Origin 8.0

During an engagement at the Blue Note in New York, pianist Chick Corea had an opportunity to stretch out with his new group, Origin, a sextet also including Steve Wilson on alto, soprano, flute and clarinet, Bob Sheppard on tenor, bass clarinet, flute and soprano, trombonist Steve Davis, bassist Avishai Cohen, and drummer Adam Cruz. A single disc was released by Stretch late in 1998. This six-CD set has all of the other music recorded on January 1, 3 and 4, 1998 during a total of six sets. Although most of the songs are repeated along the way, none of this music duplicates the single CD.

While looking through songbooks of traditional Galician music, Spanish saxophonist Xose Miguelez happened upon a recording by the ethnic musicologist Dorothé Schubart of a ballad, sung by his own Great-Aunt Amparo almost 40 years ago in Cerdedelo-Laza, a beautiful village hidden in the Galician hills. All of the compositions on "Ontology" come from a four-note motif at the beginning of that ballad. The idea came from Kansas City saxophonist Matt Otto, a friend and mentor to Xose and the producer of this recording. Though through the sounds of this dynamic, modern jazz quartet it may be difficult to discern the four-note motif, it is the very root and inspiration of this work. Listen to the end to hear Great-Aunt Amparo sing her song.