Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Geof Bradfield - melba!
by Robert Ratajczak, LongPlay: RadioJAZZ - Poland
[translated from Polish] Melba Liston (1926-1999) is one of the icons of American jazz. Composer and arranger since the early 1960s, she collaborated with many including Randy Weston, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie (Dizzy Gillespie at Newport), Art Blakey and Charles Mingus (the famous album The Complete Town Hall Concert). Despite the enormous contribution to the sound of countless jazz standards, she always remained in the... read more
Christopher Icasiano - Provinces
by Dave Segal, The Stranger
Chris Icasiano has established himself as one of the boldest musicians in Seattle's jazz and experimental-music scenes as a drummer in the Bad Luck duo with saxophonist Neil Welch. Together they've delved into free-jazz maelstroms and more nuanced and somber pieces with masterly skill.
Icasiano's debut solo album, Provinces (out today), consists of field recordings he took during a trip to the Philippines, where his ancestors lived; he's... read more
Mark Taylor with RadioAction - After Hours
by , JazzReview.com
Alto and soprano saxophonist Mark Taylor and labelmates RadioAction recorded this 8- track session in Brooklyn in January 2002. Opening with Monk's "Bye Ya," they serve notice that they are as entrenched in a modern style as they are reverential of the masters. Following a strong opening statement by Taylor, pianist Whitney Ashe delivers a muscular solo augmented by the powerful rhythm team of drummer Matt Jorgensen and bassist Gary Wang.... read more
Gene Argel - Luminescent
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Hey, don't run for the hills just because the piano man has added a cover of "People" to his set card, it's alright. Returning home to Seattle from Hawaii to meet up in the studio with some old pals gives him the indulgence to do something like that. His sax man brings a Paul Winter, good karma feeling to the proceedings that gives the easy going vibe the special sauce this set needs to make it stand out gracefully without shouting... read more
Jim Gailloreto Jazz String Quintet - The Pythiad
by Daniel Kepl, Performing Arts Review
Gailloreto's refreshingly original jazz suite imagines gods and heroes getting their beads read by the Oracle of Delphi
Chicago-based composer and jazz saxophonist Jim Gailloreto hit on the idea for his latest CD during a gig at the Getty Villa in Santa Monica a few years back. The Villa is itself a replica of an ancient Roman country house. Statues of gods, emperors, statesmen and heroes haunt the place, conjuring a time of... read more
Doug Beavers Orchestra - Jazz, Baby!
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz.com
Doug Beavers Rovira isn't the first bandleader to reach out to the "diminutive demographic," but he may be the first to do so without pretense or condescension. In other words, Rovira doesn't play "down" to toddlers and children, he raises them "up" by clothing nearly a dozen nursery rhymes and songs in clever orchestral arrangements that would please even the hippest adult listeners. Blend in charming vocals by Matt Catingub and Linda Harmon... read more
Hadley Caliman - Gratitude
by Doug Ramsey, Rifftides
I wrote in Jazz Matters about Caliman in a 1979 performance with Freddie Hubbard's band:
As the evening progressed, Caliman's playing took on much of the intensity and coloration of John Coltrane's work, but he is a more directly rhythmic player than Coltrane was toward the end of his life and from that standpoint is reminiscent of Dexter Gordon. Whatever his influences, Caliman is an inventive and cheerful soloist.
Caliman recently... read more
Emi Meyer - Monochrome
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI - Irvine, CA
Emi Meyer's phrasing and nuanced tonal control is clean and complete. This is a singer/songwriter whose intimate and compelling narratives and reflections are set in jazz pop arrangements. The melodies fall like the first snow. Her tune "If I Think of You" and her co-written tunes, especially one with Dawn Clement, "Flesh and Bones", resonate with sincerity. She covers an ironically understated version the blues classic "I'd Rather Go Blind",... read more
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