Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Angela Verbrugge - Somewhere
by Michael Steinman, All About Jazz (Liner Notes)
The proper response to Beauty is an awed admiring silence. So these liner notes should be one word in a large font: LISTEN. But Angela asked me to add a few hundred keystrokes to the project, so here we are. Incidentally, I have chosen to focus on Angela in the midst of the most superb musicians and arrangements. I hope they will forgive me!
Angela Verbrugge is a great subversive. Her work is so quietly insinuating that listeners might easily... read more
Gregory Dudzienski - Beautiful Moments
by Robert Rusch, Cadence
Tenor saxman, GREGORY DUDZIENSKI, has released BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS [OA2 Records 22183]. This November 2019 date has Chris White [p], Kelly Sill [b] and Jeff Stitely [drm] playing some excellent originals. If the music had been written and recorded by a first line jazz artist in the 1950s, they would have become jazz standards. Here is music that's lyrical and delivered without bravado.... read more
Jeff Baker - Phrases
by Michael J. West, Downbeat
***
Phrases is a collection of beautiful, unquestionably soulful songs by singer Jeff Baker and a remarkable group of 11 musicians. The disc is moody and meditative, but spends about 80 minutes never altering its cast, to its detriment.
The album's title applies to four of its six originals. Baker cribbed lines from his favorite writers, including Stephen Chbosky, Pablo Neruda and J.D. Salinger, and recontextualized them with... read more
Nelda Swiggett - Blue-Eyed Painted Lady
by Lofton A Emenari, WHPK
Under The Radar: 3 Recordings that merit considerable attention. Over the past year many recordings pass my desk, some good, some not so good. Here are 3 that did not gain appreciable wider recognition and acclaim in the mass market media yet are hall marked distinctively for speaking directly to our collective human condition. 1. Joseph Daley-Portraits (Wind, Love & Thunder)- JDA Music ...String orchestra tribute to the percussion artistry of... read more
Gustavo Cortinas - Esse
by Luis Jesús Galindo Cáceres, Contratiempo Jazz (Mexico)
Translated from Spanish: Mexican jazz has a side that associates with the territory, Mexico, another that relates to the origin of the musician, the Mexican jazz. Between the two lines of construction of a possible concept the relationships are multiple, there are musicians born in other countries who work and develop their projects in Mexico, there are Mexican musicians who for different circumstances live and create their music in... read more
Paul Tynan & Aaron Lington - Bicoastal Collective: Chapter Three
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Here's a post bop set with it's own special sauce that's going to sneak up and catch you from behind. With a veneer that feels like a minimalist vibe, it's anything but. Turns out this is a sly, contemporary blowing date. Surrounding themselves with improvisers that don't normally play together but find the common ground to click here, this set of originals has what it takes to make you pay attention to something new and different without... read more
Live Edge Trio with Steve Nelson - Closing Time
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The Live Edge Trio, i.e. Ben Markley, Seth Lewis and Andy Wheelock, come together with Steve Nelson for these 7 infectious jazz tunes that will get your body and spirits in motion.
"Ben's Tune" starts the listen with Nelson's bright vibes alongside Markley's glowing keys, and "Closing Time" follows with Lewis' rumbling bass that suits the animated mallets from Nelson's precise playing.
"Fantasy For Cede" and "Old Folks" arrive in the... read more
Unhinged Sextet - Clarity
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
The gents Will Campbell/as, Matt Olson/ts, Vern Sielert/tp, Michael Cocour/p, Jon Hamar/b and Dom Moio/dr add to the hard bop tradition on this collection of originals. The rhythm team shows its ability to crate some frenetic grooves as on "Unhinged" and the bopping "Squiggles" while Hamar's bass lopes on "Scout, No Doubt" and serves up an impressive boogaloo on "Down South." The three horns create some wondrous harmonies during "Too Deep "which... read more
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