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Mike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Hiding Out
by Jerome Wilson
Mike Holober is a celebrated composer and arranger who has worked for ensembles like the Westchester Jazz Orchestra in New York and the WDR and HR Big Bands in Germany. He is also the leader and founder of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra which here makes its first appearance on record in ten years. Holober makes this return a fruitful one, coming up with a 2CD set featuring two long suites, both with themes involving American landscapes. The first ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Hiding Out
by Jack Bowers
Mike Holober has been Hiding Out rather openly for the past ten years or so, waiting for the proper time to gather together his world-class Gotham Jazz Orchestra and record for the first time since 2009's widely acclaimed album Quake (Sunnyside), in which his picturesque compositions and arrangements were compared favorably to those of Duke Ellington and Gil Evans, to name only two. In the interim, Holober has hardly been sitting on his hands, serving time as director of New ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Hiding Out
by Dan Bilawsky
If musical polymath Mike Holober is hiding out, he's doing it in plain sight. Constantly in demand, his work as a pianist, conductor, arranger and composer has drawn plenty of attention. In the past 15 years alone he has served as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Westchester Jazz Orchestra (from 2007-2013), the Associate Guest Conductor of the hr-Bigband (from 2011-2015), and the Associate Director of the BMI Jazz Composer's Workshop (from 2007-2015). In that same stretch of time, ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Hiding Out
by Karl Ackermann
Mike Holober's background as a classical pianist and conductor is just one thing that sets Hiding Out apart from the current crop of big band releases. Holober has worked in a variety of settings from solo, duo, and quintet to large ensembles. Two previous recordings with his Gotham Jazz Orchestra were the critically acclaimed Thought Trains (Sons of Sound Records, 2004) and Quake (Sunnyside Records, 2009), comprised of covers and original Holober compositions. On the ambitious double-disc Hiding Out, Holober ...
Continue ReadingAdam Kolker: Beckon
by Angelo Leonardi
Ad eccezione di un solo brano, di chiara impronta rock come “Cannonball" (inserito chissà perchè), la musica di questo disco si colloca tra due estetiche molto presenti negli anni cinquanta: il Third Stream di Gunther Schuller, John Lewis e Ran Blake e il Cool Jazz di Lee Konitz e Warne Marsh. Il trio sax, chitarra e batteria (gli altri strumentisti hanno un limitato ruolo di supporto) ricorda poi l'organico di Paul Motian, Bill Frisell e Joe Lovano ma non ne ...
Continue ReadingJeff Holmes Quartet: Of One's Own
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il quartetto di Jeff Holmes comprende musicisti piuttosto affermati pur non essendo famosi che per anni hanno lavorato da leader o sideman in formazioni importanti, basti citare il contrabbassista James Cammack a lungo nel trio di Ahmad Jamal. Sempre in contatto fra un festival e l'altro hanno deciso di andare in studio per registrare una manciata di standard non proprio notissimi oltre alle composizioni di Jeff Holmes. Of One's Own è un disco gradevole, che si ascolta con piacere grazie ...
Continue ReadingXavi Maureta & Adam Kolker: La Perfeccio de la Irrealitat
by Greg Simmons
La Perfecció de la Irrealitat is a sophisticated, expressive collection of compositions. Each tracks is layered with intricate musical constructs, building single-instrument melodies into fully articulated ensemble statements. Even at its most aggressive improvisational points, the quintet's sense of melodic continuity and ensemble character remain intact. Initially, great melodies rule the day, but the band takes a detour when it gets to “JV," opening with the drunken ramble of five barflies determinedly singing a song they only half-remember. ...
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