Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Anthony Branker and Word Play - Uppity
by Sean J. O'Connell, Downbeat Magazine
***1/2 (3.5 stars)
Anger and injustice are strong themes on composer and conductor Anthony Branker's new album. Knowing the backstory of Branker's compositions, told in his lengthy liner notes, is essential to a complete understanding of the project, though the funky performances on the primarily instrumental recording are not nearly as frustrated.
"Let's Conversate!" bounces alongside Jim Ridl's Fender Rhodes, while Kenny Davis holds down a... read more
Ben Patterson - The Way of the Groove
by Jett Walker, Texas State University, International Trombone Association Journal
Composer, arranger, band leader, and former member of Airmen of Note (the premier jazz ensemble of the U.S. Air Force), trombonist Ben Patterson presents the release of his second album in just two years. It features returning collaborators Purcell, Henry, and Harrison, who recorded on Patterson's previous album, along with new contributors Hernandez, Appelman, and Reiger. All the tunes are original compositions (often with witty track titles)... read more
David Friesen with Orchestra and Quartet - Testimony
by Michael Schaust, Jazz Podium (Germany)
In search of sources, of his ancestors in the Ukraine, multi-instrumentalist David Friesen has hit fertile ground. The US-American (78) comes together with local musicians, his wish to better understand his mother's heritage comes true. And the result is truly worth listening to. It begins with a tour in 2015, "homecoming concerts" follow in 2016, and finally culminate in the live recording now available with the National Academic Symphony Band... read more
Todd Bishop - Travelogue
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Here's a well-centered post bop jazz quartet for you. Todd Bishop handles the drums here, and leads from behind much more effectively than Barack Obama with a team of Chris Higgins/b, Richard Cole/sax-cl-fl and Jasnam Daya Sing (Weber Iago)/keys. The band goes back and forth between acoustic and electric, with the former sounding like a bunch of Headhunters on the funky "Only Shallow" and Cole's bass clarinet slithering along on the... read more
Dawn Clement - Delight
by Stephen Graham, Marlbank (UK)
As a way of introduction let's talk about Elvis Costello first. Because the best thing on this very unassuming but more-ish piano trio-with-vocals album from American player and academic Dawn Clement is the treatment of a ballad from the great 'Shipbuilding' icon's North (2003) - 'Someone Took the Words Away'. Great choice. We could be diving for pearls. And do, dipping in here.
North was very jazz inflected, not... read more
Brad Wheeler - The Future Was Yesterday
by Neil Tesser, Chicago Reader
Chicago saxist Brad Wheeler plays with an infectious passion, but it's rooted as much in musical intellect as it is in his broad, swaggering tone on both tenor and soprano. Wheeler's name might ring a bell: he grew up in the Chicago suburbs and hit the local scene hard and fast in the 80's, but after he moved to Paris in 1990 his work all but vanished from these shores (though he did appear on a couple of Kurt Elling's Blue Note albums). Wheeler... read more
Peter Erskine & The JAM Music Lab All-Stars - Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Drum mastermind Peter Erskine gives a salute to two Austrian music film composers that dominated the Golden Age of movies, namely Max Steiner and E.W. Korngold on this album that mixes jazz with string. A rich mid sized combo of Herwig Gradischnig/sax, Thomas Gansch/tp, Bertl Mayer/harm, Bob Sheppard/fl, Judd Miller/EVI, Andreas Vardy/g, Danny Grissett/p-arr, Thatiana Gomes-Fabricio Pereira/b, Flip Phillip/perc-vib, Brian Kilgore/perc and... read more
New Stories - Hope is in the Air
by Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
Elmo Hope was a contemporary of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. He only lived to be 43 and never achieved much fame or fortune, but he was a talented bop pianist and composer with a style of his own. New Stories, a trio consisting of pianist Marc Seales, bassist Doug Miller, and drummer John Bishop, revives 11 of Hope's better songs on this CD, including "Dee-Dah," the moody "Stars Over Marrakech," and "Carving the Rock." Although their playing... read more
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