Conceptualizing and creating music is a delicate balancing act, leaving composers to strive for symmetry between head and heart, reasoning and intuition, and structure and freedom. Who better to understand that than Mike Holober? Whether penning a piece or playing piano, Holober has always shown himself to be mindful of the need to find harmony between those and other opposing principles. It's his ability to do so that, in large part, has made him such a hot commodity in the big band world. Recent years have found him to be very busy working with the Westchester Jazz Orchestra and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra in New York, the HR Big Band and the WDR Big Band in Germany, and other high profile European ensembles like the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra and the Zagreb Jazzorkestar. But he hasn't resigned himself to live out life exclusively in the big band domain. With Balancing Act, Holober introduces a new band made up of longtime collaborators and reaffirms his power as a mover and shaker in small(er) settings.

In putting together the titular octet for this project, Holober brought together some of the most remarkable personalities on the scene today—singular artists like vocalist