA
by Chris Ingham, Mojo Magazine
After a seven-year hiatus, the third album by superstar chamber trio doesn't disappoint
The music made by British saxophonist Tim Garland, pianist Geoffrey Keezer and vibraphonist Joe Locke is of such high-end refinement, beuaty and excitement that their Storms/Nocturnes trio is in danger of being leader in a field of one. Using a detailed, near-classical composition (three from each player) as a starting point, the group's delicate and fiery... read more
Mark Colby - Reflections
by Paul Abella, Chicago Jazz Magazine
Mark Colby has come out with a new disc, Reflections, on Origin Records. Colby joins a long list of Chicago's top-notch musicians making the move to that label, and like most of Origin's other releases, this one is flat-out fantastic. I'm beginning to think that John and Chad, the masterminds of that label, have no idea how to put out a bad record.
As a matter of fact, you just know that this is going to be a great album from the... read more
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