Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Randy Halberstadt - Parallel Tracks
by George Fendel, Jazz Scene
Hey, if you want to talk about Seattle's three or four best piano practitioners, you'd better put Randy Halberstadt on the list. Right around the top. I heard him a few years back here in PDX accompanying singer Meredith d'Ambrosio, and remember being duly impressed. Well, here's Randy with a couple more giants, Jeff Johnson, bass and Gary Hobbs, drums. This exciting trio works seamlessly together on standards like Moonray, In The Wee Small... read more
Bill Anschell - Improbable Solutions
by Kira Grunenberg, DownBeat
4-STARS There's an irony to how the music on Bill Anschell's Improbable Solutions comes together. The album demonstrates patience and careful rumination more than instant gratification. Moreover, knowing that these nine pieces were selected from more than 20 emphasizes how Improbable Solutions is about taking one's time, and it's in that spirit that the record is best enjoyed.
"Ambulator" makes this point well. The core piano trio... read more
John Moulder - Earthborn Tales of Soul and Spirit
by Raul da Gama, JazzdaGama
On Earthborn Tales of Soul and Spirit John Moulder finds the beating heart of music in the quietude of meditation and silence broken only by the promptings of the Holy Spirit, which coalesces around the music of this joyous disc - the fifth that the guitarist has recorded with Origin Records. Moulder is a prophetic jazz embodying spiritual values that affirm the freedom in speech and music which serve as vehicles to express his spirit and its... read more
Marc Seales - American Songs, Volume 2: Blues...and Jazz
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Why do you know the opening track on this set by the long time mainstay of Seattle jazz? Because it's a music file in Windows XP making it one of the most listened to pieces of jazz this side of Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown themes. With more meat on it's bones than Eno's ta da wave, he knowingly rolls out a set of mostly originals with a little reliance on Miles and Trane for a piano... read more
Scott Neumann Neu3 Trio - Blessed
by Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
Track of the Day - Over the last decade and a half or so one of my favorite jazz saxophonists has been Michael Blake, the Vancouver native who first made his name as a member of one of the final lineups of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards. That's not the context where I first heard Blake, and to be honest I've enjoyed his work on his own much more. He's rooted in hard bop tradition, but over the years he's measuredly deployed interesting... read more
David Friesen Circle 3 Trio - Where the Light Falls
by Brent Black, Bop-N-Jazz
Widely acknowledged as one of the finest bass players over the last forty years, David Friesen's Circle 3 Trio and Where the Light Falls may be his finest release yet.
Remember melody? Improvisational music was built around the strength of melody long before meter and technique moved to the head of the class. Friesen never forgot melody, he manipulates and manufactures all the possibilities that exist in a simple unadorned melody.... read more
Todd Bishop - Little Played Little Bird
by Rebecca Ruth, WYCE Music Journal
Accomplished photographer, landscape oils painter and drummer, Todd Bishop, may be familiar to you because of his group, Pop Art 4, which is dedicated to exploring commercial music of the 60s and 70s. (Such as Todd Bishop Pop Art 4: 69 Annee Erotique: Music of Serge Gainsbourg.) Except for the classic "Lonely Woman", you've likely not heard most of the songs on Little Played Little Bird. That's because band leader,... read more
John Bishop - Antwerp
by Kevin Bennett Goolsby, The New Jazz Train
John Bishop, Seattle-based drummer, educator, and owner of the Origin Records label has over four decades of performance and recording experience with appearances on more than 100 albums. He was inducted into the 'Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame' in 2008 and his latest project 'Antwerp' is Mr. Bishop's first album under his own name in 15 years.
The genesis of Mr. Bishop's latest project began with his first meeting with pianist Bram Weijters... read more
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