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Pat Hallaran
Greg Chako: Where We Find Ourselves
by Michael P. Gladstone
Guitarist Greg Chako has led quite an interesting life. In addition to being a musician and composer, Chako has been a business entrepreneur both within and outside of the music industry. His life experience has led him to travel widely and explore different cultures.After three years of study at the Berklee School of Music, he moved to New York. Taking jobs in restaurant kitchens, Chako discovered that he had expertise in food preparation, and later, he found that ...
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by Jim Santella
With his sextet of jazz improvisers and program of original tunes, guitarist Greg Chako stretches out with a smooth session of aural impressions. Warmth, inner passion and heartfelt charm pervade his writing, which addresses matters of the heart.The ensemble casts a varied shadow that's dominated by the sound of saxophone, trombone, guitar and a flowing rhythm section. Chako's fluid guitar brings cool harmony and mellow improvisation to the scene, while his band colors the performance with surrounding walls ...
read moreMike 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 ...
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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 ...
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