Richmond, CA (PRWE May 29, 2012

The Grammy Award–winning Bob Mintzer
Big Band has explored diverse styles of music in its illustrious
25-year recording history—from New York and Afro-Cuban to Count Basie
and John Coltrane. On the band’s new MCG Jazz CD, “For the Moment,”
which is scheduled for release June 19,
saxophonist/composer/arranger/bandleader Mintzer puts the spotlight on
Brazilian music.

While some of the tunes are directly from the Brazilian
songbook—“Corcovado” by Antonio Carlos Jobim, “Berimbau” by Baden
Powell, and two newer tunes by Chico Pinheiro—others “merely make
reference to rhythmical grooves from various regions of the country,”
says Mintzer. “This becomes the springboard for what I most love to do:
write for big band in a way that establishes a focus and then breaks
free of stylization.” The leader’s own finely crafted originals include
“Aha,” a tune originally conceived for the Yellowjackets that’s set to a
surging Pernambucan baião, and paeans to Ouro Preto, the colonial town
in Minas Gerais, and the northeastern city of Recife, where he has
visited.

Produced by MCG’s Marty Ashby and arranged by Mintzer, “For the
Moment” features guest artist Chico Pinheiro, the rising star
guitarist/composer from São Paulo who’s been collaborating with Mintzer
for the last several years. “Chico is a fantastic instrumentalist,” says
Mintzer, “and his writing is subtle and intricate, all-encompassing and
fresh-sounding, with Brazilian lyricism and the complexity of jazz.”

Other special guests are pianist Russell Ferrante, Mintzer’s longtime
colleague in the Yellowjackets; percussionist Alex Acuña; and drummer
Peter Erskine (“He has had so much experience playing with large jazz
ensembles, and he knows better than anyone how to shape the music”).

After a long relationship with the DMP label that produced 13 albums,
Mintzer connected with Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in 2004. The Big
Band debuted with “Live at MCG” and followed up with “Old School, New
Lessons” (2006) and “Swing Out” (2008), all of which featured Kurt
Elling.

The lifelong New Yorker, who’s considered one of the tenor
saxophonists to come out of the school of New York players in the 1970s
(also including Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, Dave Liebman, and Steve
Grossman), and whose big band dates to 1983, when the Brecker brothers
asked him to put together an ensemble for their club Seventh Avenue
South, has been based in Los Angeles since 2008. He lives in the former
house of composer Arnold Schoenberg (his first L.A. residence,
1934-1936), and is the recipient of the Buzz McCoy–endowed chair of jazz
studies at the University of Southern California.

Mintzer continues to tour with the Yellowjackets (which he joined in
1990), does workshops all over the world, performs with his New York big
band, and serves as a guest conductor/soloist with college and pro
bands. But he has found time to assemble an L.A. big band that plays
regularly at Vitello’s in Studio City.

“The challenge is always to get the most out of whatever situation,”
he notes. “You can make three players sound huge, and with the right
players who are tuned to subtlety and color, all things are possible.
The writers who thought that way, Ogerman, Brookmeyer, George Russell,
Maria Schneider, Gil Evans, that’s the music that resonates with me the
most.”

The Bob Mintzer Big Band appears at Vitello’s in Studio City 6/14-15,
and at the Blue Note in Tokyo (with guests Chico Pinheiro and Kurt
Elling) 6/20-23. Mintzer will also be touring with the Yellowjackets
this summer, appearing at Birdland, NYC, 6/26-30; Freihofer’s Jazz
Festival in Saratoga Springs, NY, 7/1; several European festivals in
July; and Scullers in Boston 8/3-4.