Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Bongwool Lee - My Singing Fingers
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
The music of pianist Bongwool Lee has a hopeful feeling. The Korean-born and now New York-based artist drew her first jazz inspiration - after classical studies in her homeland - from the work of Oscar Peterson, who sent much musical time walking on the sunny side of the street. But where Peterson rolled mostly in the jazz standards/Great American Songbook realm, Lee presents, on her debut recording, My Singing Fingers, a set of compelling... read more
Bill Anschell - Improbable Solutions
by Paul Rauch, All About Jazz
4 1/2 STARS Pianist and composer Bill Anschell has made his mark in jazz as a distinctive pianist with a notable body of work. His time in Atlanta, and his extensive residency in Seattle, has produced ten recordings as a leader or co-leader, and a well-deserved following on live dates with two distinctive trios, plus his "Rumbler" band. His previous two recordings define the past decade of his career, with Shifting Standards (Origin,... read more
Carlos Vega - Bird's Up
by Dick Metcalf, Improvijazzation
Carlos's high-energy & high-talent tenor and soprano sax work always gets high ratings here... I reviewed him just a while back in issue # 164, & this newest release is even better... you'll also hear great playing from Victor Garcia on Trumpet, Flugelhorn; Stu Mindeman - Piano, Rhodes; Josh Ramos - Bass; Xavier Breaker - Drums; Cheryl Wilson - Vocals; Scott Hesse - Guitar; Steve Strand - Flugelhorn and Michael B. Nelson -... read more
Mamutrio - Primal Existence
by Claude Loxhay, Jazz Halo - Belgium (French)
The sax-bass-drum trio is not a rare grouping, mostly with tenor saxophones (Sonny Rollins, Gratitude Trio by Jeroen van Herzeele) but there are exceptions such as the trio Renku by Michaël Attias with alto sax, or this Mamutrio .
This formula "without net" requires a perfect involvement of the rhythmic pair: everyone must be able to be a soloist in his turn. This is the case of Mamutrio.
Along with Jesse Dockx, a 19-year-old drummer... read more
Cuong Vu - Leaps of Faith
by Nate Chinnen, New York Times
The voracious sweep of postmillennial jazz has plenty of exemplars but few truer than the trumpeter Cuong Vu. Over the last decade he has upheld a dreamlike sound informed by post-bop but just as rooted in noise pop, grunge and ambient minimalism. He has an invaluable partner in the bassist Stomu Takeishi, who shares his fluency with electronics and his fondness for immersive lyricism. Together with the smart young drummer Ted Poor they have... read more
Scott Neumann Neu3 Trio - Blessed
by Ken Micallef, Downbeat Magazine
**** (4-stars)
Scott Neumann's sophomore solo release is not a blowing but a simmering session. His exceptional trio, with saxophonist Michael Blake and bassist Mark Helias, creates a furnace of ideas where creativity is inspired, swing incessant, and the performances exhilarating. The trio revels in a simpatico exchange. Precise movements and improvisations erupt from a collective identity where listening may be the greatest skill of all.... read more
Dan McCarthy - Epoch
by Mateusz Krępski, Multikulti - Poland
5-STARS If one of the vibraphone giants, a longtime dean of the Berklee College of Music, and also the man who helped Metheny in the beginning of his career - Gary Burton puts McCarthy the highest mark "extraordinary musical proficiency and unlimited imagination", it is difficult to pass this disc without interest. If we add three more names from the record - violinist Mark Feldman, guitarist Ben Monder and bass player Steve Swallow, we... read more
Benjamin Boone | Philip Levine - The Poetry of Jazz
by Dr. Debra Jan Bibel, Amazon
Music and poetry have a close relationship, always, from rhyming pop tunes to metaphoric tone poems to soundtrack art songs, lieder, of which classical music abounds. Musical accompaniment has been scored for Goethe and Paul Verlaine and, more recently, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and even Bob Dylan. Thinking specifically about jazz and poetry takes us to the 1950s and San Francisco's North Beach and Manhattan's Greenwich Village.... read more
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