Mike Holober

Pete McGuinness: Mixed Bag

by Pierre Giroux
June 12, 2025

With Mixed Bag, Pete McGuinness once again affirms his place among the elite of modern big band composers and arrangers, presenting a luminous tapestry of jazz idioms that ranges from the exuberantly traditional to the adventurously modern. As the title suggests, the album is a delightful potpourri. However, rather than feeling scattered or unfocused, McGuinness weaves his eclectic inclinations into a coherent and emotionally engaging statement. He brings to bear not only the encyclopedic command of a seasoned jazz craftsman ...

The Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra: Mixed Bag

by Jack Bowers
June 4, 2025

Award-winning arranger Pete McGuinness has chosen to name the fourth recording by his stellar New York-based Jazz Orchestra Mixed Bag, a term whose meaning may be construed as positive or less so, depending on the context. As he explains in the album's liner notes, McGuinness accentuates the positive, writing that to him, “Variety has always been the spice of life. I don't like the feeling of being pigeon-holed into a certain bag...For this project...I've included many 'bags' that I love ...

Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

by Jack Bowers
March 9, 2025

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 ...

Ben Kono Group: Voyages

by Jerome Wilson
February 23, 2025

This album is saxophonist Ben Kono's tribute to his family's history, dating back to his grandfather's migration from Japan to the United States in 1911, performed by a combination of small jazz group and string quartet, The first half of the work concerns with his family's transition into life in the United States, and the second half celebrates four generations of Kono's lineage, going from his grandparents all the way through to his own children. The strings are ...

Mike Holober & the Gotham City Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

by Angelo Leonardi
November 11, 2024

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, ...

Mike Holober: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

by Dan McClenaghan
October 1, 2024

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 ...

Jazz and a Little Blues with Mike Holober and John Mayall

by Jerome Wilson
December 21, 2022

This show mixes a bit of blues and soul with jazz vocals, guitar, and large ensembles. Musicians involved include John Mayall, Mike Holober, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, and Karrin Allyson. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 DIVA Jazz Orchestra “Heart" from DIVA Swings Broadway (Diva Jazz) 00:50 Gil Evans Orchestra “Lunar Eclipse" from Hidden Treasures Volume One: Monday Nights ...

Marvin Stamm & Mike Holober

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 13, 2020

Trumpeter and flugelhornist Marvin Stamm's recording legacy is astonishing. If you sail through his discography at his Wikipedia entry, his list of recordings runs about a quarter of a mile. In addition to leadership albums starting in the early 1960s through to today, Marvin was on albums by every major artist from the period, from Thad Jone/Mel Lewis's Consummation to the Average White Band's exceptional first AWB album, from albums by Stan Kenton and Gary McFarland to Gato Barbieri, James ...
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CCNY Professor's Musical Journey Down the Hudson to Debut April 10

Source: Michael Ricci
April 1, 2010

Mike Holober to Lead Westchester Jazz Orchestra in Premiere Performance

In addition to teaching in the Music Department at The City College of New York (CCNY), noted jazz composer and pianist Mike Holober serves as artistic director and conductor of the Westchester Jazz Orchestra (WJO). On Saturday, April 10, he will lead the ensemble in the premiere of his composition “Flow: In Celebration of the Hudson River." The concert, at the Town Hall Theatre in Irvington, New York, begins at ...
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CD: Mike Holober

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
January 15, 2009

Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra, Quake (Sunnyside). Pianist-composer-arranger Holober chooses not to call his large congregation a big band. His scoring justifies the term orchestra. Balancing lushness with motion in and through the horn and rhythm sections, he evokes nature; the rustling of aspens in “Quake," bird song in “Thrushes." He is equally creative in his own pieces and in reinventions of songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Holober's soloists, including himself, are among the best ...
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