Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Randy Halberstadt - Flash Point
by Ken Watkins, 100 Greatest Jazz Albums
Seattle-based pianist Randy Halberstadt's second release for Origin offers three attractive dimensions to his music as performer and composer.
The band is Randy Halberstadt's regular trio - Randy Halberstadt (piano), Jeff Johnson (bass), Mark Ivester (drums) ? expanded to a quintet on seven of the nine tracks with the addition of Mark Taylor (alto /soprano saxes) and Thomas Marriott (trumpet / flugelhorn).
Miles Davis' 'Solar' and Sam... read more
Brittany Anjou - Enamigo Reciprokataj
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
In which we find our fearless leader making a piano trio debut that goes somewhere else but really doesn't. Not willing to take on art for art's sake, this tyro that's sought out and studied with dyed in the wool pros shows that you don't need to microdose acid to expand your mind. Almost like taking the history of piano trio, putting it in a Yatzee cup and shaking it up to see where the future might lie, this amazing kaleidoscope of sounds just... read more
Jim Knapp Orchestra - It's Not Business, It's Personal
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
4 1/2-STARS The Jim Knapp Orchestra's CD It's Not Business, It's Personal, recorded in February 2009, was set to be released on November 19, 2021—six days after Knapp died at age eighty-two in Kirkland, Washington. Apart from his role as bandleader, Knapp was a trumpeter, composer, arranger and longtime faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Described by Grammy-winning composer/pianist Jim McNeely as "a brilliant... read more
Bobby Broom - Bobby Broom Plays for Monk
by Nick Bewsey, ICON Magazine
Chicago-based guitarist Bobby Broom, a dynamic solo artist (The Way I Play: Live in Chicago) and member of Sonny Rollins' band since 2005, sets his sights on ten of Thelonious Monk's most frequently covered tunes on what should be a career-changing album. "Bobby Broom Plays for Monk" is a deeply satisfying trio recording that showcases Broom's warm, lustrous tone on imaginative arrangements of tunes that were radical in their day but now have... read more
Greta Matassa - The Smiling Hour
by John Henry, Audiophile Audition
We get many female jazz vocal albums sent in for review. Most don't make the cut, so when I review one it has to be rather special. This one is special. Don't know how I missed Ms. Matassa all this time - she's appeared on five previous Origin CDs. I knew she was big in the Seattle area, but hadn't heard a CD. This is a voice with real personality, range, control, and good humor. It's a package that features a lot more than just singing in... read more
Carlos Vega - Bird's Up
by Lance Liddle, Bebop Spoken Here
Two CDs recorded not quite 2 years apart by a modern-day hardbop quintet led by Florida born Vega who also composed all of the 20 tracks on both albums as well as blowing some paint stripping sax. It's a humdinger of a band, all strong soloists in their own right and, importantly, team players too. Although the albums were recorded in Chicago, there is often a Miami Latin feel to the music -listen to the Cajon box on "Taurus and Virgo" on... read more
John Bishop - Antwerp
by Andy Harrison, Arts Axis Florida, WUSF
5-STARS If it sounds like drummer John Bishop and pianist Bram Weijters are playing like their hair's on fire, in a way, they are - Bishop, Weijters and bassist Piet Verbist made yearly trips to the Belgium city of Antwerp, using their time in the city to record, jam and play over a hundred shows as a trio that overflows with effortless chemistry. The COVID-19 Pandemic changed that with strict international travel restrictions meaning... read more
Harvie S - Bright Dawn
by Ken Dryden, The New York City Jazz Record
Bassist-composer Harvie S—for decades an in-demand player in greater NYC—was born Harvie Swartz in 1948 in Chelsea, MA, but in 2001, frequent misspellings of his surname finally caused him to legally change and simplify it to "S." An alum of Berklee College of Music, Harvie S has developed an extensive discography as a leader, co-leader and sideman, in addition to being a prolific composer. In the '70s, he co-founded the double-vibraphone... read more
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