Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
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
Don Lanphere - Where Do You Start?
by Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene Review, January 2003
Few veterans of the classic bebop era are still active, and even fewer are currently in their musical prime. Don Lanphere is a major exception. Rather than just recreating the past (which in the past includes leading a date that featured Fats Navarro), Lanphere always looks ahead. A distinctive tenor saxophonist, Lanphere also doubles on soprano and leads a top-notch sextet in the Pacific Northwest.
"Where Do You Start?" has a high-quality... read more
Michael Waldrop Big Band - Time Within Itself
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
Something you don't always hear in "big band" recordings these days is right here on this superb eight-song album... "swagger" & "proof of life"! Michael's drums "lead" this elegant excursion into the funkiest of big bands you've ever heard, especially on songs like the straight-ahead jazz on the 7:34 "Munich Musings"... this tune is definitely in the "must listen" category. The swirling vocal work on "Tunnell Vision" will thrill those who... read more
Marc Seales - American Songs, Volume 3: Time & Place
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
The jazz man brings the funk with his third set of his version of jazzy Americana where Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder and Isaac Hayes' take on "Wichita Lineman" figure prominently. Showing why his piano is one of the leading light of Pacific Northwest jazz, Seales makes one of those last word statements that speaks loudly. Check it... read more
Ben Paterson - For Once In My Life
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
For his fourth recording, organist Ben Paterson returns to the North West Coast Origin label with For Once in My Life. He employs a standard organ-guitar-drums combo for eleven standards and originals that allows the crack trio he shares with guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer George Fludas to fully explore the more modern sonic aspects of this popular jazz- blues-funk format. Blending the musical traditions of his native Philadelphia... read more
Benjamin Boone | Philip Levine - The Poetry of Jazz, Vol. 2
by Marilyn Castaneda, The Collegian - Fresno State University
When his first volume of "The Poetry of Jazz" released last year, nobody knew it would garner attention across the world with numerous accolades, spurring the release of his second volume this year.
Saxophonist and composer Benjamin Boone, a music theory professor at Fresno State, has had his music performed in 29 countries and is heard on more than 25 recordings.
He recently released "The Poetry of Jazz Volume Two," the second... read more
Nnenna Freelon - Beneath the Skin
by Paul Abella, WDCB, Chicago
Nnenna Freelon's latest album, Beneath the Skin, is a concept album about looking within. Of the ten songs here, Freelon co-wrote nine of them. She certainly pulled together an amazing squad to bring these compositions to life, featuring Alan Pasqua on keys, Keith Ganz on guitar, Evan Roberson on trombone, Shana Tucker on cello, Jonathan Richards on bass and Steve Hass on drums, this band can play whatever Nnenna's got on her mind, from the... read more
Dan Dean - Songs Without Words
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
TOP TEN OF 2017 - And lastly - something not jazz: Bassist Dan Dean has created a set of sounds as innovative, in its way, as the 1968's Moog synthesizer-driven Switched on Bach (Columbia Masterworks, 1968), from the forward thinking Walter (Now Wendy) Carlos. Crafting a polar opposite of sorts of the legendary Carlos set, Dean - with just his bass and his overdubbed voice - shapes a gorgeous, soaring, ephemeral sound, drawing from Bach,... read more
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