Bob Mintzer

"Playing music is a life long commitment. There are always new things to consider and develop. I'm exhilarated and humbled by music on a daily basis, and plan to continue on this path until my last day on earth." These words pretty much sums up Bob Mintzer's approach to music.

Bob leads several musical lives that, at times, seem humanly impossible for one person to sustain. He is a 20 year member of the Grammy award winning Yellowjackets, leads his own Grammy winning big band, is the recipient of the Buzz McCoy endowed chair of jazz studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, does workshops all over the world, writes books on jazz, writes for orchestra, concert band, and big band, travels with his own quartet, and plays with numerous other bands around the globe. He is equally active in the composing, performing and educational fields.

Bob has written over 200 big band arrangements. His big band music is played over the world, and has influenced numerous big band writers. He honed his big band writing and playing skills in the bands of Tito Puente, Buddy Rich, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis. He has also written works for the National Symphony Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra of the Netherlands. WDR Big band in Cologne, HR Big Band in Frankfurt and was commissioned to write a piece for concert band and tenor sax (Go) by a consortium of 50 universities.

As an instrumentalist Bob has worked with Art Blakey, Jaco Pastorius, Sam Jones, Randy Brecker, Gil Evans, the Yellowjackets, GRP All Star Big Band, Mike Manieri, The New York Philharmonic, to name a few. He has done session work for James Taylor, Steve Winwood, Queen, Donald Fagan, Milton Nascimento, and countless others.

Bob has recorded some 30 solo projects and was awarded with 4 grammy nominations and a Grammy award for best large jazz ensemble recording in 2001 for Homage to Count Basie on the DMP label. Following Bob’s 23 year, 12 album relationship with Digital Music Products, the Bob Mintzer big band now resides on the MCG Jazz label.

Bob currently resides in Los Angeles in the former house of composer Arnold Schoenberg (his first LA residence, 1934-1936), teaches at USC, travels 4 months out of the year, and, when at home, writes and practices constantly. He is generally considered one of the tenor saxophonists who came out the school of New York players in the 70's, which includes Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, David Liebman and Steve Grossman.

Dave Stryker: Groove Street

Read "Groove Street" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
September 14, 2024

This is a throwback recording, but in a very good way. Time was someone could get in a car on a weekend morning, roll the window down, turn the FM up and drive to a happy place. It really did not matter much where: the music got you there because it was just that kind of straight ahead, in your face, bliss is it to be young sort of thing. In a big city such as jny:Philadelphia a jazz station ...

Album Review

The Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer: Groove Street

Read "Groove Street" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
January 12, 2024

The Dave Stryker Trio with tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer is a captivating musical escapade. This collaboration not only showcases the talents of the two principals but also the two accompanying players, organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter. Right from the initial notes of the opening track “Groove Street," a Dave Stryker original, the band sets itself up for success with Gold's classic organ shuffle as the launching pad. Stryker's guitar sizzles and Mintzer weaves a ...

Album Review

The Dave Stryker Trio: Groove Street

Read "Groove Street" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 25, 2023

Guitarist Dave Stryker's latest album, Groove Street, is in fact “The Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer," a combination that is a sure bet to enhance its merit and heighten its import--a sentiment that is equally true when applied to any album on which the acclaimed tenor saxophonist sits in. Stryker and Mintzer are longtime friends who somehow never recorded together, although Mintzer furnished the arrangements for Blue Soul, Stryker's splendid album with Germany's WDR Big Band. ...

Liner Notes

Dewa Budjana: Joged Kahyangan

by John Kelman
May 12, 2023

Dewa Budjana may not be a household name outside of his native country, Indonesia, but with MoonJune Records picking up this exciting guitarist and composer, all that could be about to change. He's already garnered some serious attention with his first recording for the label, Dawai in Paradise, released earlier this year (2013), but at home, he's nothing short of a pop star. Lead guitarist and songwriter for the multi-platinum, million-selling Indonesian pop/rock group Gigi, the fifty year-old Budjana has ...

Liner Notes

Steve Khan: Patchwork

by Rafael Vega Curry
January 23, 2023

Few artists have been as successful as Steve Khan in achieving a genuine blend of jazz and Latin sensibilities, rhythms and sonorities. In fact, it can be suggested that no one else has done what he has accomplished for the jazz guitar, offering both the extensions of what Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell and Grant Green did in their day, plus the real sabor latino. Khan, of course, is one of the preeminent guitarists of the last few decades, ...

Album Review

The Yellowjackets: Parallel Motion

Read "Parallel Motion" reviewed by Peter Jones

by Peter Jones
November 6, 2022

Of the original 1977 members of the Yellowjackets, all but keyboards man Russell Ferrante departed long ago. But saxophonist Bob Mintzer, who joined in 1991, is still there and, to a large extent, the idea also lingers on: we hear echoes of it in the work of Snarky Puppy, for example. That idea was/is Californian jazz-funk. But how do you keep it sounding fresh after 45 years and 26 albums (27 if you count the one with Bobby ...

Album Review

Bob Mintzer: Soundscapes

Read "Soundscapes" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
October 10, 2021

Well, what is your pleasure? Swinging charts? You have them. A tight big band? Yes, that certainly, and more. Terrific soloists? In abundance. A blend of genres that go from straight ahead to Latin to funk? That is all here too. The only thing absent, and all respect to Bob Mintzer, is excitement. To be honest, many contemporary big bands doing studio recordings have a similar issue. The level of musicianship is astronomical, but something is not there. You wonder ...

Recording

New Bob Mintzer Big Band – New York Voices Album, "Meeting Of Minds," Out Now From MCG Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
June 22, 2018

“Meeting of Minds focuses on the integration of voices with the big band. The combination of the dynamic writing styles of Bob Mintzer and Darmon Meader, from New York Voices, produces a very dense yet very fresh sonic palette. There are subtle harmonic and rhythmic nuances in the arrangements that blend together to deliver an engaging musical journey. The repertoire draws on the Great American Songbook from the 1930s and 1940s. Each arrangement transforms a classic song into a modern-day ...
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Recording

New Bob Mintzer Big Band CD, "Get Up!," Due From MCG Jazz June 23

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity
May 21, 2015

Since 1983, tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger Bob Mintzer has been delving into the big band format and its myriad stylistic possibilities, collecting five Grammy nominations and one Grammy win in the process. His newest recording, Get Up!, which is his 20th big band album to date, will be released by MCG Jazz on June 23. Mintzer describes the nine tracks on the new CD as “clearly R&B influenced, but [they] then go to many other places along the way. ...
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Recording

Dewa Budjana's New Album "Joged Kahyangan" Features Larry Goldings, Peter Erskine, Jimmy Johnson, Bob Mintzer, Janis Siegel

Source: Leonardo Pavkovic
November 17, 2013

Boasting a stellar lineup of modern jazz icons Larry Goldings, Bob Mintzer, Jimmy Johnson and Peter Erskine (and featuring guest vocalist, the fabulous Janis Siegel), Indonesian guitar maestro Dewa Budjana's sixth solo album — his second for MoonJune Records — is a progressive jazz master-class session of huge proportions. Overflowing with moments of elegance, grace, depth and invention, Joged Kahyangan is Dewa's musical interpretation of the beauty of heaven. Featuring eight exquisitely-crafted, -arranged and -executed gems, Budjana and friends have ...
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Recording

Trumpeter John Daversa Returns with Crackling Small Group. Special Guests Bob Mintzer and Gretchen Parlato

Source: Two for the Show Media
September 5, 2012

Street Date: September 25th, 2012 “John Daversa is pioneering a new jazz sound" —Marc Myers, Jazz Wax On the heels of 2011's high-energy, take-no-prisoners, boundary-stretching Junk Wagon: The Big Band Album, acclaimed L.A.-based trumpeter-composer-arranger John Daversa scales things back for his upbeat follow up, Artful Joy. "It was difficult trying to find the right album name for this one," says Daversa, who has been leading a big band and small group concurrently for the past six years. “I didn't realize ...
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Contest

Enter the "Bob Mintzer Big Band - For the Moment" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
June 30, 2012

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the MCG Jazz “Bob Mintzer Big Band - For the Moment“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on July 30th. Click here to enter the contest

(Following Bob Mintzer at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)

Good luck! Your Friends at MCG Jazz About For the Moment The Grammy Award–winning Bob Mintzer Big Band has explored diverse styles of music in ...
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Recording

Bob Mintzer Big Band's "For The Moment": New MCG Jazz CD Due June 19

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity
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 ...
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Interview

Fabled Music Man Bob Mintzer Shares Decades Worth of Wisdom

Source: Best. Saxophone. Website. Ever.
June 22, 2011

Bob Mintzer is a 20-year member of the Grammy Award winning Yellowjackets, has recorded some 30 solo projects including his own Grammy winning big band, holds the Buzz McCoy endowed chair position on the faculty University of Southern California, does workshops all over the world, writes books on jazz, writes for orchestra, concert band, and big band, travels with his own quartet, and plays with numerous other bands around the globe. He is equally active in the composing, performing and ...
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TV / Film

Fuzzy Music Release New Recording Titled "Standards 2 - Movie Music" with Peter Erskine, Bob Mintzer, Darek Oles, and Alan Pasqua

Source: Two for the Show Media
January 18, 2011

Music is often spoken of as forming the soundtrack of our lives. Movie score music compounds the effect, marrying melody with image, the exponential power of 24 frames per second combined with soaring tunes and magical counterpoint to provide all of us who love the movies a powerful emotional and cultural reference point, time and again. And who doesn't love a good movie or song? These songs are standards in both the jazz and cinematic sense. Compiling any sort of ...
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Recording

Bob Mintzer's Organ Trio CD (Feat. Peter Erskine & Larry Goldings), "Canyon Cove" - U.S. Release on August 17

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations
August 5, 2010

BOB MINTZER—CANYON COVE (Pony Canyon/Cheetah)—U.S. Release: August 17 Bob Mintzer * Peter Erskine * Larry Goldings While organ was already being used in the 20s and 30s in jazz settings (Count Basie, Fats Waller), it wasn't until the late 40's that the “Hammond" organ trio got it's start with Wild Bill Davis. In the 50's we saw the emergence of a slew of great “B3" Players from Bill Doggett, Hank Marr, Jimmy McGriff, Groove Holmes, and the ever-popular Jimmy Smith. ...
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Recording

Fahir Atakoglu's "Faces and Places" with Randy Brecker, John Patitucci, Wayne Krantz, Bob Mintzer and more

Source: DL Media
December 14, 2009

Fahir Atakoglu's Faces & Places available January 5 -- features Randy Brecker, John Patitucci, Wayne Krantz, Bob Mintzer, Romero Lubambo and Horacio “El Negro" Hernandez

A highly regarded figure in his native Turkey since the 1990s, pianist-composer-arranger Fahir Atakoglu is only beginning to make his mark on stateside audiences. His latest offering, the compelling world-jazz project Faces and Places , may be the breakthrough album to finally gain him widespread acclaim here. Boasting an all-star cast of trumpeter ...
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