Hiding Out (Zoho)
Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra
Released August 9, 2019
Grammy Nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2020
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m_adSAt6ZD3kiMZBavNxTvESJL0tDHA1c
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/620sbSpVUjmgWcjdj3WGUy?si=-VYdz2pbSw6iFmPodZLkpA
About:
For those in the know, jazz masters and aficionados,
there isn’t any mystery about maestro Mike Holober who is one of the most
acclaimed and distinguished composers, arrangers, and bandleaders of our era.
He has enjoyed a long and successful career, in which he has served as the
artistic director of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra and Westchester Jazz Orchestra;
guest conductor of the HR Big Band and WDR Big Band in Germany; and Associate
Director of the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop, where he taught with Director Jim
McNeely from 2007-2015. The brainchild of founding directors Bob Brookmeyer and
Manny Albam, The BMI Jazz Composers Workshop is widely considered the
“finishing school” for jazz orchestra writers, and today’s jazz scene is
heavily populated by composers who have honed their craft under Holober’s
tutelage.
As arranger/conductor, Holober has written concert projects for a
wide variety of artists ranging from Miguel Zenon, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Avishai
Cohen, and Eli Degibri – representing the highest standard for a younger
generation – to elder jazz masters such as Dr. Lonnie Smith and Al Foster. Over
the course of his career he has written and conducted for a veritable Who’s Who
of jazz all-stars, including John Patitucci, Paquito D’Rivera, John Scofield,
Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, and many others. In addition, he has been awarded
the prestigious Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant and serves as a full
professor at the City College of New York, where he was also named the
inaugural Stewart Z. Katz Professor of Humanities and the Arts in 2018.
There is no doubt that Holober is one of the most recognized jazz masters of
our time. But in another sense, he has made a career of collaborations, playing
piano as a sideman on over seventy records, and composing features for other
talented artists. Meanwhile, jazz fans have been yearning for him to create a
new seminal opus, something that showcases maestro Holober on his terms,
without compunction, and very much as the leader of his musical enterprise.
This double-disc album Hiding Out is an adventurous, risk-taking, thoroughly
well-crafted production that showcases the obvious, comprehensive, and
conspicuous virtuosity of Holober’s superlative skills as a composer and
arranger. Joining him on his musical journey is the acclaimed, New York based
Gotham Jazz Orchestra with star soloists Billy Drewes, Jon Gordon, Jason Rigby,
and Adam Kolker (saxes), Marvin Stamm, Scott Wendholt (trumpets), Steve Cardenas
and Jesse Lewis (guitar). Holober himself is featured on the piano and Fender
Rhodes throughout this sonic adventure.
The album begins with Jumble, commissioned by the US Army Jazz Nights in 2008, and is named for an isolated lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, the juxtaposition of which presents breathtaking scenery. The contrast between rock and water is evoked by the musical combination of 1970s fusion and Brazilian maracatu. This tantalizing opener is indicative of the sonic soundscape that will unfold, with two large scale and mesmerizing suites.
The suite Flow was commissioned by the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, which Holober led from 2007 to 2013. It was partly funded with a NYSCA (NY State Council of the Arts) grant, and Holober wrote it while in residency at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, where he has been a guest five times. It’s the same setting in which the iconic American classical composer Aaron Copland wrote “Appalachian Spring.” The comparison is fitting, given that nature often serves as Holober’s muse, drawing inspiration from the world around him. In this case, it was the Hudson River that sparked Holober’s creative output.
Tear of the Clouds begins with the drip-drop of percussion, muted horns, and swirling reeds that creates an undulating effect, enveloping the listener in an eddy of polyrhythms and polytonalities. The constant evolution of sound throughout this movement and into the next, Opalescence, with its opening, triumphant trumpet makes sure that the listener never drifts away. The through-composed sections are rendered with deft touch and incandescent color. The constellations of sounds can be heard in full on Harlem, which is where the Hudson River terminates in Manhattan, before joining the saltier waters of the Atlantic. Holober wrote this suite so that each piece was similar to a tone poem, similar to Claude Debussy’s Jeux – Poème Dansé. Indeed, this movement fuses concert music with the improvisation and swing of jazz, hewing close to the blues tradition found in many traditional works. That Holober is able to conjure from such a vast array of musical and rhythmic devices is reason enough to celebrate him not just as a composer, but as a deeply conceptual thinker as well. The title suite Hiding Out was commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (funded by the Pew Foundation), and Holober wrote the five movements while in Wyoming, inspired by the natural beauty of this western setting. Prelude begins with clarion woodwinds, met with building brass and well-placed percussion. It is very much curtain-up on what’s to come: searching piano in Compelled; lush harmonies on Four Haiku; evocative brightness of Interlude; and the full adventure of “It Was Just the Wind.” Taken together, this suite is a hallmark of the album – vintage Holober who blends groove with grit, melodies with meticulousness.
Carminhos Cruzados, composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim, was arranged as a feature for trumpeter Marvin Stamm, and his lyrical, soulful melodies are stirring and elegant meditations. Commissioned by the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, Holober’s re-working of this rarely-heard tune reveals him as someone who imbues music with emotional affect that speaks to the mind and settles upon the heart. Holober composes with the full intent of invoking elements around him, and awakening curiosity and wonder on the part of his audiences.
Indeed, it has been a privilege to produce this album for maestro Holober. Hiding Out is unquestionably Holober’s much anticipated return to full feature big band writing, and we can only hope that he will continue to be in our sights and sounds, for the years to come.
Kabir Sehgal (New York Times bestselling author and multi-Grammy & Latin Grammy Award winning producer)
Track Listing:
Disc 1
1. Jumble (Mike Holober) 13:49
2. Flow Movt. 1: Tears of the Clouds (Mike Holober) 14:07
3. Flow Movt. 2: Opalescence (Mike Holober) 11:02
4. Flow Movt. 3: Interlude (Mike Holober) 01:49
5. Flow Movt. 4: Harlem (Mike Holober) 14:41
Disc 2
1. Hiding Out Movt. 1: Prelude (Mike Holober) 03:03
2. Hiding Out Movt. 2: Compelled (Mike Holober) 10:14
3. Hiding Out Movt. 3: Four Haiku (Mike Holober) 02:17
4. Hiding Out Movt. 4: Interlude (Mike Holober) 02:05
5. Hiding Out Movt. 5: It Was Just the Wind (Mike Holober) 18:30
6. Caminhos Cruzados (Antônio Carlos Jobim) 07:54
7. Caminhos Cruzados [Radio Edit] (Antônio Carlos Jobim) 06:29
Personnel:
Mike Holober: Conductor, Piano/Fender Rhodes
Saxophone/Woodwinds:
Billy
Drewes (alto, soprano, flute on Flow),
Jon Gordon (alto, soprano on Hiding Out, Jumble), Dave Pietro (alto,
soprano, flute, piccolo on Hiding Out, Jumble, Caminhos Cruzados), Ben
Kono (alto, soprano, flute, clarinet, piccolo, penny whistle on Flow,
Caminhos Cruzados), Adam Kolker (tenor, flute, alto flute, clarinet), Jason
Rigby (tenor, flute, clarinet on Flow), Charles Pillow (tenor, flute,
clarinet, alto flute on Hiding Out, Jumble), Steve Kenyon (baritone, bass
clarinet on Hiding Out, Jumble), Carl Maraghi (baritone, bass clarinet on
Flow, Caminhos Cruzados)
Trumpet/Flugelhorn:
Tony Kadleck, Liesl Whitaker, Scott Wendholt, James de LaGarza (on Tear of
the Clouds, Harlem, Jumble), Marvin Stamm (on Hiding Out, Opalescence,
Caminhos Cruzados)
Trombones:
Tim Albright, Mark Patterson (on Flow, Jumble, Caminhos Cruzados), Alan
Ferber (on Flow, Jumble, Caminhos Cruzados), Bruce Eidem (on Hiding
Out), Pete McGuinness (on Flow), Nathan Durham (bass trombone)
Guitar:
Steve Cardenas (on Hiding Out), Jesse Lewis (on Jumble, Caminhos
Cruzados), Jay Azzolina (on Flow)
Bass:
John Hebert
Drums/ Percussion:
Mark Ferber (on Hiding Out, Caminhos Cruzados), Jared Schonig (on Flow, Jumble), Rogerio Boccato (on Hiding Out, Jumble, Caminhos Cruzados)
Recorded December
17 – 20, 2017, at Oktaven Studios, Mt Vernon, NY
Produced by: Kabir
Sehgal and Mike Holober
Recording engineer: James Farber
Assistant recording engineer: Ryan Streber
Mixed by Brian Montgomery, Mike Holober, and Chris Zuar
Mastered by Mark Wilder
Associate producer and assistant conductor: Chris Zuar
Assistant session producer: Migiwa Miyajima
Production assistant: Yuto Mitomi
Cover photo by: Bibek Singh
Art direction and package design: Jack Frisch
Executive Producer: Joachim “Jochen” Becker
Review:
A single, repeated, bell-like tone, followed by a slow trickle of high-pitched woodwinds and muted brass, open the appropriately titled suite “Flow” from Mike Holober’s new recording with his Gotham Jazz Orchestra—a 17-piece, New York-based ensemble of the highest caliber. An idyllic scene gradually emerges as the minimalist music floats downstream and a simple melodic theme takes shape, then reemerges, shaded with a pleasantly dissonant harmony. The waters deepen from moment to moment, eventually opening up into a grand vista that continues to grow in complexity and gain momentum. The arrangement expands in breadth and the ensemble builds to dramatic crescendos, the tenor saxophone soloist soaring ever higher above the prevailing currents and occasional eddies below. The view only gets more spectacular from there, as the Hudson River-inspired motives of Holober’s composition unfold over four movements.
Equally compelling, and inspired, is the five-part suite “Hiding Out,” another Holober composition that depicts the grandeur of the natural world (in this case, the landscapes surrounding Clearmont, Wyoming). Other highlights of this double album include the opening track, “Jumble,” a large-scale original work in one movement, and Holober’s arrangement of the seldom-heard Jobim tune “Caminhos Cruzados,” showcasing trumpeter Marvin Stamm, one of nearly two dozen instrumental aces who contributed to Hiding Out.
In addition to being an esteemed composer, arranger and pianist, Holober is an avid outdoorsman whose passion for backpacking, canoeing and camping manages to find its way into everything he writes. It has been 10 years since the release of the Gotham City Jazz Orchestra’s last album, Quake, as Holober has been immersed in projects with other major big bands (Germany’s hr-Bigband and WDR Big Band, among others) and working as an educator (The City College of New York and the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop), not to mention playing plenty of sideman gigs. He hasn’t exactly been “hiding out,” so to speak, but he certainly has been less visible as a leader, until now.
With the release of this long-anticipated, epic work, Holober has brought a profound artistic vision to bear on today’s jazz scene and confirmed his standing as one of the finest modern composer/arrangers of our time, in the tradition of Gil Evans, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely.
Ed Enright (DownBeat)
