Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Shawn Purcell - Oblivity
by Pete Prown, Vintage Guitar Magazine
With burnin' bop, ballad, and fusion, this album crackles with life - and superb musicianship. Purcell threads the needle well, staying traditional but also pushing jazz boundaries with guitar effects and synth sounds ("Quiet the Chaos"). "Verdigris" is straight-ahead bop with complex guitar phrases that are spellbinding, while "Gentle Giant" offers a slow ballad with Shawn's melodic and masterful... read more
Lynn Bush with New Stories - Still Life
by Jason West, JazzSteps
Lynn Bush's latest release, Still Life, shows life, well, standing still-yet very much alive. This is accomplished audibly via Lynn's moody, vibratoless alto which saturates contemplative lyrics on "Slow Hot Wind," "Invitation" and "What a Way to Go." Visually, cover art of misty, overcast seascapes capture the desired effect.
There's an unconscious comfort present in the music, beginning with the initial track, "Dreamsville." Lynn... read more
Diego Barber & Hugo Cipres - 411
by Dave Sumner, Bird is the Worm
Guitarist Diego Barber burst onto the scene with the 2009 release Calima, an album with an expansive sound enveloped in a rustic serenity, courtesy of Barber's use of classical guitar in a jazz setting. He continued that sound with the 2011 release The Choice, an album that saw him move from the sounds of wide open spaces and into an environment in which his guitar work could display a tighter focus and sense of detail.
His evolution as... read more
Peter Erskine & The JAM Music Lab All-Stars - Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner
by Mark Griffith, Modern Drummer
Hopefully you have already read Peter Eskine's column this month on the making of his new record, so I'll skip the backstory, and just say that this is the best recording that Erskine has done as a leader since 3 Nights in LA. But it this a very different type of record, 3 Nights in LA was a freewheeling blowing date, Vienna to Hollywood is a carefully planned and arranged recording project with Erskine and Danny... read more
Josh Nelson - Exploring Mars
by Editor, The Jazz Page
Composer-pianist Josh Nelson takes us on a journey to the red planet in his concept-driven new recording. Exploring Mars was inspired by the four robotic rovers exploring the planet and Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles". The sounds and feeling of the music certainly reflects the interstellar journey on which the listener embarks from the very first cut. The production quality lives up to the objective. Likewise, the musicianship is... read more
Rodney Whitaker - All Too Soon: The Music of Duke Ellington
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Released in time for Ellington's centennial plus 20, Ellington proves how timeless his work was. In the hands of a bass ace that earned his Ellington spurs over 9 years with LCJO, he assembles a murderer's row of contemporary players that bust such smoking moves, Ellington will remain relevant for at least another century. A stone cold master class in a master's works that's so heart felt and spirited it just transcends all boundaries. Killer... read more
Hadley Caliman - Straight Ahead
by David Franklin, Cadence
Hadley Caliman recorded with the likes of Gerald Wilson, Don Ellis, and Mongo Santamaria in the 1960s and with such folks as Hampton Hawes, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, and a raft of other Jazz and Pop stars, as well as his own groups, in the ?70s. But the 78-year-old tenorist did not make another record until his return to the studio for a CD under his own name in late 2007. Gratitude was well-received with Straight Ahead... read more
Les DeMerle - Gypsy Rendezvous, Vol. 1
by David Franklin, Cadence
Drummer Les DeMerle's long career has included playingwith Harry James for a dozen years, fronting his own Fusiongroup for a time, and more recently leading various straight-ahead VOL. 1 ensembles. Gypsy Pacific, comprising violin, two guitars, and bass, is a unique Jazz band based in Maui, Hawaii. DeMerle happened tohear the quartet in a club there and one thing led to another. Many of the tracks do suggest the famous duo of violinist Stephane... read more
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