Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Anthony Branker & Word Play - Dialogic
by John Barron, The Jazz Word
Composer and noted music educator Anthony Branker's third release for Origin Records , Dialogic, finds the Princeton Professor in good company. Under the ensemble name Word Play, Branker directs a stellar quartet through nine of his original pieces. An underlying soulful vibe permeates the music, ranging from straight-ahead, swinging jazz to not-so-easy-to-label urban-inspired textures.
Saxophonist Ralph Bowen and pianist Jim Ridl are... read more
Lower Monumental - Mayday Session
by Stephen Latessa, All About Jazz
When I was living at home, there were certain types of music that would cause my mother to knock on my bedroom door as she walked past and ask, "what are you listening to?" in a tone that seemed to wonder whether she had a reason to be worried. The Mayday Session is that type of music. It isn't particularly loud or jarring, but there are enough kinks and corners with who-knows-what on the other side of them to make the whole project vaguely... read more
Roxy Coss - Restless Idealism
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
Roxy Coss was inspired to name the second album as leader of her own group Restless Idealism after reading a passage by Hunter S. Thompson in The Rum Diary, in which he weighs the tension between "a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other." While Coss, as a working musician, has wrestled with both sides of that equation, she weighs anchor essentially on the shore of idealism, a point of view that is reflected... read more
Chicago Jazz Orchestra with Cyrille Aimee - Burstin' Out!
by Matt Marshall, All About Jazz
Covering the Great American Songbook can be tricky, thankless work for a singer. The options for handling the material just aren't as numerous (i.e., nigh infinite) as they are for instrumentalists. Severely warping a melody, chopping it up or getting rid of it altogether work perfectly well if you're blowing through a horn. But such abstractions of voice can seem forced or simply too weird within a straight-ahead format. There's scatting, of... read more
Jared Hall - Influences
by Paul Rauch, All About Jazz
4-STARS Jazz music has proliferated through generations traditionally by means of the oral tradition—meaning that knowledge is passed on by mentors, some by personal connection and others by more casual means. In modern times, this tradition lives alongside the jazz school phenomenon, where classrooms and studios incubate talent, while students inescapably still must pay their dues on the bandstand, playing with musicians that are more... read more
John Moulder - Decade: Memoirs
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Culled from sessions recorded since 2009, the Chicago guitarist rounds up the Chicago time keeper contingent, adds some Brits and turns up the heat on this smoking straight ahead jazz date that shows you how cooking is done. With solid blowing from all hands on deck adding to the whole, it's listening jazz that makes it hard not to bounce in your chair. A delightfully wild ride that's e ticket all the... read more
Joe Locke / Geoffrey Keezer Group - Live In Seattle
by Tom Morgan, Percussive Notes, December 2006
Live in Seattle was recorded in 2005 at the Ballard Jazz Festival and contains an eclectic mix of styles from fusion to hard swinging jazz to James Taylor. Vibist Joe Locke and pianist Geoffrey Keezer are joined by bassist Mike Pope and drummer Terreon Gully.
The group comes out of the shoot burning with Locke's "Van Gogh by Numbers," which is a fusion tune with a head that alternates between 4/4 and 7/8. The highly orchestrated beginning... read more
James Moody - 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The inimitable flutist and tenor saxophone legend James Moody celebrated his 80th birthday in 2025 with these 8 lively tracks that welcome an excellent cast.
After a quick introduction by George Wein, "Benny's From Heaven" starts the listen with Todd Coolman's frisky bass plucking and Moody's rich sax complementing Adam Nussbaum's frisky drums, and "Cherokee" follows with David Hazeltine's mature keys amid Moody's dreamy flute for the... read more
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