Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
John Stowell | Michael Zilber - Live Beauty
by Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
...and surely here there is beauty! I've been listening to John's wonderful guitar ever since I moved to the Pacific Northwest (way back in 1980), but this is the first time I've reviewed an album with his playing on it. The excellent opener, "In The Park", brings back mem'ries of some of the great work John did with bassist David Friesen, but Michael's reed work lends a totally different atmosphere to the song. John Shifflett does bass and... read more
Clarence Penn - Monk: The Lost Files
by Chris Robinson, Outside-Inside-Out
Drummer Clarence Penn's latest is a super hip and contemporary update on eleven Monk tunes. Along with saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, pianist Vega, bassist Yasuhi Nakamura, and Gerald Clayton on Rhodes for one track, Penn reworked Monk's tunes - sometimes shifting accents to create a new rhythmic feel, or disguising the tune altogether. In doing so, he has breathed fresh life into and offered new ways to hear compositions that everybody... read more
Bug - The GADfly
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
Bug are built around the talents of a handful of players, initially from the Los Angeles area, who have taken on elements of the West Coast sound but incorporate elements of their own structures, their own styles, and their new regions into their sound. More than that, though, this quintet draws on the individual talents of its members to form a series of strong textures. While the bandmembers have extended solos and explorations, there's a... read more
Anthony Branker and Word Play - The Forward (Towards Equality) Suite
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
This session lead by composer and music director Anthony Branker can be approached one of two ways. Musically, it boasts of a horn section of David Binney/as, Ralph Bowen/ts-ss-fl and Conrad Herwig/tb that is second to none, with Bowers delivering a riveting tenor solo on "Our Dreams." The rhythm section of Renato Thoms/perc, Donald Edwards/dr, Kenny Davis/b and Jim Ridl/key is swinging yet flexible over things like post bop cookers like... read more
Kevin Deitz - Skylines
by Damian Erskine, Bass Musician Magazine
Portland's very own Kevin Deitz really shines here with the release of Skylines. Kevin has had a wealth of experience playing bass everywhere from touring Broadway productions to the stage with the likes of Mose allison, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Sheena Easton and everyone in between. Equally at home on upright as he is on his 7-string Conklin, Kevin showcases his abilities on both instruments with musicality, style and grace with Skylines.... read more
Doug Lofstrom with Misha Rachlevsky & the Russian String Orchestra - Music for Strings
by Ron Schepper, Textura
The earliest material on this thoroughly appealing collection of classical material by Chicago composer Doug Lofstrom dates back to 1971, yet Music for Strings sounds as fresh as the day it was born. How the Russian String Orchestra and its conductor founder Misha Rachlevsky came to perform the four Lofstrom works on the release isn't clarified; regardless, both listeners and composer are fortunate they did. The committed renderings by the... read more
Bill Anschell - Rumbler
by Robert Rusch, Cadence
Because it opened with one of Monk's finest compositions; "Misterioso", I spent a good deal of time with BILL ANSCHELL's RUMBLER [Origin Records 82728]. Anschell not only offers up a fine arrangement here but he takes the composition head on and goes through various tempos, at one point turning it into a straight blues. Brian Monroney contributes some wonderful guitar work and saxophonist Richard Cole contributes strong playing - offering up... read more
Chris Walden - Chris Walden: Symphony No. 1 - The Four Elements
by Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz
Chris Walden is probably best known to AAJ readers as a big band leader and composer. But his interest in developing other forms has already garnered him two Grammy nominations, and here he ventures into the serious orchestral realm. He takes the four elements?Earth, Water, Air and Fire?and uses them as the basis of four symphonic movements in the post-romantic programmatic style of Richard Strauss, Holst, Sibelius, and others of the late... read more
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