Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Corey Christiansen - Outlaw Tractor
by C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
The reason behind Corey Christiansen's clinically precise guitar style is his experience with Mel Bay Guitar Instruction. He is fluent in all guitar styles, which fully informs his recording and performing persona. His previous recording, Roll With It (Origin, 2008), employing the same band as on the present Outlaw Tractor, was a sleek funk machine updating the soul jazz of the 1960s. Previous to that, Awakening (Mel Bay,... read more
Benjamin Boone - The Poets Are Gathering
by Brenda Nelson-Strauss, Black Grooves
Composer-saxophonist Benjamin Boone continues his fascination with poetry and jazz on his latest album, The Poets Are Gathering. The Cal State University Fresno professor, who has released two previous collections devoted to this pairing, notes that jazz and poetry have been inextricably linked since the Harlem Renaissance. Following the tradition of artists such as Langston Hughes and Charles Mingus, who collaborated on the album Weary Blues... read more
Tim Davies Big Band - Dialmentia
by Michael Steinman, Cadence
Dialmentia began a bit aggressively for my taste--collective finger-snapping, loud drums, and shouting brass--no matter how much I turned the volume down, this band still seemed too huge. Passages on the CD ("Hanging by a Thread" for one) were more serene, but Davies still seems intrigues by sheer sonic force. His shouting "Caravan (-dalized)" will appeal to people who like Swing Era originals modernized, and this result is far better than its... read more
speak - Speak
by Gwendolyn Elliott, City Arts
Seattle free jazz quintet Speak hasn't been around a while ? the group just formed in 2008 ? but that hasn't kept them from attracting attention. They're the newest signers to local jazz label Origin Records and have lined up gigs from clubs in New York to jazz festivals in Europe. Their six track debut of original compositions is a 45 minute progressive jazz art piece. Cuong Vu ? whose smooth, improvisational trumpet work has appeared... read more
Toby Koenigsberg - Sense
by Ken Dryden, All Music Guide
Pianist Toby Koenigsberg's second CD as a leader is a mind-stretching trio affair featuring bassist Tyler Abbott and drummer Jason Palmer, delving into famous and lesser known jazz compositions, standards and originals. While most pianists tackle Bud Powell's works in a fairly straight-forward manner, Koenigsberg and his musicians reshape "Oblivion" with a steady, pulsing Latin rhythm behind the pianist which seems out of kilter but fits... read more
Aaron Immanuel Wright - Eleven Daughters
by Dick Crockett, AccessSacramento.com, "The Voice" 88.7FM
Bassist Aaron Immanuel Wright's debut CD indicate a cool rendering where music is demanding, melodic and confrontational, alternating competitive dissonance with translucence. Wright's bass lines are direct with a heavy distinct convulsive sound, learned from playing in many different environments, and with a degree in philosophy and music, performing and composing among the best jazz musicians in the world. Accompanied by mentor, educator and... read more
speak - Speak
by John Barron, All About Jazz
The Seattle-based quintet Speak explores a multitude of musical moods with their eponymous recording debut. An exemplary model of genre-defying music, the disc features original compositions that delve into odd-metered progressive rock grooves and spontaneous bursts of improvised sound that are at times explosive.
The opening cut "Amalgam in the Middle" makes anthemic pronouncements with an extended section for Aaron Otheim's intensity... read more
Peter Erskine & The JAM Music Lab All-Stars - Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner
by Mark Griffith, Modern Drummer
Hopefully you have already read Peter Eskine's column this month on the making of his new record, so I'll skip the backstory, and just say that this is the best recording that Erskine has done as a leader since 3 Nights in LA. But it this a very different type of record, 3 Nights in LA was a freewheeling blowing date, Vienna to Hollywood is a carefully planned and arranged recording project with Erskine and Danny... read more
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