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These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right.
All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
Newport is Even More Nigh Now
Preferably you have already made arrangements to rid yourself of material possessions and join Claudia Quintet+1 on the waters of Newport. August 5th is the day, Rhode Island is the place. For those still fence perching, do the next right thing & click here. Therein are tickets to a place you’ll want to be—trust us. And, in a grand gesture of halfway meeting, the Jazz Fest Fabricators have arranged a free sampling of CQ+1 be made available to whet all appetites. Enter brief info & you may sample it here.
Of course if for some unspeakable reason your attendance is impossible? Well. We will survive, but then there’s the matter of you. In these dire cases, the best backup comes from that other crucial machine: your computer. Once again the indefatigable Jazz team at NPR Music has arranged wall-to-wall coverage of Newport, including audio-visual-twitter coverage all throughout the field of play. Learn all about your next best alternative here.
Non-Stop John
Incorrigibly, John has somehow managed to entangle himself in yet another cool band-project-album-experience. This one is titled JASS, after its members: John, Alban (Darche), Samuel (Blaser) and Sébastien (Boisseau). Visit this page to learn more—even if you’re nonfluent in French, there’s still some outstanding samples to savor. And for the super-visually inclined, you can watch the band in action at cette YouTube clip ici.
In similar news: There is a brand new record is out by Blind Date Quartet on JH’s GPE Records label. (Yes. Man has a record label as well. Be jealous.) It features Angelika Sheridan (flutes), Ulrike Stortz (violin), Scott Roller (cello) and, just for good measure, John Hollenbeck on percussion. You can taste and indeed even purchase that record here.
Lastly, John has been commissioned by Ensemble Cairn to write new music and, naturally, perform with them in Spring 2013. Details forthcoming, excitement immediate.
The DownBeat 77th Annual Readers Poll
And now, a message.
Every year since the dawn of Jazz press as we know it (roughly 1936, we’re told) the magistrates of DownBeat set out to take the national temperature on Who is the Best at Jazz. Now in 2012 the year’s categories simply runneth over with John Hollenbeck-related projects. Indeed John is nominated in no fewer than SIX different times, including for
Jazz Group – Claudia Quintet
Big Band -John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble
Composer- John Hollenbeck
Arranger – John Hollenbeck
Jazz Artist of the Year – John Hollenbeck
Jazz Album of the Year – What Is The Beautiful – Claudia Quintet + 1 feat. Kurt Elling & Theo Bleckmann (Cuneiform)
Fellow beloved Hollenfans, the time has come to do your part & tell the DownBeaters what is What. Say I: VOTE HOLLENBECK. Has not John Hollenbeck lead the way for all of us to demolish genre boundaries and reanimate our deepest and strangest insides? Does not John Hollenbeck bring together so many wonderfully varied flavors with each new project, album or band? Will not John Hollenbeck play transportedly, ferociously, religiously near-end vision-stricken eye-of-the-tiger drums for you every single time he sets foot to stage and hands on sticks? He has, he does, he will.
Vote Hollenbeck. Do it for the future of Jazz. Do it for the demolition of Jazz. Do it for the spiritual descendants of Kenneth Patchen and the musical descendants of Bob Brookmeyer. Do it for every child yet to write music who will someday record an album titled after plumbing or breakfast. Hollenbeck is our man; we owe it to him to show our support.
Visit this site, cough up a name & email (disposable options abound should you prefer) and then please, do vote. Tell DownBeat just What, in 2012, is What. Thank you.
