John Hollenbeck - Groups

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The Claudia Quintet’s music demonstrates that “Innovative jazz does not have to be harsh, angry, loud, shrill or grating; it can be delicate, witty, ethereal and radiantly lyric, as the Claudia Quintet pointed out…” [Chicago Tribune]. Formed by composer / drummer / arranger John Hollenbeck in 1997, this NYC ensemble’s sound explores the edge without alienating the mainstream, proving that genre-defying music can be for everyone. Over the past decade, the group has released four CDs that are critically acclaimed world wide and whose appeal extends well beyond, as well as including traditional jazz audiences. The group’s first album, “The Claudia Quintet,” was released on the Blueshift CRI record label. The group has since established a long time relationship with the Cuneiform label.

Since Hollenbeck first presented the band in an internet cafe on Avenue A in Manhattan in 1997, the Claudia Quintet has amazed audiences from Alabama to the Amazon. Their unique sound has inspired dancing hippie girls at a New Mexico noise festival, the avant-garde cognoscenti in the concert halls of Vienna and Sao Paolo, and a generation of young musicians worldwide. In the course of the thousands of miles they have traveled together and hundreds of concerts they’ve played, the Claudia Quintet has evolved and grown, developing a dynamic live sound based on trust and spontaneity. They bring this powerful energy into the studio, where they record the old-fashioned way, live, playing as a band. “

In the Claudia Quintet, Hollenbeck has assembled a group of the foremost innovators in this new sound to create a powerhouse band. They are: Drew Gress - bass (Tim Berne, Uri Caine, Ravi Coltrane), Matt Moran - vibraphone (Slavic Soul Party, Mat Maneri, Theo Bleckmann), Ted Reichman - accordion (Anthony Braxton, Marc Ribot, Paul Simon), and Chris Speed - clarinet and tenor saxophone (Human Feel, Bloodcount, Alas No Axis).
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