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Mike Holober ;
Bucolic Inspiration
The word “Gotham” conjures the grittier side of New York City in all its
frenzied, menacing glory. When the term is applied to a jazz orchestra, one
would usually expect the music to evoke similar attributes. But pianist
Mike Holober’s new disc with his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, Quake
(Sunnyside), evokes the opposite. Modifiers like “spacious” and “serene”
come to mind after a listen. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Holober is a
self-described “outdoor person.”
“When I’m outside, it puts me in the mood I need to be in to write,”
Holober said. “I just feel positive about everything. Ever since college, I
have spent close to about three total years outside. [The title song] is motivated
by the sound that aspen trees make when the leaves rustle in the
breeze, particularly in the fall.”
Holober wrote a bulk of Quake at the bucolic artist resorts of
MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H., and Yaddo in Saratoga
Springs, N.Y. In addition to his own songs, his ensemble interprets The
Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun” and the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby
Tuesday.”
“Every time I do an arrangement of a pop tune, I try to transform the
song into a jazz orchestra work, but one that also expresses what made me
excited about the tune in the first place,” Holober said, before revealing
that he and his wife often sing The Beatles’ melody every time they see
the sun break through clouds or during a sunrise. He shares a similar story
for “Ruby Tuesday.”
“My whole life I’ve been into hiking,” he said. “My wife and I had
been in the Sierras in California and we went to Ruby Lake, and we started
singing all the tunes with ‘Ruby’ in them.”
Those George Harrison and Mick Jagger/Keith Richards tunes also
reveal Holober’s love for singer-songwriters.
“There’s something about the emotional quality, the optimism or sadness
from singer-songwriters,” he said. “Sometimes when you hear their
music, it feels personal. I hope all of that exists in my music.”
Still, Holober’s compositions for the Gotham Jazz Orchestra place
more emphasis on the repetoire itself, rather than the personalities of the
bandmembers, including trumpeter Scott Wendholt, saxophonist Tim Ries
and bassist John Herbert—all of whom are his friends.
“I’m not writing to a specific audience,” he said. “But my hope is that
people will get my personal perspectives and my music isn’t just some
jazz language that’s well done and well executed. I want someone who
doesn’t know anything about jazz to listen to my music and say, ‘Play that
again,’ not because there was a burning solo, but because the solo went
with the composition.”
—John Murph
COLLEEN CHRZANOWSKI
June 2009 DOWNBEAT 25