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

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 result of Holober's two passions in life: music and the natural world—is almost impossibly complicated, endlessly beautiful (even when we do not understand it) and something to be savored.

Much has been said about the melding of classical music and jazz. This Rock We're On, with its expansive soundscapes, brassy interludes, inspired soloing and intermittent vocals is a prime example of that classical/jazz intermingling.

To realize his artistic vision for the project, Holober put himself into the minds of six "protagonists," artists and or activists who have dedicated themselves to the natural world: environmental movement pioneer Rachel Carson, photographer Ansel Adams, conservationist Sigurd Olson, novelist, poet and essayist Wendell Berry and more. Embracing these mindsets, Holober wrote "imaginary letters" from the various perspectives of these groundbreakers. This majestic suite swings between art songs for chamber ensemble, alternating these imaginary letters with majestic, awe-and-wonder orchestral sections.

The interweaving of instrumental voices is indeed awe-inspiring. The woodwind/saxophone people are all multi-reedists who fashion airy backdrops. Chris Potter adds his fiery voice on two tunes, and in a special highlight among many, Virginia Mayhew contributes her tender saxophone voice on "Dear Virginia," an interpretation of a letter from her grandfather, Ansel Adams, to her grandmother, Virginia Best Adams.

Holober describes himself as an outdoorsman. He is a rock-solid supporter of the environment and a backcountry traveler who has hiked the Sierra and Rocky Mountain ranges, the Cascades, volcanos in Mexico, the peaks of the Swiss Alps and the highest peaks in America's Northeastern region. This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, can be tagged as his magnum opus. His work with the Gotham Jazz Orchestra on this music is similar in sound and scope to the orchestral works of Maria Schneider and Aaron Copland. It is quintessentially American, and it exudes a bold American optimism, despite the dire aspect of the ongoing environmental degradations of our rock.

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