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Mark Patterson
Gear
A trombone. An acoustic bass. Many percussion instruments. Endorsements from both the Nyack Water District and New York City Water Department to use their water in my spray bottle.
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Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

by Jack Bowers
This Rock We're On, acclaimed composer and pianist Mike Holober's 2024 recording as leader of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra, is challenging to summarize in mere words, as it consists of a multi-part suite (on two CDs) which blends jazz, classical and art songs in a thematic environment that uses a series of imaginary letters" from a half dozen writers, artists and activists. Holober's orchestral response to them is the premise for a meditation on the beauty of nature and the ...
Continue ReadingChristopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance

by Angelo Leonardi
È decisamente un periodo d'oro per l'orchestrazione jazz. Ai molti bandleader e arrangiatori emersi nel nuovo millennio, si aggiunge decisamente Christopher Zuar, che firma il secondo album confermando le doti espresse in Musings (Sunnyside), il debutto di otto anni fa. Con un diploma al New England Conservatory e un master alla Manhattan School of Music, Zuar aggiunge una spiccata fantasia nell'arricchire il modern mainstream orchestrale di nuove suggestioni. Questo progetto è stato concepito tra il 2017 e ...
Continue ReadingChristopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance

by Jack Bowers
Composer/arranger Christopher Zuar's second album, Exuberance, recounts in musical terms a twisting yet picturesque journey that began seven years earlier, in 2017, when Zuar first met his now-wife, the animator Anne Beal, at MacDowell, the famed artists' residency in New Hampshire. While the relationship blooms" in winter, there are moments between" and other inescapable detours until certainty" erases any lingering doubts, exuberance" carries the day and Zuar and Beal are united as one. Yes, the music is ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober & the Gotham City Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

by Angelo Leonardi
Dopo gli ultimi superlativi album orchestrali (Balancing Act, Palmetto 2015 e Hiding Out, Zoho 2019) la nuova incisione di Mike Holober con la Gotham Jazz Orchestra non dovrebbe stupirci, eppure questo doppio album ci ha nuovamente colpito. L'aggiunta di Chris Potter, John Patitucci, Nir Felder e della cantante brasiliana Jamile Staevie Ayres all'orchestra rende infatti il progetto quanto mai esaltante. Questi nomi completano un organico già nutrito di solisti ragguardevoli come Marvin Stamm e Scott Wendholt alle trombe, ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

by Dan McClenaghan
We live on a rock. A few billion years of the workings of the complexities of carbon chemistry put us here. The systems and intricacies of every element that has unfolded to maintain us should be respected and preserved. Mike Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, featuring Holober and his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, digs into this theme in a sprawling, two-disc big band jazz outing. Like life itself, and the resulting ecosystems, this multi-movement suite--an effort that is the ...
Continue ReadingChristopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance

by Katchie Cartwright
Exuberance is part of a long-form tonal conversation" between composer Christopher Zuar and animator Anne Beal. Zuar, a Long Island New Yorker, describes the work as a journey of personal growth," which began in 2017 when he and Beal met as fellows at the MacDowell Colony in the woods of New Hampshire. He explains that the album is a collaborative project that charts the last seven years of our lives." In Winter Blooms," the opening track, grew out ...
Continue ReadingJoe McCarthy's New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band: The Pan American Nutcracker Suite

by Jack Bowers
Yes, Peter Tchaikovsky's timeless Nutcracker Suite is basically holiday music; and, yes, the 2022 holiday season is squarely in everyone's rear-view mirror. Even so, there is always room for a fresh approach to the annual festive staple, which is what drummer Joe McCarthy's New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band brings to The Pan American Nutcracker Suite. The Nutcracker has been rhythmically amended before, but never quite like this, as McCarthy and the band use the strong ...
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Trombone
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Lay of the Land
From: This Rock We're On: Imaginary...By Mark Patterson
In Winter Blooms
From: ExuberanceBy Mark Patterson
When There Were Trains
From: Balancing ActBy Mark Patterson