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

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 fate of the planet" (or, in other words, this rock we're on).

If you are looking for good old-fashioned big-band music whose main purpose is to swing and entertain, keep moving. If, on the other hand, you are drawn to themes whose depth and rationale encourage earnest and meaningful thought and perhaps an emotional response, you may have come to the right place. Even though Holober has at his command a superlative orchestra that is well-stocked with heavyweight soloists, he chooses in many instances to rely instead on smaller groupings wherein improvisation is played down in favor of harmonic design and scholarly aspiration. The "imaginary letters" are "read" in song by Brazilian-bred vocalist Jamile Staevie Ayres.

The writers include Rachel Carson, Ansel Adams, Sigurd Olson, Wendell Berry, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Terry Tempest Williams, activists all, and the views expressed in their letters (as prompted by Holober) are as staunchly consistent as they are unsurprisingly pro-nature and anti-defilement. Holober amplifies those sentiments, responding orchestrally to each one while adding a few digressions of his own (e.g. the opening "Lay of the Land" and closing "Domes" on Disc 1). When he chooses to employ chamber music to press his point, cellist Jody Redhage Ferber plays a pivotal role in shaping the blueprint.

And on those occasions when improvisation holds sway, none of Holober's innovators is less than sturdy and engaging. Tenor Chris Potter is sharp and impressive on "Lay of the Land" and "Tower Pulse," as are Holober, trumpeters Marvin Stamm and Scott Wendholt, tenors Virginia Mayhew and Jason Rigby, alto Charles Pillow, baritone Carl Maraghi, guitarist Nir Felder and bassist John Patitucci, whenever they are summoned to the fore. Pillow solos on bass flute, Stamm is on flugelhorn on "Skywoman Falling." Mayhew's solo on "Dear Virginia," depicts her response to a "letter" from her grandfather, Ansel Adams, to her grandmother and namesake, Virginia Best Adams. The session's title song and closing number includes a vocal by Rigby's then-eight-year-old son, Ronan.

One's response to This Rock may rest in large measure on what he or she expects from a big-band album, or, to put it another way, whether Holober's personal and panoramic perspective is pleasing, distasteful or rests somewhere in between. He set an ambitious goal whose consummation runs the gamut from orchestral flair and elegance to small-group balance and intimacy as it delivers his inspiring message of hope and assurance.