Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
John Stowell | Michael Zilber - Shot Through With Beauty
by Michael Steinman, Cadence
It's a compliment to 'Shot Through with Beauty' that the music the quartet makes seems deeper (not louder) than what you'd expect from four players. Yet it's not assertive thrashing, but exploratory music, often probing. And the quartet is capable of both great assertiveness (on the first track) and serenity (on "Con Alma")--and combinations ( on Joun Scofield's "The Beatles," which manages to summon up some of that group's roaming and... read more
Meridian Odyssey - Earthshine
by Matthew Adkins, Earshot Jazz
It's become something of a truism to say the pandemic produced some incredible art. Here's a question, though: Can that flowering of creativity—originally sparked when we were all cooped inside—sustain itself now that we're all free to roam the wide world again? The latest Meridian Odyssey record, Earthshine, suggests maybe it can.
The quintet—saxophonist Santosh Sharma, guitarist Martin Budde, pianist Dylan Hayes, bassist Ben Feldman,... read more
John La Barbera Big Band - Grooveyard
by Michael van Gee, Jazz'N'More (Switzerland)
5-STARS The composer, arranger and leader of his Big Band John La Barbera has a "Grooveyard" rousing big band album released which gets your feet wet and is one of the best that's been published in recent years. His three previous albums, the Grammy-nominated "On the Wild Side" (2002), "Fantazm" (2005) and "Caravan" (2013), all on the Jazz Compass Label featured convincing first-class arrangements with fantastic soloists. John La... read more
Eric Jacobson - Heading Home
by Paul Rauch, All About Jazz
4-STARS Trumpeter Eric Jacobson has settled in on the Chicago club scene, making musical alliances along the way that include the very top tier of that talent rich scene. For his latest venture into the studio, he employs the talents of master tenorist Geof Bradfield, Chicago first call bassist Dennis Carroll and the always swinging George Fludas on drums. At first glance, this session looks like a cannot miss proposition. After one... read more
Trio Linguae - Kevin Woods / John Stowell / Miles Black - Signals
by Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist
Lots of jazz combos engage in group improvisation; very few, in my experience, do so in a way that's worth spending much time listening to-outside the confines of trad jazz, anyway. Trio Linguae (trumpeter/flugelhornist Kevin Woods, guitarist John Stowell, pianist Miles Black) is one of those very few combos. Their musical communication is such that you'll often hear them improvising in counterpoint, which is a pretty amazing feat when you... read more
Dan Cray - Outside In
by Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
4-STARS Encounters with the wonders of nature have a way of snapping everything into perspective and tamping down humanly worries and concerns. Too often we spend time absorbed and obsessed with working from the inside out, projecting ourselves into the world. But sometimes it's better to simply go the other way and let the beauty that exists on the outside infiltrate and influence the human spirit and direction. Pianist Dan Cray's... read more
Ben Thomas Tango Project - The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
On The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle, his sixth recording as leader of the Tango Project, composer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Thomas once again invites his audience to put on their dancing shoes and sway to Argentina's unique and emblematic musical genre. In doing so, he affirms that there is far more than one way to tango, eliciting all the warmth and color he possibly can within eight of his luminous and rhythmic... read more
Todd Bishop - Travelogue
by Rick Erbin, Jazz Junction - KIOS FM
Perhaps we react to music in similar fashions. Sometimes from the opening notes and rhythms we make up our minds that a particular recording has it - that essence, that enigmatic thing that heads straight for where we live inside - the spirit song. Drummer Todd Bishop's new album Travelogue opens with a beat reminiscent of Horace Silver's "Song For My Father" set-up by bassist Chris Higgins and pianist Jasnam Daya Singh. Yet... read more
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