We are a Seattle-based independent jazz label; run for musicians by musicians. Our fundamental goals are simple: to provide a home for our artists' ongoing work, as their careers and musical voices continue to evolve, and to introduce our customers (and ourselves!) to new and refreshingly unexpected music, while maintaining an uncompromised artistic quality throughout the catalog. Celebrating our 15th year in 2012, we release three dozen new recordings a year and represent over 240 artists across the Origin, OA2 and Origin Classical labels.
A huge part of our success so far lies in the collaborative efforts of the many artists we serve and partner with. With a focus on teaming with artistic communities from around the world - Chicago, Seattle, Antwerp, Tel Aviv, New York City and San Francisco, for instance - our artists help curate the labels by bringing in fellow musicians who they feel enhance their own musical statements. The result is a cohesive yet diverse catalog with a wide range of articulation: from some of the great modern Big Band composers, to producer/bassist Jonas Tauber's world of creative improvised music - the "Zurich Series" - to "modern mainstream" projects which make up a bulk of the catalog. Works from some of the great pioneers of jazz are included - Don Lanphere, Jessica Williams, Benny Powell, Hal Galper, Doug Hamilton to name just a few - whose recordings reflect decades of collaborations throughout jazz history and provide a dulcet parity to some of our more contemporary offerings.
