Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Clay Giberson - Minga Minga
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation
It's difficult to pull off solo piano when the genre/content is jazz/blues based, but Portland, Oregon pianist Clay is able to do that without a hitch. Songs like the opener, "Little Bird", will give your ears a clear image of just how intimate/bluesy his keyboards can be. It's all about the birth of his daughter, and will be a gift to her that will last forever. I particularly enjoyed pieces like "Burst", which isn't (at all) what the title... read more
Les DeMerle - Cookin' At The Corner, Volume 1
by Tom Hull, Jazz Prospecting
The setup is piano-bass-drums plus singer, but the leader is the drummer, and he sings some too. In fact, DeMerle and Eisele pair up like Louis Prima and Keely Smith, even if they play it straight most of the time. (But not all the time: DeMerle sings one about a sailor who comes home after three years to find his wife has a new baby named Bennie. Where'd he come from, the sailor wonders? "Bennie's From Heaven.") Eisele doesn't enter until the... read more
David Weiss Sextet - Auteur
by Lance Liddle, BeBop Spoken Here (UK)
There have been a lot of excellent albums dished up for review this year and already the contenders for Album of the Year are amassing.
Auteur is one guaranteed to be in the shake-up. It's the kind of music I had in mind when I first started blogging all those years ago - bop, hard bop, post bop and beyond (albeit not too far beyond).
In his notes, Weiss states that, just like in politics, jazz has no middle anymore. adding that, unlike... read more
Thomas Marriott - Individuation
by John Kelman, All About Jazz
All too often you hear that jazz is dead, that there is little of significance being created today. Maybe the playing field is just so large that it can be more difficult to identify major leaps forward than in past decades. Still, for a marginalized genre that is responsible for something like 3% of total CD sales in the United States, one need only look at the sheer volume of new releases by young artists each and every month to realize that... read more
Xose Miguélez - Contradictio
by Jane Kozhevnikova, All About Jazz
After an album of Spanish-flavored original tunes, Ontology (Origin Records, 2019), Galicia-based saxophone Xose Miguélez releases Contradictio. Alongside Miguélez, the album features Jean-Michel Pilc on piano, Carlos Barretto on bass and Marcos Cavaleiro on drums. Both Miguélez and Pilc are listed as the album producers. The forceful energy of this great French pianist comes out in every tune.
Unlike Ontology, Contradictio includes... read more
Darrell Grant - Truth And Reconciliation
by Bill Barton, Coda
Pianist-composer Darrell Grant has assembled an impressive group here. The core trio has John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums. Also appearing are guitarists Bill Frisell and Adam Rogers, vibraphonist Joe Locke and saxophonist Steve Wilson. Grant's Truth and Reconciliation Project "was inspired by my own search for artistic truth, the struggle for justice and healing in South Africa, and the birth of my son," as he states on his... read more
Michael Dease - City Life: Music of Gregg Hill
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Trombonist Michael Dease continues his catalogue building from th ecomposition skills of Gregg Hill, this time with a two disc album with two different band formats.
The first is a bopping trio session with Linda May Han Oh/b and Jeff 'Tain' Watts, with daughter Brooklyn Dease adding the innocence of a childlike voice to the multi-mooded "Movie Theme". Along with a Salt Peanuts take of JJ Johnson's "Sweet Georgia Gillespie" and a bluesy... read more
Anthony Branker & Imagine - Songs My Mom Liked
by Matthew Matyak, MultiKulti Project (Poland)
4 1/2 STARS
Branker has written for Kenny Barron, Benny Carter, Eddie Henderson, John Hicks, Stanley Jordan, Talib Kibwe, Ben Allison, Jane Ira Bloom, Dave Douglas and John Beasley. He is a conductor who is willingly invited to collaborate with musicians of this degree such as Wynton Marsalis (during the recording of "Abyssinian 200: A Gospel Celebration") and Terence Blanchard's "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina).
After... read more
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