Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Anthony Branker - Beauty Within
by Jon Neudorf, Sea of Tranquility
Anthony Branker is rising to the top of American jazz composers and it is easy to hear why on his seventh album for Origin Records titled Beauty Within. He is a leader of three ensembles, Word Play, Ascent and on this record teaming with Imagine.
Beauty Within is a stunning post-bop jazz album that showcases the exceptional talent of his band. The musical director leads a very talented group of players including Ralph Bowen (tenor and soprano... read more
Florian Hoefner - Coldwater Stories
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Florian Hoffner takes the piano in solo form on this collection of originals performed both in concert and studio. His touch is calm, assured and assuring on sublime pieces such as "The Send" and "Sunset Bay." He creates reflective moments of gentle foamy currents during "Never Lost" and "The Great Auk" as the whole album feels like a stroll through... read more
Bill Anschell - Shifting Standards
by Ian Guin, Earshot
Jazz musicians are mathematicians, carpenters, athletes. With absurd devotion they hone their minds and muscles in ceaseless work, just so that at the end of the ledger the balance reaches zero, so every corner dovetails into a standing cabinet, so the javelin might reach a few inches further. If you need an answer to why jazz musicians work so hard, all the time, the latest release of pianist Bill Anschell has it. Shifting Standards, recorded... read more
Piet Verbist - Suite Réunion
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Bassist Piet Verbist brings his compositions to the table with Bart Borremans/ts, Bram Weuters/p, and Dre Pallemaerts-Wim Eggermont/dr. Verbst's bass is sonorous and reflective on his solo piece "Mygratum" and uses his strings to lead into pieces like the spacious and sparkling "Hope in Despair" and serpentine "Devious Ways." Weijters is peppy on the upbeat boppers "Bright Minor" and "Blues Excuse, as Borremans creates warm and long shadows on... read more
Clipper Anderson - Ballad of the Sad Young Men
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Ballad of the Sad Young Men: In which we find the piano jazz trio amiably recreated as a cabaret act with the singing bass payer at the wheel. Digging into the oldies vocal canon and blowing off all the obvious choices for some more daring and overlooked picks, the sum total is a grand set of sophisticated listening by one of those rare male vocalists that doesn't feel the need to ape Robert Goulet or Tony Bennett. There isn't a false note in... read more
Jared Hall - Hometown
by Thierry de Clemensat, Paris-Move
5 STARS
Hometown - Jared Hall's Intimate Cartography of Sound
A monochrome album cover sets the tone: understated, almost austere, yet quietly evocative. From the very first notes, the trumpet enters not as a declaration but as an invitation, its sound warm, deliberate, and imbued with a sense of modernity that feels rooted as much in ideas as in tone. It is the kind of opening that lends itself perfectly to the... read more
Deep Blue Organ Trio - Wonderful!
by Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
It's always amusing when a jazz snob claims that jazz and classical are the only legitimate forms of music and that popular culture, past and present, has no artistic value whatsoever. Typically, those who make such ludicrous statements will turn around and sing the praises of The Great American Songbook, meaning prolific Tin Pan Alley pop composers such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Harry Warren and Cole Porter; in other words, they are... read more
Brad Goode - Polytonal Dance Party
by Andy Hamilton, Jazz Review
I'd been aware of Brad Goode, but not of quite what a superlative player and band-leader he was ? till I reviewed his album Nature Boy, released on Delmark earlier this year. With his quartet of Jeff Jenkins on piano, Johannes Weidenmueller on bass and Todd Reid on drums, this is an album where conception and execution, form and content, are perfectly matched. The leader's bright, articulate trumpet, placed in the context of a variety of... read more
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