Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Laurie Antonioli and Richie Beirach - Varuna
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Sometimes you just have to wait until things are right. Antonioli has been working with Beirach for over 25 years, mostly on his stomping grounds in Germany when she was based over there. This set was begun 10 years ago and was only finished up recently, and it's just the two of them for most of the set. Even when tackling the chestnuts, Antonioli finds her art chick side, making this a totally different set than her Joni Mitchell tribute set... read more
Randy Halberstadt - Open Heart
by Lucienne Aggarwal, Earshot Jazz
Randy Halberstadt, the well-regarded Seattle pianist, composer, bandleader, and longtime faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts, brings us his fifth album as a leader, titled Open Heart. While the cover art effects the typical Seattle winter scene—bareleafed trees and a gloomy atmosphere— this album is anything but grey.
The music unravels pleasurably like a spiraling kite in playful winds. Most of the pieces are original... read more
Hadley Caliman - Straight Ahead
by John Barron, All About Jazz
Seattle-based saxophonist Hadley Caliman returns to the recording studio with his working band for Straight Ahead, the follow-up to his superb Gratitude (Origin, 2008). Aided by trumpeter/producer Thomas Marriott, pianist Eric Verlinde, bassist Phil Sparks and drummer Matt Jorgensen, the 78-year old Caliman charges head-on through a set of standards, jazz classics and original gems.
The disc opens with the listener-friendly "Cigar... read more
Jared Sims - Against All Odds
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Sax jazz for people that have arrived in port after the storm. While not coming out on this specifically, this is celebratory sounds that celebrate resilience and resistance. Pour and fave drink and enjoy, you've all earned... read more
Chris Walden Big Band & The St. John's Choir - Kurt Marti Suite
by Dick Crockett, Bop 'n DIck's 10 Picks
How can an orchestration based on the verse of Kurt Marti can be so majestic and powerful, especially when the lyrics are sung in German by the St Johns Choir, Hamburg? For someone who doesn't understand the language, there's something more universal here with voice and orchestration with Chris Walden and his arrangements. Walden draws upon his resources and a big band arranger, writer and leader to create this, the musical voice of Kurt Marti.... read more
Aaron Germain - Chance
by Hrayr Attarian, Chicago Jazz Magazine
Ten intriguing pieces in an intimate ambience comprise guitarist Scott Hesse's Stillness of Motion. The vibrantly organic music brims with spontaneity within its intricately constructed framework, occupying a space between a free blowing session and a rigidly adhered interpretation. This delightful and seamless blend of the improvised and the composed is one of the major distinguishing features of the album. The easy flow of ideas among... read more
Keigo Hirakawa - Pixel
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The pianist Keigo Hirakawa has a lot of experience in the area of playing jazz music, and these lively 8 tracks welcome Rafael Statin, Brandon Scott Coleman, Robert Hurst, and Alex White.
The title track opens the listen with Hirakawa's meticulous key progressions alongside Statin's soulful sax and White's stunning drum acrobatics, and "Far Above" follows with a breezy demeanor of soft guitar from Coleman that suits the melodic piano.
The... read more
Jessica Williams - Songs of Earth
by Donald Elfman, New York City Jazz Record
The four artists (Jessica Williams, Denny Zeitlin, Arturo O?Farrill, Gabriel Zufferey) who make up this quartet of splendid new solo piano recordings are careful and thoughtful in their choice of both notes and spaces. The performances collected here are clearly about expression.
In concert at Seattle?s The Triple Door, on Songs of Earth Jessica Williams? concept and technique are grand and symphonic but fall, as she rightly says, into no... read more
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