Mike Holober's Thought Trains
NEW BIG BAND RECORDING FROM ACCLAIMED COMPOSER
WITH GOTHAM JAZZ ORCHESTRA
featuring Ron Carter, Tim Ries, John Riley, and
others
“Highly melodic, Holber’s tunes fall
easily on the ears, but the collective execution
is full of substance... Holober, as both pianist
and arranger, seems to draw on the mid-1960’s
Herbie Hancock for inspiration, and his playing
extends the influence with a fresh approach to
dynamics, articulation, and rhythm.”
— Larry Nai, Cadence
New York, NY – Sons of Sound proudly announces
the October 16, 2004 release of Thought
Trains,
a big band recording led by rising star composer/pianist
Mike
Holober and featuring the Gotham
Jazz Orchestra ("GoJO"), a collection of New York City’s
most talented musicians.
The Gotham Jazz Orchestra itself, a staple of
Mr. Holober’s for years, boasts a collection
of first call musicians and leaders each in their
own right. Bassist Ron Carter is best known for
his work in the classic Miles Davis Quintet. Saxophonist
Tim Ries has been seen on tour with the Rolling
Stones and as the lead saxophone for Maria Schneider.
Others, such as trumpeters Scott
Wendholt and Tony
Kadleck, as well as saxophonist Charles
Pillow,
also hold significant positions in the Maria Schneider
Orchestra and/or the Village Vanguard Orchestra.
Alto saxophonist Jon Gordon is a former winner
of the Thelonious Monk competition, and John
Riley is widely recognized as among the finest big band
drummers working today, named #1 Big Band drummer
in the Modern Drummer 2004 Readers Poll.
The music on Thought Trains is vibrant and fun,
propelled by positive attitude. In the liner notes
for the release, Thomas Staudter points out that
much of Thought Trains was ‘through composed,’ meaning
that Holober “penned one musical idea after
another, hitching them together like cars for a
boisterous engine to pull, the whole, sizable,
forward-moving entity a creative dynamo to be enjoyed.” The
program ranges from the hard-driving swing of “Thought
Trains” and “Let’s Get Nice” to
the funk-samba of “Big Sky” to the
thoughtful ballad “Form x Mood.” Those
familiar with Mike’s small group debut Canyon will enjoy the big band arrangement of “Heart
Of The Matter.” Providing the listener with
a reference point for his harmonic sense, the set
includes his arrangement of the traditional “Jump
Down, Spin Around.” Taken from a promotional
sampler issued by the label earlier this year, “Let’s
Get Nice” has been used by Continental Airlines
in their inflight jazz programming since April.
Reviewing a pre-release copy of the disc for Mainly
Big Bands, John Killoch wrote: “…an
exciting surprise… unexpectedly and surprisingly
accessible… a must for those who enjoy music
that rewards and stimulates the imagination...”
Challenging charts appeal to the best musicians;
melodic, swinging tunes attract and sustain an
audience. Holober is a rare composer that can appeal
to both groups. Most of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra
members have been working with Mike since early
days with the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop under
Roger Kellaway, Jim McNeely, and Manny Albam. Big
Band recordings are among the most ambitious in
jazz, and Thought Trains is no exception, having
waited seven years from its recording in 1996 to
mixing late last year. Remarkably, the recording
was done in a single day, with a group of musicians
already well-acquainted with the charts. Each member
of the band is a friend, having asked Mike to participate
if he ever did the record. In spite of the years
and the rise in the prominence of its musicians,
GoJO remains almost entirely intact in support
of the recording, having performed twice at the
International Association of Jazz Educators conference
in New York City in January of this year, and Fieldston
Jazz Festival in Riverdale, New York, this past
March.
Holober withstands comparison to the great harmonic
masters, for his technique, ensemble work, and
writing. In his review of Mike’s 2003 outing,
Canyon, David R. Adler for All
About Jazz wrote: “Holober’s
piano style can be compared to a handful of Miles
Davis alumni, perhaps: Bill Evans or Chick Corea,
Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock; but it’s his
tunes and the ensemble interplay rather than his
instrumental prowess that hold sway on Canyon;
...The arrangements here don’t call attention
to themselves but are absolutely first-rate, begging
for repeated listens… Marvelous!”
A composer of growing importance, Holober has
twice been named a MacDowell Fellow, joining Aaron
Copland, Leonhard Bernstein, and only a handful
of other jazz composers such as Fred Hersch and
Mark Dresser. During his most recent visit to the
artist colony he was writing big band music in
the same studio where Thornton Wilder wrote “Our
Town.” He has been a guest composer, conductor,
and soloist with the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra,
and has been asked to appear with UMO in Helsinki.
He has been in residence at the Conservatory at
Innsbruck, Austria. His compositions are in the
repertoire of the BBC Jazz Orchestra (under Jiggs
Whigham), the Village Vanguard Orchestra, and other
prestigious groups, including the former Radio
in American Airspace (RIAS) orchestra in Berlin.
The Armed Forces’ premiere jazz bands, the
Airmen of Note and the U.S. Army Blues, are each
adding Mike’s charts to their repertoire.
Thought Trains is Mr. Holober’s
second CD as a leader, following an impressive
small group debut, Canyon,
featuring DownBeat poll winners Scott Colley on
bass and Brian Blade on drums, Tim Ries on saxophones,
and Wolfgang Muthspiel on guitar. In a four-star
review for the UK’s
Jazzwise, Kenny Mathieson wrote “…confidence
in Holober’s ability to deliver high quality
jazz as both performer and composer is fully justified
by the music. His intricate but attractive melody
lines unfold over imaginative and carefully textured
ensemble voicings and structures.”
With the legendary bassist John
Patitucci joining
in place of Mr. Colley, the quintet played two
sold out performances on May 25, 2004 at the Jazz
Standard in New York City. During the same week,
the group entered Avatar Studios to record the
follow-up to Canyon, entitled Wish
List, slated
for release in early 2005 on Sons of Sound.
In addition to his own recordings, Mr. Holober
may be heard on the Sons of Sound releases A
Whole Nother Story and Fundementia,
led by saxophonist/composer Andy Parsons and drummer
Gene Lewin. At home with chamber music as well
as jazz, Mike’s composition “Views
From A Train” was commissioned for and recorded
by The American Saxophone Quartet, led by former
New York Philharmonic principal saxophonist Albert
Regni and featuring guest soloist Larry Combs,
principal clarinet for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
This work can be found on the ASQ’s third
CD for Sons of Sound, The
Commission Project.
Sons of Sound is an independent jazz label founded
in 1997 to support musicians who support music
education. Mr. Holober is on the faculty of the
City College of New York, and has conducted many
residencies as composer in NYC public schools.
Mr. Holober is also an annual participant in Swing ‘N
Jazz, a three-day celebration of music education
with workshops, concerts, and a fund-raising golf
tournament for the benefit of The Commission Project,
a music education nonprofit based in Rochester,
NY.
For additional information see the label’s
web site at http://sonsofsound.com/. For more about
The Commission Project, see http://tcp-music.org/
and http://swingnjazz.org/.
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CDs, full press kits, color and b&w jpgs available
upon request.
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