Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Martin Budde - Back Burner
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'N'More (Switzerland)
4-STARS The debut album by Seattle-based guitarist Martin Budde is a great success. On the one hand, he has internalized the entire history of jazz guitar, but on the other hand, he has also processed his earlier influences from country and folk music. He has integrated his long-time colleagues from the jazz sextet "Meridian Odyssey", bassist Ben Feldman and drummer Xavier Lecouturier, into his trio. With the exception of the Joni... read more
Florian Hoefner - Luminosity
by Mike Greenblatt, Classicalite Magazine
Luminosity is when acrylic colors retain their freshness. Luminosity by the Florian Hoefner Group on Origin Records does just that as well, for it is here that the German-born pianist Hoefner, on his third all-original quartet CD, puts the Masters Degree he earned at the Manhattan School of Music to good use.
Hoefner, 33, must be as intense as his music. He composed all eight tracks while in solitude on and off the beautiful beaches of St.... read more
Mike Pope - The Parts You Keep
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
You have to admire a bandleader who enhances an album by dedicating one of his compositions to an Uber driver and inviting his 85-year-old mother to play piano on the last two numbers. That is exactly what bassist Mike Pope does on The Parts You Keep, and they are two of the recording's more pleasing episodes. Pope also adds a four-member string section on the standard "That Old Feeling" and his quirky composition "Past Is Prologue" (both of... read more
Ben Thomas Tango Project - Eternal Aporia
by ANDREW LUTHRINGER, Earshot Jazz
Ben Thomas is an incredibly accomplished virtuoso on the vibes; an improviser and composer of deep expressiveness, wit, and crisply focused execution. Throughout four previous solo albums on the venerable Origin Records label (and as an indispensable member of Jovino Santos Neto's Quinteto), Thomas has explored an expansive range of challenging and stylistically varied cutting-edge jazz.
For the past 15+ years, Thomas has also been deeply... read more
Anthony Branker & Imagine - What Place Can Be for Us?
by Thierry Docmac, Paris Move
Anthony Branker is an American composer and conductor who is releasing his eighth album on the Origin Records label. He is certainly one of the most important current American composers, and this work makes us question the fundamental issues of inclusion and belonging, as well as the circumstances of exploitation and the zones of refuge experienced by people of African origin.
There is a real intellectual commitment in which the music is the... read more
Q.E.D. - yet what is any ocean...
by Jerome Wilson, Cadence
A lineup of vibes, trombone, and piano sounds like it has the potential to go strange places but the group on 'Yet What is Any Ocean...' does not. INstead this trio goes over well-worn Latin/Exotica patterns with Chris Stover's trombone braying and laughing over a dancing vibes and piano rhythm, but does it with a quiet class, best displayed on the rocking samba rhythm of "Prize and Battlefield." It's not all danceable stuff though. "Waltz"... read more
Gabriel Espinosa - The Brazilian Project
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Composer and bassist Gabriel Espinosa gives a salute to the music of Brazil with a collection of his material that takes on the halcyon days of bossa nova and bring them up to date. He mixes and matches with a collection musicians in Roger Rocha/as-ss-fl, Josue Lopez/ts-fl, Daniel Freire/bars, Bruno Santos/fh, Rafael Rocha-Joabe Reis/tb, Andre Lopez-Felipe Silveira-Eduardo Farias/p, Giovani Malini/g, Hugo Maciel/eg Renato Rocha-Rafael Barata/dr... read more
Clipper Anderson - Ballad of the Sad Young Men
by George Fendel, Oregon Jazz Scene
Anyone involved in Seattle's active jazz community knows respected bassist Anderson, a solid contributor for many years. But what about that "other" Clipper Anderson? I'll bet you didn't know about Clipper Anderson, the singer. In an era of "dime-a-dozen" female singers, how often do we encounter a male jazz singer? Not often, and that makes Anderson's debut vocal album all the more a winner. He conveys that "I've been there" feeling... read more
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