Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
John McLean - Better Angels
by Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
Guitarist John McLean's Better Angels is certainly difficult to classify. Some pieces, such as "Ready for the War," come across as modern pop. Others are closer to the music of the Pat Metheny Group, while a few tunes are modernized swing standards including one of the strangest versions of "Airmail Special" one will ever hear. While there are some individual spots, the emphasis during most of the selections is on the haunting ensemble sound... read more
Zem Audu - Spirits
by S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews
Many of the more progressive jazz types these days boast diverse ethnic/world music bonafides that they creatively infuse into their music that broadens the jazz vernacular. Saxophonist Zem Audu 's brand of jazz is internationally flavored, too, but he didn't get that way out of mere curiosity; he's lived that kind of life.
Born in Nigeria and raised in England, Audu made his way to the jazz epicenter New York seven years ago. Along the... read more
Mamutrio - Primal Existence
by Tom Greenland, The New York City Jazz Record
Mamutrio was founded when 19-year-old drummer Jesse Dockx convinced his teachers, alto saxophonist Lieven Cambré and bassist Piet Verbist, to collaborate with him. Primal Existence is an hour-long exposé on how to make a traditional approach sound contemporary. Part of the group's success lies in its demarcated sound registers: Verbist holding down the bottom, Cambré in the upper-middle, Dockx' cymbals on top, his snare and toms filling in... read more
John Stowell / Dave Glenn & The Hawčaptak Quartet - Violin Memory
by Georges Tonla Briquet, Jazz'halo
Guitarist John Stowell (David Friesen, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart) and trombonist Dave Glenn (Chuck Mangione, The Mel Lewis Orchestra, Blood, Sweat and Tears) formed a kind of alliance with The Hawcaptak Quartet, not to really play together but to to jointly release a CD.
A somewhat different method because the duo recorded their parts in a different studio and at a different time than the string quartet. The twenty-one (usually) short pieces... read more
James Moody - 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005
by John Murph, DownBeat
To commemorate jazz legend James Moody's centennial birthday celebration, Origin Records releases the sanguine James Moody: 80 Years Young-Live At The Blue Note. The album captures both a March 2005 birthday party and a victory lap for Moody as he fronts a stellar and rotating cast of musicians that includes trombonist Slide Hampton, pianist Cedar Walton and alto saxophonist and clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera. The vibes are as relaxed... read more
Alain Mallet - Mutt Slang II: A Wake of Sorrows Engulfed in Rage
by Dave Rogers, WTJU, Virginia
Though based in multiple musical realms, pianist Alain Mallet's ambitious Mutt Slang projects coalesce into a world that exudes 'exotic' yet ultimately feels familiar, the roots of its various components meeting somewhere deep within. Sharing the musical landscape with young musicians from Palestine, Brazil, Italy, Israel, Japan, Bulgaria, Panama, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the US, the complexity of their backgrounds - musically, ethnically,... read more
Tom Collier - Across the Bridge
by Fred Bouchard, Downbeat
***1/2
Since 1997, Origin Records has stood steadfast as a bulwark for West Coast jazz and classical musicians, and mallet-meister Tom Colier splendidly fills both categories. As chair of percussion studies at Seattle's University of Washington, he's performed with major symphonies as well as Earl "Fatha" Hines, Frank Zappa, Peggy Lee and Cal Tjader. (He lately recorded mallet transcriptions of two-piano Mozart and Haydn pieces for... read more
Christopher Icasiano - Provinces
by Robert Silverstein, Roots Music Report
**** 4-stars
Washington State based Origin Records steps out of their comfort zone with the 2020 release of Provinces from composer and multi-instrumentalist Christopher Icasiano. Very unusual sounding yet rewarding as a musical experience, the eight part CD is a fine showcase for Christopher's drumming, percussion and keyboard skills. Sounding like a modern day horror film soundtrack, bordering on avant-garde instrumental music and even... read more
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