Origin Records Reviews

Benjamin Boone with the Ghana Jazz Collective - Joy
by Chris M. Slawecki, All About Jazz

4-STARS Benjamin Boone's set with this band born and grown in Ghana is a genuine cross-cultural jazz Joy.

The seeds of Joy were planted when composer-saxophonist Boone spent a year as a US Fulbright Scholar in Ghana in sabbatical from his professorship at California State University (Fresno), to study the country's music and musical traditions. The music Boone found made him feel at home: "These guys know American jazz inside and... read more

Les DeMerle - Cookin' At The Corner, Volume 1
by Edward Blanco, All About Jazz

A veteran first-call musician and leader of many bands who has also shared the stage with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Mel Torme, power drummer Les DeMerle's fourth album on the Origin label, Cookin' at the Corner, Volume One, was recorded live at the Jazz Corner in Hilton Head, South Carolina in 2005. DeMerle and crew deliver a swinging performance of jazz vocals and instrumentals music, playing thirteen classic standards... read more

Dominic J. Marshall - Spirit Speech
by Bruce Lindsay, All About Jazz

Dominic J Marshall has clearly absorbed a lot of influences in his 24 years. The pianist, born in Scotland and now resident in Amsterdam, brings many of them to Spirit Speech, the third album by his trio. Hip-hop, jazz, classical, folk: it's a disparate bunch and while it isn't exactly chalk and cheese there's still a risk that mixing them all together could create something unpalatable. Marshall neatly sidesteps the risk. Spirit... read more

Laurie Antonioli - The Constant Passage of time
by Raul da Gama, JazzdaGama

Anyone who is in the know of vocalist and pedagogue Laurie Antonioli and the music she creates, espouses and teaches will know that lyricism and the art of musical seduction is at the heart of her lucid and tuneful music. A somewhat melancholy poet of song, Miss Antonioli's music is rich in allusion to life - even lived experience - which is something that makes her music draw you in with its utter honesty and truthfulness. Her soft nasal... read more

Matt Jorgensen +451 - The Road Begins Here
by Michael Allison, Earshot Jazz

Drummer Matt Jorgensen's 451 band has had several incarnations with varying personnel over the past few years. What they have all shared is spirited and intelligent interpretations of well-chosen material. "The Road Begins Here" exemplifies Jorgensen's spirit as a leader on record with the most cohesive group to date. This is due in large part to great collective and individual statements by his sidemen.

The elegant and inventive Fender... read more

Andrea Brachfeld - Brazilian Whispers
by Sam Norris, London Jazz News

Flautist Andrea Brachfeld's CV reads like a who's who of Latin jazz. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, and a recipient of some of the genre's most prestigious accolades (including the 2006 Chico O'Farrill Lifetime Achievement Award), she has recorded and/or performed with such luminaries as Paquito D'Rivera, Tito Puente, Slide Hampton and Wallace Roney. In a career spanning four decades she has released eight albums under her own name... read more

Vasilic Nenad - Folk Songs
by Bill Barton, Jazz Steps

Origin has an impressive catalog of CDs, primarily by Pacific Northwest musicians. In the case of Folk Songs, the geography is very different, although the consistent high quality remains the same. Bassist Vasilic Nenad was born in 1975 in the South Serbian city of Nis (a region formerly part of Yugoslavia.) He studied classical doublebass, theory, and choral arranging in high school before moving to Austria in 1994, where he was mentored... read more

Bill Anschell - Improbable Solutions
by Abe Beeson, KNKX - The New Cool

Pianist Bill Anschell has established himself as a dynamic bandleader and able accompanist around his native Puget Sound region. But with his new release, Improbable Solutions, Anschell leaves the acoustic piano behind and digs deep into the possibilities of electronically produced music.

New Cool host Abe Beeson spoke with Anschell recently about his new album, which isn't his first foray into the world of electronic music.

A... read more

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