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Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters
by Jack Bowers
This Rock We're On, acclaimed composer and pianist Mike Holober's 2024 recording as leader of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra, is challenging to summarize in mere words, as it consists of a multi-part suite (on two CDs) which blends jazz, classical and art songs in a thematic environment that uses a series of “imaginary letters" from a half dozen writers, artists and activists. Holober's orchestral response to them is the premise for “a meditation on the beauty of nature and the ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober & the Gotham City Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters
by Angelo Leonardi
Dopo gli ultimi superlativi album orchestrali (Balancing Act, Palmetto 2015 e Hiding Out, Zoho 2019) la nuova incisione di Mike Holober con la Gotham Jazz Orchestra non dovrebbe stupirci, eppure questo doppio album ci ha nuovamente colpito. L'aggiunta di Chris Potter, John Patitucci, Nir Felder e della cantante brasiliana Jamile Staevie Ayres all'orchestra rende infatti il progetto quanto mai esaltante. Questi nomi completano un organico già nutrito di solisti ragguardevoli come Marvin Stamm e Scott Wendholt alle trombe, ...
Continue ReadingEric Gale: Forecast
by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
Eric Gale (born on September 20, 1938, of Barbadian parents, in Brooklyn, NY) recorded over 500 albums as sideman, backing such stars as Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, Dianna Ross, Paul Simon, Lena Horne, Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Joe Cocker, Carly Simon, Van Morrison, Milton Nascimento, Billy Joel, Gato Barbieri and Mongo Santamaria, to name a few. Gale's association with Creed Taylor began when the celebrated producer was working at Verve Records. ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters
by Dan McClenaghan
We live on a rock. A few billion years of the workings of the complexities of carbon chemistry put us here. The systems and intricacies of every element that has unfolded to maintain us should be respected and preserved. Mike Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, featuring Holober and his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, digs into this theme in a sprawling, two-disc big band jazz outing. Like life itself, and the resulting ecosystems, this multi-movement suite--an effort that is the ...
Continue ReadingStan Kenton: Salute!
by Jack Bowers
Stan Kenton, one of the most renowned and influential bandleaders of the twentieth century, died on August 25, 1979. Fortunately—for the sake of history in general and creative music in particular—Kenton's remarkable legacy lives on, and in a perceptive and open-minded world would endure forever. Even to this day, small but devoted groups of enthusiasts share a wish that some previously hidden array of his material might come to light, satisfiying for the moment their craving for more memorable music ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober & Balancing Act: Don't Let Go
by Jack Bowers
With Don't Let Go, pianist Mike Holober and the octet Balancing Act seemed to have found an ideal way to cross-breed classical motifs and contemporary jazz to produce a pleasurable listening experience. Then he added lyrics. Granted, not all lyrics are superfluous—even those that are either nebulous or indecipherable, as is too often the case here. It's simply that some listeners may be more receptive to an alternative in the form of, say, Marvin Stamm's trumpet, Dick Oatts' or Jason ...
Continue ReadingMarvin Stamm: Team Player
by R.J. DeLuke
Trumpeter Marvin Stamm is known for being part of a gazillion albums, having that ability to go into a studio and play exactly what's required, whether it's for a records by pop singers, jazz artists, Paul McCartney, Donny Hathaway or touring with Frank Sinatra. It's a reputation the highly skilled player earned with hard work. But it's been awhile since the studio days. It's also been awhile since Stamm, 81, sat in the trumpet sections of some of ...
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