The drummer Rich Thompson has an impressive resume and he adds to that body of work here with 9 tunes that welcome Corey Christiansen, Bobby Floyd and Peter Chwazik to the fusion formula.
The title track starts the listen with Floyd's atmospheric organ and Thompson's agile drumming in the flowing, worldly jazz climate, and "Street Cred" follows with a playful and melodic spirit that's full of Christiansen's flowing guitar work.
Halfway... read more
An album of originals (plus one stray Wayne Shorter number), pianist Kelly Brand's The Door is a nice set of contemporary Chicago jazz. This is nightclub jazz at its best, with attention paid to the compositions and the details, a fine set of backing musicians, and an able leader directing the activities. The compositions are never too complex, but never so simplistic as to be predictable. Brand's playing is careful, never quite reaching for the... read more
Guitarist Shawn Purcell is back with a new album, and he put together about as good of an organ trio as you could possibly put together in 2022, with Jason Tiemann behind the drums and Pat Bianchi in the hot seat. In this largely original program, Purcell comes out swingin' on "Cat and Mouse," and romps through a pretty varied set of 11 tunes. He clearly feels at home on the bossa nova-esque grooves of "Fond Illusion" and "A Long Stroll" and his... read more
John Stowell brings his nylon string guitar and fretless baritone guitar to Dave Glenn's trombone on this highly imaginative listen, where strings occasionally enter the feel good jazz tunes.
The album starts with the warm guitar and soulful brass of "Social Butterfly", where the pair adds much allure to the soothing climate, and "Remembering Laurie Frink" follows with Stowell's guitar acrobatics complementing Glenn's expressive... read more
Meridian Odyssey is a jazz ensemble form Big Lake Alaska that is now releasing their latest album, Earthshine. The sextet recorded the album after six days of intense rehearsals of the nine new originals. Trumpeter Noah Halpern joins the core band of saxophonist Santosh Sharma, bassist Ben Feldman, pianist Dylan Hayes, guitarist Martin Budde, and drummer/producer/engineer Xavier Lecouturier. In addition, Ben Lange performs on the mandolin, and... read more
Originally released in 1994 and reissued on the Origin label, this is New Stories' initial foray into the studio. In addition to being a fine session in and of itself, it also served as a harbinger of what was to come for this Seattle-based group. There was a Grammy-nominated album with Mark Murphy, sessions with top sax players, including Don Lanphere, as well as more albums under their own name. Formed in 1988 and composed of pianist Marc... read more
The great James Moody does a fantastic job of summing up his many years in music here - referencing his work with singer Eddie Jefferson and trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie - while also stepping forth in a mode that shows just how much he's grown since those earlier years! Moody is wonderfully expressive here on tenor and flute, and works in a combo that features core work from David Hazeltine on piano, Todd Coolman on bass, and Adam Nussbaum... read more
The leader of Dark Wood, Dark Water, Chad McCullough, is a trumpeter who wrote all his disc's original material which is mostly at slow to moderate tempos. He comes up with lovely insinuating melodies. The slowly pulsing "Lock Down" and the woozy "Bock's Car" demonstrate the blowzy, lyrical beauty of McCullough's playing as well as the quick-silver piano decorations of Bill Anschell. "Home" is a lovely waltz soulfully explored by saxophonist... read more
This is just a small collection of the Origin Records reviews. Click here to view all reviews or try to Search for your favorite CD title.
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