Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
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
Joachim Mencel - Brooklyn Eye
by Sebastian Chosiński, Esensja (Poland)
Dreams are there to make them come true! Polish jazz pianist (also playing the hurdy-gurdy) Joachim Mencel dreamed of recording an album in New York for years, with American artists accompanying him. The assumption was that the music was also inspired by North America. All this was achieved in one fell swoop thanks to the publishing house "Brooklyn Eye".
In Poland, Joachim Mencel does not have to prove anything to anyone. For years,... read more
Joe Locke - Force of Four
by Ken Watkins, 100 Greatest Jazz albums
Following the fusion influenced "Live In Seattle" (with Geoffrey Keezer) in 2006 and "Sticks And Strings" (with Jonathan Kreisberg) in 2007, "Force of Four" continues vibe player Joe Locke's very strong recent run of inventive albums.
The new quartet ? Joe Locke (vibraphone), Robert Rodriguez (piano and electric piano), Ricardo Rodriguez (bass) and Jonathan Blake (drums) ? is the ideal vehicle for a pleasing programme of innovative post bop.... read more
Greta Matassa - Favorites From A Long Walk
by Adam Greenburg, All Music Guide
A nice album of relatively unknown songs originally done by the great female vocalists of yesteryear. Matassa has a nice way with the music, alternately whispering softly and belting out cadences as the compositions require. Matassa doesn't quite mimic the classic singers, but she does have hints of their styles slyly embedded in her delivery. Ella comes out just a bit when she starts to scat. Carmen McRae comes through a bit on a Jobim number.... read more
John Wojciechowski - Focus
by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
The kids who study music at St. Charles North High School may not realize how fortunate they are. For their teacher/bandleader happens to be one of Chicago's more commanding saxophonists, an artist who surely could build a full-time international career performing, if he so chose.
When I first heard John Wojciechowski, at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in Washington in 1996, I was sure he would take the top... read more
Maddie Vogler - While We Have Time
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
In the introduction to alto saxophonist Maddie Vogler's debut recording, While We Have Time, are two striking images. The first is the cover shot, a pair of venerable unmatched hands, depicting those of the artist's immigrant grandmothers, beautifully and simply adorned. The second image is the inside photo of a vibrant young woman, an alto saxophone cradled in her hands. Maddie Vogler.
Unusually for a debut, it is a set of all originals, but... read more
Anthony Branker & Other Ways of Knowing - Manifestations of a Diasporic Groove & Spirit
by Olivia Peevas, Jazz Blues European Union
There's a visceral moment in music when sound stops being just sound — when it dissolves the boundary between performer and listener, body and memory, history and pulse.
It is here, in that fertile space between rhythm and remembrance, that Anthony Branker's new album, Manifestations of a Diasporic Groove & Spirit, stakes its claim.
More than a collection of compositions, it arrives as a tapestry of stories, a suite of sonic meditations... read more
Phil Kelly & The SW Santa Ana Winds - My Museum
by Joseph Blake, Times Colonist, January 14, 2007
Fans of little Port Townsend, Washington's celebrated jazz festival will recognize L.A.-Seattle jazz stars like Pete Christlieb, Bill Ramsay, Jay Thomas, Lanny Morgan, Gary Foster and Greta Matassa from this fine, 18-piece band directed by Bellingham-based Phil Kelly. Kelly has semi-retired from an L.A. studio life that included writing music for 700 commercials, film and TV work, and compositions and arrangements for a host of acclaimed big... read more
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