Liner Notes
Mike Holober: Canyon
(Sons of Sound SSPCD016)
Nothing. It’s really about nothing, when
you think about it. A canyon. What is it? A hole.
A big hole. A big nothing produced by the constant
friction between nature’s most powerful elements:
water, wind and earth. A canyon is defined by empty
space; by nothingness. Perceiving the remains of
the rubbing and scrubbing, we marvel at what remains;
but the nothingness makes it what it is.
Michelangelo conceived the figures he sculpted
as being imprisoned in the blocks of stone with
which he worked. By removing the excess stone,
the forms were released. Similarly, Nature, as
sculptress, uses the chisels of water and wind
to release the stunning form of a canyon. But unlike
Michelangelo, she’s never quite finished.
A canyon is one of Nature’s great works-in-progress.
Writing in 1902, the great naturalist John Muir
described the Grand Canyon as “a gigantic
sunken landscape of the wildest, most multitudinous
features.” He went on to extol “the
side canyons, gorges, alcoves, cloisters, and amphitheaters
of vast sweep and depth carved in its magnificent
walls; the throng of great architectural rocks
it contains resembling castles, cathedrals, temples,
and palaces, towered and spired and painted, some
of them nearly a mile high…”
Mike Holober knows something about canyons, too.
Besides being a great musician he is an avid hiker
and climber, and over the years he has experienced
first-hand many of the natural wonders that have
inspired so many writers, painters, photographers,
and musicians. For this CD, his first as a leader,
Mike has drawn on impressions from these experiences
and combined them with his varied and vast musical
experience. Using his formidable abilities as composer,
pianist, and leader he has forged these sources
into a strong, individual statement.
His compositions have a wonderfully lyric quality
to them. Each is a short story, with shifting textures
and feels. As a pianist he is very much in control
of his instrument, and his playing always has a
strongly melodic character. In his role as bandleader,
Mike has picked his players with care. He calls
saxophonist Tim Ries “my oldest New York
jazz friend, my first choice for everything.” Tim
shines on both tenor and soprano. Mike met guitarist
Wolfgang Muthspiel when both were teaching at a
summer workshop in Austria. He rightly says Wolfgang “adds
a refreshing ingredient” to the band’s
chemistry and sound. Mike first teamed up with
bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade on
a recording led by saxophonist Dave Pietro. He
immediately knew that he’d want to have them
on his own album. Both players have been very active
on the world jazz scene as sidemen, and Brian leads
Brotherhood, which showcases his own formidable
composing talents.
The CD opens with the title tune, written after
a winter trip to Utah’s Rock Creek Canyon.
Form is important to Mike, and the piece unfolds
with effortless shifts of groove, rising and falling
in a very natural way. The musical landscape changes
much in the way a natural landscape changes color
and texture as the sun arcs across the sky.
Mike has visited many places that appear in the
photographs of Ansel Adams. These vistas were the
inspiration for "Ansel’s Easel." Fueled
by the quiet intensity of Brian brushwork, the
tune builds through solos by Scott, Mike, and Tim,
fading on the tune’s hook.
The entire quintet features on “Heart of
the Matter.” Notable throughout the entire
album is Wolfgang’s shifting role in the
ensemble. At times paired with the saxophone, at
times with the piano or bass, and other times used
an independent voice, he adds special character
to the group.
With "Same Place Same Time" Mike reaches
the “rapids” of the trek through the
canyon. Mike has a rule that the harder the tune’s
head is to play, the more open the solo form should
be. After the quintet burns through the opening
statement, the form opens up for Wolfgang’s
guitar solo. To thicken the plot, Mike introduces
both Tim’s soprano solo and his own piano
solo with short a capella piano statements.
"Roc and a Soft Place" is dedicated
to the late saxophonist and bandleader Joe Roccisano.
Its dark, introspective atmosphere offers a strong
contrast to the previous track. This darkness is
then dissipated by the up-tempo 3/4 of "Spin."
Especially noteworthy here is the piano/drum interlude
in
Mike’s solo.
"In So Many Words" is, as Mike says, “the
ballad of the set.” This tune is dedicated
to the late baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola.
Having played with Nick a lot myself in the ‘70’s,
I know that he would love this tune. It’s
a beautiful vehicle for both Tim and Mike.
The album ends with a couple of standards. At
first hearing I felt like I had run into a couple
of
old friends after many years’ separation.
They looked different, but deep down inside were
the same old pals. “You and the Night and
the Music” has a restructured melody chorus
and is nice and loose throughout. “Stardust” may
owe just a little bit to Ahmad Jamal, with its
vamp and spread-out feeling, but it also has Mike’s
own wide-open, spacious feel about it. He wisely
retained the verse in this long-form, one-chorus
rendering. The group fades over the vamp, and so
ends the CD.
I’ll second Fred Hersch’s sentiments
expressed elsewhere in this booklet by saying that
it’s about time Mike Holober released an
album of his own music! He is one of New York’s
best-kept secrets. I’ve long admired his
playing and his writing and am happy to see him
finally getting his music out to a larger audience.
He is also a terrific composer/arranger for big
band and orchestra, and we can only hope that some
of that music will appear on disc, too. Mike is
off to a great start with Canyon. We can now experience “the
side canyons, gorges, alcoves, cloisters, and amphitheaters” he
and his worthy colleagues have discovered for us.
Enjoy the journey.
— Jim McNeely
|
