Customer Reviews

Hommage

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Bill Holman celebrates his 80th birthday in 2007 with the release of this superb 2006 concert recording by the super-talented Bill Holman Band. (One track was recorded at the same L.A. venue in 2005). Bill Holman has been a major force in jazz arranging and composing for fifty-five years and "Hommage" is wonderful celebration of Bill Holman's creativity and jazz spirit. Holman has long mastered the balance of keeping his writing forward-looking yet firmly grounded in the swinging big band tradition. This trait is strongly in evidence on this recording. Every chart keeps the listener fully engaged. There are hard-driving standards such as Billy Strayhorn's "Raincheck", Monk's "Bemsha Swing" (which the band really digs into), a surprising remake of "Woodchopper's Ball", and a moving ballad reading of "If You Could See Me Know" (featuring an outstanding solo by trumpeter Ron Stout). Holman stretches but never loses the listener with advanced original charts such as "Sunshinola" (based on "You Are My Sunshine") and the memorable "Zamboni" which will bring a smile to the face of anyone who is familiar with the ice-rink surfacing machine. The title chart "Hommage a Woody" is a twenty-minute three-part suite in honor of Woody Herman written nearly twenty years ago for the German WDR Big Band. Originally featuring Buddy DeFranco on clarinet, this version features the virtuoso clarinet of Bob Efford throughout. While this intriguing suite evokes something of the Herman sound in places, it is certainly no copy of the Herd's styles, but rather reflects Holman's own creativity as inspired by the Herman Herds. Holman leads the Band and Efford in a breathtaking performance.

Other outstanding soloists in the band include trumpeters Jonathan Dane (a particularly interesting new voice) and Larry Lunetta, saxophonists Pete Christlieb, Lanny Morgan and Bruce Babad, pianist Christian Jacob, and trombonist Dave Ryan. The rhythm section of Jacob, Joel Hamilton on bass and Kevin Kanner on drums swings hard and brings great vitality to Holman's challenging charts.

Very well recorded, Bill Holman's 68 minute "Hommage" is highly recommended to fans of modern big band jazz. This fine Jazzed Media release will undoubtedly be one of the top big band jazz releases of 2007.

Believe it or not, some of us as college students remember cutting our big band teeth on Bill Holman's incisive, baroque charts that somehow made their way into Stan Kenton's primarily Wagnerian book. A mainstay tenor saxophonist beginning in the 1950s, Holman is today among the 2-3 living legends among all jazz arrangers-composers. With veteran great players such as Pete Christlieb, Lanny Morgan and Bob Enevoldson along with potential future giants like Christian Jacob, Hommage is at once testimony to a vital tradition as well as a tribute to the valiant road warriors from the Duke and the Count to Kenton, Maynard, Rich and, above all, Woody. It's unlikely that we'll ever again see traveling Herds with bands of Brothers, but this exuberant, triumphant session gives us reason to hope that we haven't come to the last round-up.

Big Band jazz is a gas. A symphony...of Jazz. At the risk of overlookin' a few others...If you dig Kenton, Herman, Rich, Basie....You can add Hollman. Real hip voicings.

The big draw of the Bill Holman band is the writing: Holman has been writing for large jazz ensemble since the early 1950s, and he's long been a legend in the field. His charts on this records are pretty fabulous, largely on par with the band's previous release, Bill Holman Band Live. I rated this disc a little lower than that one because the selection of tunes focuses more on Bill's originals, with only a couple of standards included - one of which (Bemsha Swing) has already been recorded in the studio. I'm a huge fan of Holman's arranging, less of his composing. But the playing is first-rate, the recording is well engineered, and the swing is irresistible. Recommended.