Jazz Articles about Tim Ries

Tim Ries: The Rolling Stones Project

by C. Andrew Hovan
September 23, 2005

Although purists might hate to admit it, popular music has always provided fodder for jazz interpretations, ever since the '40s and the Tin Pan Alley favorites that supplied chord structures for the mercurial flights of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Since then, pop hits from the Beatles to Radiohead have become part of the jazz vernacular. Oddly enough, the music of the Rolling Stones has not provided a trove of exploration for jazzers outside of a '60s take on “(I ...

Tim Ries: It's Only Rock n' Roll, But He Likes It

by R.J. DeLuke
August 29, 2005

Saxophonist Tim Ries knows what its like to play with a big band. His first gig out of college was with Maynard Ferguson. More recently, he's been a part of Maria Schneider's critically acclaimed orchestra, including the recording of the multiple award-winning Concert in the Garden. But the big band he's with now has nothing to do with an orchestra or the number of members in the aggregation.

The “big" in this gig is two-syllable big. Bih-Igg.

Ries is out ...

Mike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Thought Trains

by Robert R. Calder
March 23, 2005

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 ...

Mike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Thought Trains

by John Kelman
October 23, 2004

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 ...

Mike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Thought Trains

by Dan McClenaghan
October 16, 2004

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 ...

Mike Holober: Canyon

by John Kelman
December 10, 2003

With a strong supporting cast, New York pianist Mike Holober's Canyon delivers a fine first effort of modern post-bop material. Producer Fred Hersch takes Holober, a busy sideman on the New York scene, and places him in the spotlight, garnering the artist broader recognition.

Holober is a lyrical pianist coming from the Evans/Jarrett/Jamal tradition, but while his playing on Canyon is strong and confident, his compositions are the real highlight of the release. The seven originals run the ...

Mike Holober: Canyon

by Michael P. Gladstone
December 4, 2003

Mike Holober, pianist and composer of most of these songs, is the nominal leader of this combo. However, the bulk of the melody chores are handed to saxophonist Tim Ries. Herein lies the difference. Ries, a veteran New York session player and recording artist with three releases under his own name, plays both soprano and tenor sax. On soprano, he plays with a more metallic sound that takes away from the melody; his approach on tenor is much in the ...