Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Chuck Owen & ReSurgence - Magic Light
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'N'More (Switzerland)
4-STARS Chuck Owen is particularly well-known as the leader of his big band Jazz Surge. Here he leads ReSurgence, a sextet or septet with a very special line-up. On two tracks, a wind ensemble with trumpet, trombone and alto saxophone also joins the core line-up. With the exception of the originally arranged "Spinning Wheel" by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, which begins in the New Orleans style but swings wonderfully in the tenor... read more
Geof Bradfield - Our Roots
by Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
4 STARS Without the blues, there would be no jazz, and arguably, no rock-and-roll. Think about it, if there were no rock-and-roll, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who stole every American blues lick they could find in the 1960s, would have had to get real jobs.
Jazz musicians suffer no illusions that their music wasn't born of the African-American blues tradition and its music is unequaled when it deals overtly with this... read more
Dawn Clement - Delight
by Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move
A Bold and Intimate New Album from Pianist and Vocalist Dawn Clement, Releasing on Bastille Day.
There are artists who quietly chart their course through the contemporary jazz landscape, and then there are those, like pianist, vocalist, and composer Dawn Clement, who illuminate it. For more than two decades, Clement has been crafting a distinctive voice, intellectually sharp, emotionally resonant, and rhythmically enthralling. Her... read more
Hal Galper / Jeff Johnson / John Bishop - Furious Rubato
by Marc Medwin, Cadence
Hal Galper's offering was the biggest surprise. It's the furthest out, his playing much more adventurous than I would have expected. Clearly in the tradition, his keyboard attack is nevertheless somehow brazen, bold and certain, as with Andrew Hill of the Strange Serenade period. Even the usually serene "Naima" emits raw energy, the melody twisted almost out of recognition. "Milestones" is subjected to similar treatment, becoming a no holds-... read more
Roxy Coss - Restless Idealism
by RBS Productions, Amazon
Five IMPRESSIVE Stars. Roxy Coss is a potent, facile young jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist who has twice made the vaunted Downbeat International Critics Poll in 2014-15 as a "rising star." After reading the raves over her sophomore release "Restless Idealism", I bought it and after listening several times I must heartily agree. She has great chops on both saxes: a fluid, fleet-fingered tenor sax and a soprano sax style, a fertile... read more
Bobby Broom - My Shining Hour
by Stephen Graham, Marlbank.net
The very coolest jazz guitarists can burn when it's not obvious. They don't need to show off. But somehow there's a tipping point, the rhythm changes and tentative narrative forays up and down the frets turn into paragraphs, pages and chapters, the characters are created and the music speaks to you via the guitarist's imagination in real time. Eddie Lang, Django, and Charlie Christian started the ball rolling in this regard but thankfully... read more
Brent Jensen with The Acoustic Jazz Quartet - The Sound of A Dry Martini
by Michael Bettine, CD Review.com
Review: The title of this CD paraphrases what the late saxophonist Paul Desmond said he wanted to sound like. Idaho based Brent Jensen creates not so much a tribute album (which seem to be in vogue these days) as he does an album that captures the same essence that Desmond had.
Neither a hip bopper, nor a cool West Coaster, Desmond often seems to fall between the cracks of American jazz history. Best known for his long association with... read more
Bobby Broom - The Way I Play: Live In Chicago
by Thomas R. Erdmann, Jazz Review
It's a shame so few musicians work in actual bands anymore; the kind of unit where the musicians stay the same from not only gig to gig, but year to year. Only through such long standing musical associations can shared concepts become created, but also explored. That is the case with guitarist Bobby Broom's band. He, bassist Dennis Carroll, and drummer Kobie Watkins, have crafted a unique working environment where all musical possibilities... read more
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