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Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Quake
by Elliott Simon
Duke Ellington's legacy is alive and well with pianist Mike Holober and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra. Holober makes use of the increased musical scope that 17 pieces give him to weave compositional strength within a sound that sways more than swings. Some of the finest jazzers New York City has to offer join Holober for this session. Their individual talents are certainly showcased but the strength of this release is how Holober fits them all together to ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Thought Trains
by Robert R. Calder
Mike Holober's not just another pianist working within long-established post-Bill Evans methods, he's one of the rare very individually creative ones. Given his more monumental approach, his Gotham Jazz Orchestra can seem something of an extension of his piano work. His orchestration sometimes fills out a piano conception, sometimes interacts with his playing, piano concerto fashion. A band member's solo will sometimes have the full orchestra, sometimes the at times equally full-sounding rhythm section, in accompaniment. Planned and grand. With ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Thought Trains
by John Kelman
Originally recorded in '96, years before Mike Holober's début small group recording Canyon (Sons of Sound, '03), Thought Trains is only now seeing the light of day, but it continues to assert the pianist/composer/arranger as a dominant new force on the New York scene. And while the larger ensemble context of Thought Trains limits the amount of spontaneous interplay that was prevalent on Canyon , it makes up for that kind of unrestrained exploration with sharp arrangements that make full ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Thought Trains
by Dan McClenaghan
There's something about trains, the metronomic, ringing clink-clack of metal wheels on metal track, the fanfare of the whistle, the rhythm and rumble of the coaches being propelled across a countryside. Duke Ellington loved trains, in a day when he and the band used the form of transportion to get from gig to gig. Think of “Take the A Train" and “Track 360." Pianist/arranger/composer Mike Holober loves trains, too, as his second outing as leader attests--the big band set Thought ...
Continue ReadingDave Pietro: Embrace: Impressions of Brazil
by C. Michael Bailey
Dave Pietro follows his successful tribute to Stevie Wonder, Standard Wonder, with an hommage to the music of Brazil"" Embrace. This recording is a little-big-band recording of basically images of Brazil according to Mr. Pietro. The seeds of this recording were planted when Pietro was on tour in South America with the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra. During the tour, the band played in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Since that time, Pietro has been back numerous times. ...
Continue ReadingDave Pietro and Banda Brazil: Embrace-ing Cultures
by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
I just love a band that grins. Like Whitney Balliett, I see jazz as the sound of surprise -- preferably a delightful one -- and I don't believe that serious music has to be made with long faces. Banda Brazil was grinning like mad the other night at the Cornelia Street Cafe, even though the six of them were crowded together on a tiny stage. In fact, two of them were actually off it, squeezed into the packed house that ...
Continue ReadingThe Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Thought Trains
by Jack Bowers
One assumes instinctively that a big–band album named Thought Trains isn’t likely to include such time–worn staples as “Moten Swing” or “One O’Clock Jump.” That’s definitely true of this one, even though it does receive a “jump start” from Mike Holober’s rhythmically vibrant composition, “Jump Down, Spin Around.” All of the compositions / arrangements are Holober’s, and while they may not awaken memories of the Swing Era they surely do swing, which is among the most meaningful components in any ...
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