Mike Holober and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters": A Magical Piece of Music

Mike Holber and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

The pianist/composer/arranger/educator Mike Holober is a musician whose talents deserve to be more widely known and appreciated. I first heard Holober, the then under-the-radar musical director of the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, at a performance that I caught in Irvington, NY in 2011. It was obvious then that he had an impressive command of the composing and arranging skills necessary to make the disparate seventeen pieces of the WJO work their sounds both in splendid accord and to great effect. I later got a chance to witness Mike's impressive pianistic acumen when he played in a moving duo set with the superb trumpeter Marvin Stamm at the Carnegie Room of the Nyack Library in Rockland County in 2013. This was a musician whose career trajectory was clearly worth following. 

Holober's early career included a stint with baritone saxophone ace Nick Brignola in the late 1990's. He later formed The Mike Holober Quintet and recorded two albums with saxophonist Tim Ries, guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, bassists John Patitucci and Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade in the early 2000's. Holober was the musical director for the non-profit Westchester Jazz Orchestra from 2007-2013, where his prowess attracted an array of top-tier soloists like Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, and John Scofield to name just a few. He guest arranged and conducted for two prestigious European jazz bands, the WDR Big Band from Cologne, Germany in 2014, and the HR Big Band of Frankfurt, Germany in 2011 and 2015 amongst others. These projects featured its own stellar list of accomplished artists too numerous to list. In 2015 Holober and his octet Balancing Act featured his original compositions (both music and lyrics) and the vocalist Kate McGary, saxophonists Dick Oatts and Jason Rigby, trumpeter Stamm, trombonist Mark Patterson, bassist John Hébert and drummer Blade. 

Since the first release in 2004 of Thought Trains, from his big band The Gotham Jazz Orchestra, Holober's creative composing voice has been increasingly blooming. The band's second release Hiding Out, was issued on Zoho Records in 2019 and received multiple accolades from the critics as one of the year's best releases. The album was rightfully recognized for a Grammy nomination in the Best Large Ensemble category in 2020. 

Mike Holober: photo credit Matthew Cylinder

With such a successful history, there is no surprise that Mike Holober and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra's latest release This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, released on June 14, 2024, may easily be one of his greatest musical achievements to date. The album is a two-disc meditation whose music and lyrics focus on Holober's love and respect for nature, its majesty, and beauty. As an avid appreciator, he also expresses, both in music and words, his concern that the planet and its treasures may be in danger of being irreversibly damaged by climate change and our own thoughtless actions. Anyone who has followed Holober and his wife Melissa on his social media posts from some of nature's most imposing wonders and gorgeous vistas, can see that he lives his non-musical life immersed in nature hiking, biking, kayaking, and appreciating the great outdoors. There is authenticity here and it shows.

He adroitly includes a series of eight Imaginary Letters, statements that he composes and performs as if to converse with some of his own environmental and social inspirations on the issues at hand.  Letters to iconic nature photographer of the West, Ansel Adams, to renowned marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson, to conservationist Sigurd Olson and activist Terry Tempest Williams, to poet and essayist Wendell Berry, and to Native American scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer. 

These eight paeons talk of "sharing this home," of waiting for summer and lamenting the potential loss of another summer if our actions leave the earth "broken beyond all repair." These letters revel in the "...swaying pines upon a snowy hill" as Ansel Adams did in his poem to his wife Virginia. They imagine a monolithic rock formation, Castleton Tower in Utah, woefully speaking as a harbinger whose continued existence may be only preserved by the written word and action. They recall the love of "pristine snow in silent, longing, beauty" and a conversation with a tree that "...fears of what may come of me? " who cautions that "...to love life you must know a tree". Finally a letter/poem to a child that speaks to the pulse and breath of the Rock We're On and the love that it requires for its sustenance and ultimately for our own survival. These are profound expressions of awe, respect, sensitivity, love, and action and they are brilliantly incorporated into Holober's moving suite.

As for this music, it is simply splendid in both conception and execution. The opener "Lay of the Land"  organically emerges with Holober's sensitive piano entry sprouting like new life on fertile soil. Gentle cymbal splashes by Jared Schonig and probing ostinato bass lines by John Patitucci set the aural landscape before the horn and reed sections lay out pulsing layers of sound that throb with life. The tenor saxophonist Chris Potter enters like a siren with his distinctive wail. Holober is a master of coloring with an almost limitless array of hues that his orchestra adds to his musical palette. The Herculean Potter, at the top of his game, never ceases to amaze with his seemingly endless ability to percolate with flawless creativity and majestic power. This is particularly evident as Holober sends his group into an ascending apex. The orchestra is musically climbing a mountainous peak, with the sections roaring, Schonig and Patitucci boiling over, and Potter is soaring above it all like a cruising eagle on the hunt. Breathtaking!

The first of the Imaginary Letters, "On This Rock" is to environmentalist Wendell Berry, and finds a chamber music-like feel that features Holober's delicate piano,  Mark Patterson's burnished trombone work, and the crystalline voice of Jamile Staevie Ayres. 

"Dirt Lover's Almanac" has an opening featuring some gorgeous cello work by Jody Redhage Ferber accompanied by an attentive Holober on piano. As the music opens into a more traditional big band piece we are treated to excellent section work of the repeating theme. Bassist Patitucci offers a probing and facile bass solo that throbs before Charles Pillow presents his own vision of interpretation on a fine alto solo. The group roars with splendid unanimity.

The remainder of the album is equally as impressive."Tides" features cellist Ferber and Jason Rigby's tenor saxophone. "Dear Virginia," one of my favorites, features some stellar alternating duo work, first with Holober's piano and Marvin Stamm's superb trumpet and then with Virgina Mayhew's sensitive tenor to great effect.

"Domes" offers the circuitous alto saxophone work of Ben Kono, some effervescent vibes work of James Shipp, a clarion trumpeter solo by Scott Wendholt, and roiling drum work by Schonig. "Refuge" creates poignancy with the trio of Ferber's evocative cello, Ayre's charged voice, and Holober's moving piano.

"Tower Pulse" has an organic, throbbing vibe, a cardiac-like pulse that carries you like a life force. Nir Felder's spidery guitar lines are quite well-matched with Felder's repeating acro cello lines in a call-and-response sort of section. Potter's dynamic saxophone bursts of kineticism as Holober's orchestra carries the music's drive in what sounds like a Native American-like inspired ostinato. There is majesty to this music and it is inspired. "Soil Erosion," a slow shuffle that features Shipp's vibraphone accents, Kono and Pillow's flutes touches, and Nir Felder's fine, expansive guitar solo as the rhythm section and orchestra maintain the heartbeat of the tune. "Three Words for Snow" has a classical-chamber music feel to it with Ferber's cello, Kono's delightful flute, Holober's piano, and Ayres' voice making this a very special and moving addition to the suite. "Boundary Waters" has a Latin feel that finds the composer letting the orchestra ebb and flow as he has his most extended solo on the album. It's nice to hear him let loose here a bit and get a chance to express himself outside of the restraints of being the leader. The album continues with "Noetry" a vocal that imagines a letter from a tree. "SkyWoman Falling" opens with a cello feature by Ferber that morphs into a Native American vibe. The orchestra expands with aplomb. Expanding his color palette, Holober has Charles Pillow featured on a very willowy bass clarinet and Marvin Stamm is paired to this sound with his own warm Flugelhorn response. The music has an organic feel, a symbiosis with the Earth that seems to have its own spirit that as a listener we can only marvel at its pure authenticity.  The final piece is titled "This Rock We're On" and is an imaginary letter to a child. It leaves us all with the realization that we all have a responsibility to preserve what we can still enjoy and leave this beautiful and important legacy to the next generations. There a moving vocals by Ronan Rigby, James Shipp, and Jamile Straevie Ayres and a nice baritone saxophone feature by Carl Maraghi.

Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, is a magical piece of music. His astute composing, orchestration, and arrangement of his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, the voices he chose and lyrics he created, and the soloists that he selected all make this inspired suite of meditation on a theme a modern masterpiece.