BOB MINTZER “HOMAGE TO COUNT BASIE” BIG BAND at Feinstein's At Vitello's

Peter Erskine- drums

Russell Ferrante-piano

Edwin Livingston-bass

Larry Koonse-guitar

saxophones

Bob Shepard, Keith Fiddmont, Brian Scanlon,

Bob Mintzer, Adam Schroeder

trumpets

Wayne Bergeron, Larry Hall, John Daversa, Blake Martin

trombones

Bob McChesney, Eric Hughes, Vikrum Devesthali,

Jacob Kraft



Big bands and the music of Brazil: For Bob Mintzer, these two limitless creative reservoirs have fed his musical imagination since he was emerging as a prodigiously gifted teenage saxophonist...

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Peter Erskine- drums

Russell Ferrante-piano

Edwin Livingston-bass

Larry Koonse-guitar

saxophones

Bob Shepard, Keith Fiddmont, Brian Scanlon,

Bob Mintzer, Adam Schroeder

trumpets

Wayne Bergeron, Larry Hall, John Daversa, Blake Martin

trombones

Bob McChesney, Eric Hughes, Vikrum Devesthali,

Jacob Kraft



Big bands and the music of Brazil: For Bob Mintzer, these two limitless creative reservoirs have fed his musical imagination since he was emerging as a prodigiously gifted teenage saxophonist. His latest MCG Jazz album, For the Moment, combines these formative forces with an ingenious program of Brazilian jazz for the GrammyAward–winning Bob Mintzer Big Band. A major force on the New York scene for almost four decades, the now Los Angeles–based Mintzer is a musical polymath, a brilliant improviser, consistently inspired arranger, esteemed educator, and a composer whose illustrious peers pay him the supreme compliment of frequently performing and recording his pieces. Best known in some circles as a member of the Yellowjackets, the fusion powerhouse he joined in 1990, Mintzer is a 13-time Grammy-nominated artist who won a Grammy Award in 2001 for his persuasively swinging big band session Homage to Count Basie (DMP). For the Moment features some of Mintzer’s most passionately lyrical work. Whether arranging classic tunes by departed Brazilian giants (Jobim and Baden Powell), collaborating with contemporary Brazilian rising star Chico Pinheiro, or introducing his marvelously crafted originals, Mintzer isn’t exploring Brazilian music as much as distilling the essence of several Brazilian forms and rhythms for his own creative ends. “I love all kinds of music,” Mintzer says. “Whatever your source of inspiration, the goal is to try to absorb its essence and shape and infuse it into your own sensibility.” Recorded in Pittsburgh’s exquisite Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and produced by MCG Jazz’s visionary founder, guitarist Marty Ashby, the session features many of Mintzer’s longtime musical intimates, including drum maestro Peter Erskine, veteran percussionist Alex Acuña, and fellow Yellowjacket, pianist/keyboardist Russell Ferrante. Mintzer kicks thingsoff in high gear with “Aha,” a tune originally conceived for the Yellowjackets. Set to a surging Pernambucan baião groove, a fundamental pulse of Brazil’s northeast, the piece features a characteristically brawny Mintzer tenor solo that bobs and weaves through a series of call-and-response refrains with the band.

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