Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Wil Swindler - Universe B
by Tom Ineck, Berman Music
Amid the dreck that arrives in the mail for our perusal there are occasional gems of such polished beauty that they demand acknowledgement, especially if they are by artists deserving of more recognition. Such is the case with Universe B, by Wil Swindler's Elevenet. Not exactly a household word, the Elevenet hearkens back to the days of Birth of the Cool and the collaborations of trumpeter Miles Davis and arranger Gil... read more
Afro Bop Alliance - Revelation
by Raul da Gama, Latin Jazz Network
The relatively small, yet deeply rewarding output of the Afro Bop Alliance Big Band is skillfully wrought, thoroughly idiomatic, inventive and communicative on every level and it is not surprising that each album finds favour with audiences and students of big band music. Moreover the music's variety of mood, conception and sheer exuberance is a moving feast for the inner ear. Revelation, like all its predecessors, is ravishing kaleidoscope of... read more
LP and the Vinyl - Heard and Seen
by Travis Rogers, Jr., The Jazz Owl
I've been a fan of Danny Green for quite some time now. His trio's Altered Narratives was on my Favorites of 2016 list and 2018's One Day It Will ranks as one of my all-time favorites. In the review of One Day It Will, I wrote, "And just when I thought Danny Green's Trio had outdone themselves with 2015's Altered Narratives, they release One Day It Will, their third album on OA2 Records. It is the very same brilliant trio of Danny Green on... read more
Rich Pellegrin - Episodes IV-VI
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI.org
University of Missouri prof. Pellegrin's second album is a masterwork. The pianist is joined by an extraordinary cadre of musicians, especially tenor player Neil Welch in a Coltrane like exploration of ascending enlightenment. Basically these compositions are meditations on scales....American ragas. This record will certainly make my top... read more
Karen Marguth - Until
by Philippe Vincent, Jazz Magazine (France)
Also to be discovered for those who do not yet know her, Karen Marguth is one of those excellent singers that America keeps to herself. Native of Minneapolis but living in California for a long time where she is a teacher, she has already recorded several albums which have been hailed by American critics. Always accompanied by excellent musicians, she has, in the past, devoted a lot to standards but she broadens more and more her repertoire by... read more
Bob Ravenscroft & Inner Journeys - Phantasmagoria
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
A little prog, a little seventh galaxy, a little church basement, Ravenscroft and his gang mixmaster a load of influences that have influenced them along the way, put it in their own mixmaster and take off for the outer reaches that players have been reaching for since George Russell first blasted off. Space heads rejoice--it's done right... read more
Electric Squeezebox Orchestra - The Falling Dream
by Dave Rogers, WTJU - Richmond
The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra is a 17 piece big band based in the Bay Area that plays music composed and arranged by its members. Led by trumpeter Erik Jekabson, the band will begin a new residency every Sunday night at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley in March of 2018. The E.S.O. currently consists of Erik, Henry Hung, Darren Johnston, Doug Morton and Erik Andrews on trumpets, Rob Ewing, Danny Lubin-Laden, Patrick Malabuyo and... read more
Daria - Strawberry Fields Forever
by Bruce Crowther, Jazz Mostly
With this album, Daria takes up a demanding challenge, because in common with many latterday composers of pop songs, John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not customarily follow the 32-bar AABA pattern for popular songs that has supplied so much material to the jazz repertoire. One result of this is that with only scattered exceptions the songs of the Beatles, for the most part composed by Lennon and McCartney, have not been widely used by jazz... read more
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