Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Dann Zinn - Day of Reckoning
by FILIPE FREITAS, Jazz Trail
Throughout the album Day of Reckoning, the fifth from tenorist Dann Zinn, creative freedom emerges with straightforward structural discipline within a post-bop realm that oftentimes refers to the sonic worlds of Michael Brecker, Sonny Stitt, Jerry Bergonzi, and Phil Woods. In the company of technically developed musicians such as pianist Taylor Eigsti, a frequent collaborator, bassist Zach Ostroff, and drummer Mark Ferber, Zinn blends familiar... read more
Anthony Branker & Ascent - Blessings
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
While spending time in Estonia on a Fullbright scholarship, composer Anthony Branker put together a long series of contemporary jazz compositions. Returning to the states, the group Ascent was put together largely around him and his work, and began releasing albums (beginning with 2006's Spirit Songs). On Blessings, the group works their way through a pleasing mix of layered jazz. There are always melodic lines playing here ? even in the quieter... read more
Gregg Keplinger and Rick Mandyck - Tribute
by Jason West, Earshot Jazz
It seems fitting that, only days after last month's monster electrical storm descended upon Seattle, the duo of R. Mandyck and G. Keplinger unleashed sonic shockwaves of their own upon the local jazz community with the release of "Tribute."
For nearly an hour, fans of energy music can hear lightening burst from Mandyck's tenor, illuminating the heavens with bolts of melody, while Keplinger's drums crash and roll ubiquitous thunder. Six songs... read more
Andrew Rathbun Large Ensemble - The Atwood Suites
by Stuart Derdeyn, London Free Press
I'll leave it to bandleader/saxophonist/composer Rathburn to describe his concept with this recording: "A setting of Margaret Atwood's poetry for jazz orchestra, sung by Luciana Souza, with special guests Bill Stewart (drummer) and Tim Hagans (trumpet)."
The 10 tracks over two albums are broken into the two three-part suites (Two Islands I, II, III and Power Politics I, II, III) and four other pieces and the playing is gorgeously understated... read more
George Colligan & Theoretical Planets - Risky Notion
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI, Irvine, CA
Colligan is a renowned pianist composer who also whetted his chops on trumpet from time to time. On this new outing on Seattle's Origin label he switches to drums. He has worked with the great Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart on some of his previous recordings, and some of it has rubbed off. He is a very melodic drummer, fluid, casual and precise. The tunes are slightly spacey post bop with some Latin Jazz whispers, and they are all killer no... read more
Geof Bradfield - Our Roots
by Bob Weinberg, JAZZIZ
Jazzing up down-home blues is nothing new. Everyone from the Adderley Brothers to Charles Mingus made use of motifs lifted from field hollers, tent revivals and juke houses. While these artists may have sought to distance themselves from painful associations with the South, a younger generation of musicians embraces these roots with reverence.
On their latest recording, Our Roots (Origin), the Geof Bradfield Quintet reinterprets... read more
Brad Goode - Polytonal Dance Party
by Mike Joyce, Jazztimes, May 2009
"When I started asking musicians to read these chords, they wanted me to go away and die," Brad Goode tells fellow trumpeter John McNeil in the liner notes to the harmonically twisted Polytonal Dance Party. McNeil's witty observations and the accompanying lead sheets underscore the challenges that Goode's recruits faced--and ultimately surmounted. Still, it has to be said that listeners with a low tolerance fo otherworldy harmonic schemes... read more
Scott Hesse - The Stillness of Motion
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Guitarist Soctt Hesse taps into his inner Jim Hall on this trio date with Clark Sommers/b and Makaya McCraven/dr. The mood is gentle and subdued, with even the tune called "Hendrix" a quiet avalanche. There's some chugging rhythms on "In The Air Again," but the emphasis is on McCraven's sophisticated and stylish brushes and cymbal work serving as a gentle nudge for Hesse's cool toned guitar on "Laws of Motian" and "Sage." As impressionistic as a... read more
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