Our current Spotlight Artist, Mark Holen & Zambomba bring a diverse array of influences and approaches into their Latin Jazz compositions, delivering a unique sound filled with interesting ideas. The band displays a broad knowledge of different styles, ranging from samba to mozambique, cumbia, bolero, and beyond. Mastery of rhythmic styles only serves as a starting point for the group though, as Holen takes the aesthetics of each style and skillfully wraps them around his creative ideas. Holen certainly understands the nuts and bolts of each style, but he also sees the grey areas that exist between genres. This allows Holen to cleverly combine various traditions with a wide spectrum of jazz arranging techniques, including plenty of inspiring arenas for improvisation. Holen covers a broad stretch of territory here, ranging from the happy-go-lucky feel on “Three Gold Coins” to the tension filled combination of flamenco music and swing on “Me Suena Alnéniz.” The musicians behind Zambomba tackle the broad scope of Holen’s compositions with an invested energy, contributing outstanding performances that make the album come alive with enthusiasm. They exhibit the jazz knowledge and the stylistic insight to weave their way through Holen’s deep compositions while exerting a sense of style and personality. All these pieces combine into a potent mixture full of musicality and creative drive on the group’s release Three Gold Coins, a fantastic display of the group’s musical vision.

The group has a small internet presence, but there are enough places to find some preliminary information and get started listening to the group. You can make a personal connection with Holen and stay updated on his work through his Facebook page. Percussionist Rex Benincasa can also be found on a couple of social media sites; check out his MySpace HERE and his Facebook page HERE. Vibraphonist Mike Freeman maintains an active internet presence, putting lots of great information and music that you can find online. Start by checking out his website, a great source of information on Freeman and all his side projects, including Zambomba. He’s also available across different social networking sites, including a great MySpace page and a Facebook profile. Don’t forget that Freeman was a LJC Spotlight Artist a while ago as we looked at his work with Zonavibe on the album In The Zone - check out our review HERE. In many ways, Zambomba is just getting their internet presence going, but between all these sites, there’s plenty of places to find out more about them.

Holen and Zambomba offer some really interesting ideas for Latin Jazz directions on Three Gold Coins, providing some intriguing food for thought that you’ve got to hear. If you want to know a little more before you check it out, I’ve compiled some information about Holen, the bandleader, composer, and drummer behind Zambomba, and Freeman, one of his main collaborators in the band. Once you’ve gotten a bit of info on the group, take a chance and check out the album, it’s a great listen. Enjoy!

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Drummer-percussionist-composer Mark Holen grew up with blues, jazz, and rock in Detroit and, later, Chicago. His diverse musical experiences include playing tangos and bebop in Buenos Aires; sambas in Rio; bendir in Marrakech; flamenco and jazz in Madrid; vibes and percussion with African musicians in Lisbon; and drums with many of New York’s established salseros, including Daniel Santos, Candido, Louis Bauzó, Machito, and Mauricio Smith. His credits include three albums under his own name, with the group
Zambomba.

Holen became interested in Latin music while living in Chicago, upon receiving a degree in music from Central Michigan University. Shortly thereafter, he accepted a position as Associate Professor of Percussion at Indiana University, continuing his studies there under George Gaber. He left Indiana to take a job with the North Carolina Symphony, returning, in 1973, to the Detroit area. With his group, Joy Spring, he played jazz six nights a week for the next two years, composing and arranging for the band. He moved to New York in 1975, landing the drum/percussion chair with the house band at the Chateau Madrid shortly thereafter. He remained at the Chateau Madrid for two and a half years, playing six night a week with many great Spanish, Brazilian, and Caribbean instrumentalists, singers, and dancers who headlined at the club, including the great Cuban congero Orlando “Puntilla” Rios, the Brazilian dancer Loremil Machado, and the famous Puerto Rican singer Daniel Santos. The musical influences were enormous, and he studied hard to become fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, traveling periodically to Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro to perform, hang out, and polish his language skills. He continued studies of Afro-Latin drumming in New York, most notably with Tommy Lopez, Sr., Frankie Malabe, and Louis Bauzó. His jazz compositions began to reflect his diverse experiences with musics of South America, Spain, and Portugal. Among the musical forms that caught his ear was the new flamenco emerging in Spain at the time.

After an extended trip to Europe in 1987, Holen moved there 1989, living in Madrid and Lisbon from 1989 to 1993, performing and serving as fulltime faculty in music theory, piano, drums, and Latin percussion at the school of the Hot Club of Portugal. He was now fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and the melodies of flamenco, fado, African, Brazilian, and Caribbean musics were firmly established in his musical vocabulary. Since his return to New York in 1996, his focus has been on composing, recording, and performing with his group, Zambomba. The group released Noches Flamencas in 2006, a blend of flamenco, Latin, and jazz genres.

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Mike Freeman emerges from the tradition forged by Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, and the groups of Joe Cuba that placed the vibraphone at the heart of Latin music. His many years of playing in several of New York’s hottest salsa groups, and a natural affinity for Caribbean, African, and Brazilian rhythms combined with strong writing skills, a thoroughly developed jazz background, and a dynamic performing style underscore the performances of his group ZonaVibe.

His recordings of original music have gained national and international attention and extensive airplay charting on jazz, contemporary jazz, and World music radio. From the start, the music Mike wrote and performed ranged from jazz, Latinjazz, Brazilian, fusion, and R&B. Mike Freeman & Spellbound’s 1985 self-titled debut recording (following a tour of Portugal, cosponsored by the Fulbright Foundation and the American Embassy) was eclipsed six years later by the highly successful Street Shuffle with Jeff Jenkins, Dave Stryker, Kip Reed, and Graham Hawthorne (now with Paul Simon). His next recording Wiggle Stomp reflects a deeper immersion in the Latin scene that began over ten years ago. With his lastest CD In the Zone, Mike takes that exploration to yet another level. He displays the considerable range of his marimba playing—along with the vibraphone—and his artistry and knowledge of bringing salsa forms into a jazz context.

In addition to leading his own groups, Mike performs and records with eminent percussionist Ray Mantilla’s Good Vibrations Band (with Edy Martinez), that has toured Italy far and wide and recorded for Savant records. (“Good Vibrations” was Jazzweek’s top Latin jazz recording on radio, 2006). He also works with salsa singer Julio Salgado (from the Conga Kings, George Delgado and Charansalsa); Son Boricua (Jose Mangual Jr. and Jimmy Sabater); Mark Holen’s eclectic Latin blues band Zambomba; and Lucho Cueto’s all-star group Black Sugar.

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Check Out These Related Posts:
Spotlight: In The Zone, Mike Freeman
Spotlight: Descarumbiando, Hamlet & His Latin Jazz Experience
Spotlight: Afroperuano, Yuri Juarez
Spotlight: Tudo Azul, Susan Pereira

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