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December 02 2009
December 2, 2009
MUSIC REVIEW | JOHN HOLLENBECK
A Big Band Reaches for Bold Sounds
By BEN RATLIFF
Writing decent music for a jazz big band is hard, and keeping the band working is harder. For the bandleader and composer, maintaining the integrity of a group sound with a dozen or more players — and maintaining a core style with enough tooth and identity that it can reach beyond the closed circuit of jazz students — takes up a lot of the job. As a consequence, concertgoers don’t usually expect a jazz big-band show to rearrange their heads.
People forget that big bands have been places of real aesthetic boldness. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Bill Finegan, Bill Russo, Gil Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, Gerald Wilson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Maria Schneider: these were and are no slouches, and there are clear signs that a few younger composer-arrangers will join that list. Let’s start with John Hollenbeck, whose 20-piece Large Ensemble played a superior show at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village Monday night. His music was playful, profound, attentive to the soloists’ strengths and pretty much continuously imaginative — even though the band hadn’t had a gig since March.
Like most of the people on that list, Mr. Hollenbeck uses strategies in his music that don’t necessarily come from the core of the jazz tradition and uses them well enough to extend that tradition. Not just bits of writing, but instrumentation, too: among the sources of sound in Monday’s set were English horn, marimba, glockenspiel, crotales (small, tuned, bell-like sets of cymbals played with mallets), digital loop machine and smartphones.
The concert drew from a new album, “Eternal Interlude,” Mr. Hollenbeck’s second record with the big band. (He spends more time in a smaller group, the Claudia Quintet, and his show at Le Poisson Rouge opened with two other ensembles he’s been getting off the ground: a trio with the classical violinist Todd Reynolds and the vibraphonist Matt Moran, and Future Quest, a band dedicated to the repertory of Meredith Monk.) After its predecessor, “A Blessing,” “Eternal Interlude” represents a major step forward. It’s richer, better developed and more aggressively orchestral; its strangeness isn’t self-conscious. It’s the sound of a composer who’s really grown into himself.
As a drummer Mr. Hollenbeck is contained and steadying. He doesn’t swing much in this group, though there’s so much else going on that’s rhythmically interesting — rolling arpeggiated chords, tremelos, marches, fast-over-slow, cross-rhythms, hints of Steve Reich and gamelan and Indian hand drumming. But he probably got closest to jazz-as-we-know-it in “Foreign One,” a kind of creative mistranslation of Thelonious Monk’s “Four in One.” It focused on and exploded small details of the original’s frenetic theme, set it up verbatim over low unison horns, allowed a tenor saxophone solo to arise, cut back and forth between glimpses of Monk and other agendas.
“Perseverance” — which, Mr. Hollenbeck said, he wrote toward the end of the presidential race when campaign-trail speeches and recriminations were in the air — was all conflict, bluster and queasiness: a steady gallop of rhythm, battling tenor-saxophone solos by Tony Malaby and Ellery Eskelin, moments of percussionless drift and unease with long notes from the vibraphone (played with bows against the edge of the keys), and finally an intricate, beautifully constructed drum solo.
But the stunner, and the evening’s most unquantifiable music, was the record’s title piece, 20 minutes of high and wide ambition, full of foreshadowings and echoings, the natural world and the digital world. Theo Bleckmann, singing high tones wordlessly, sometimes through a digital octave shifter and a sampler, helped establish a serene melody. The rhythm dropped out for a few stretches as the piece moved along, once for Mr. Bleckmann to build up a weave of vocal sounds and once for Gary Versace to play a solo organ cadenza.
Then the band rejoined for the final section, first in a slow, pastoral ensemble passage then breaking off in parts to produce short, birdlike phrases. (Those who weren’t playing took out their phones instead, activating the voice-recording function for an as-yet unclear purpose.) Eventually, the phrases mashed together and became one bar-length phrase, repeated and aggressive, an unbroken steamroller; and as that abated, the phones, held up to the microphones, replayed the original bird-song phrases in a faint, disjointed echo, all other sound fading away. This is the kind of thing that could provoke laughter from an audience, but I don’t recall any. It was too logical and beautiful to be funny.
August 20 2009
Published in: dustedmagazine.com by
Marc Medwin
John Hollenbeck’s second Large Ensemble album, Eternal Interlude, is an even more rewarding experience than 2005’ A Blessing. It finds the group exploring a wide variety of lean and opulent textures and expanding the palette of the percussionist’s typically complex and fascinating compositions.
August 20 2009
Published in: All About Jazz by
Troy Collins
In addition to leading the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and performing numerous sideman duties, composer and percussionist John Hollenbeck is renowned for his inimitable multi-layered writing. Hollenbeck studied under composer Bob Brookmeyer before charting a unique path in creative improvised music, incorporating elements of minimalism, post-rock and indigenous folk music into his eclectic compositions. As leader of a twenty piece Large Ensemble, he expands the sonic palette of traditional big band writing with his unorthodox approach.
August 20 2009
Published in: The Guardian by
John Fordham
The Claudia Quintet, led (if such a conversational ensemble can be said to be led) by New York drum virtuoso John Hollenbeck, was one of the hit newcomers of the 2007 Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Hollenbeck’s rough equivalent in the UK might be Seb Rochford, in terms of a seamlessly multi-idiomatic rhythmic flexibility allied to a composer’s conception. Claudia plays plenty of tough postbop (saxist Chris Speed sees to that), but there are strong folk elements in both the melodies and in the big role for an accordion. The latter trait retains a taut logic through Hollenbeck’s precision and the consistently strong composing. The opening track, shifting through free-jazz, polyphonic clamour and a klezmerish bounce, set against a hip-hop beat, is typical. Mat Moran’s vibes are sometimes gently blended with clarinet and accordion, while lyrical pealing-bells cascades contrast with edgy free-swing. It’s all far from just another exercise in eclecticism, and ushers in one of the most characterful small jazz groups of recent times.
August 18 2009
Published in: The New York Times by
Nate Chinen
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble
The drummer and composer John Hollenbeck inhabits a world of gleaming modernity, and “Eternal Interlude” (Sunnyside), the second album featuring his Large Ensemble, reflects both the clarity and brightness of his vision. Timbre is his forte as much as rhythm: his strategies for the band often involve an autumnal rustle of woodwinds and a billowing swirl of brass. On the superb 19-minute title track he creates a gossamer shimmer of flutes, clarinets, piano and marimba; on “The Cloud” he finds use for a chorus of whistlers. There’s room for robust improvising in his music — the tenor saxophonists Tony Malaby and Ellery Eskelin both make hay on “Perseverance” — but it always feels transitional, like a means to an end. So too does Mr. Hollenbeck’s interaction with the jazz canon here, as when he beams Thelonious Monk’s “Four in One” through a complex prism, yielding something meaningfully titled “Foreign One.”
August 18 2009
Published in: Time Out The Volume by
Hank Shteamer
If Susan Boyle has taught us anything worthwhile, it’s that we shouldn’t judge musicians by their appearance. But in the case of the bespectacled, neatly groomed John Hollenbeck, you wouldn’t be too far off you imagined his work to skew brainy. As heard on the track below, taken from the percussionist-composer’s new release, Rainbow Jimmies (available at CD Baby), Hollenbeck favors the sort of asymmetrical rhythmic vamps that would make most math-rockers sweat. But what’s long impressed us about his music is the way he leavens the complexity with a sense of playful wonder. Listening to “Gray Cottage Study #6: Jazz Hands”—composed for violinist Todd Reynolds as part of Hollenbeck’s recent Guggenheim Fellowship—you get the sense the the leader, Reynolds and vibraphonist Matt Moran (also of Hollenbeck’s outstanding Claudia Quintet) are all having a ball navigating the piece’s devilish contours. As with many Hollenbeck compositions, it’s less an obstacle course than a jungle gym.
August 18 2009
Published in: Hartford Courant by
Richard Kamins
Rainbow Jimmies - The Music of John Hollenbeck: Various Artists (GPE Records) - John Hollenbeck is truly a multi-faceted creative artist. As a percussionist, he’s worked with diverse artists such as pianists Fred Hersch and Pablo Ziegler, fueled the big band recordings of composer/trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and the Schumaker/Sanford Sound Assembly, and worked alongside Meredith Monk on several projects. As a composer, he’s created unique works for various ensembles including his own big band (“The Blessing” released on OmniTone Records), a duo with vocalist Theo Bleckmann, and 4 CDs with the Claudia Quintet. That list just touches the surface of Hollenbeck’s contributions to creative music (click here to see a more complete listing.)
August 18 2009
Published in: Hartford Courant by
Richard Kamins
Rainbow Jimmies - The Music of John Hollenbeck: Various Artists (GPE Records) - John Hollenbeck is truly a multi-faceted creative artist. As a percussionist, he’s worked with diverse artists such as pianists Fred Hersch and Pablo Ziegler, fueled the big band recordings of composer/trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and the Schumaker/Sanford Sound Assembly, and worked alongside Meredith Monk on several projects. As a composer, he’s created unique works for various ensembles including his own big band (“The Blessing” released on OmniTone Records), a duo with vocalist Theo Bleckmann, and 4 CDs with the Claudia Quintet. That list just touches the surface of Hollenbeck’s contributions to creative music (click here to see a more complete listing.)
August 18 2009
Published in: Hartford Courant by
Richard Kamins
Eternal Interlude - John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble (Sunnyside) - John Hollenbeck is a very busy musician. He leads the Claudia Quintet, works and records with Meredith Monk and Bob Brookmeyer (among others) and has had works commissioned by the Bang on a Can Allstars, Ethos Percussion Group and the Painted Bride Art Center of Philadelphia.
“Eternal Interlude” is the second recording of his Large Ensemble, the first “A Blessing” released by OmniTone in 2005. Many of the same musicians appear on the new disk and the music has a similar expansive feel. Yet, there’s a deepening in the emotional content that is striking.
August 18 2009
Published in: http://zzaj.freehostia.com/ by
Dick Metcalf
Rainbow Jimmies - THE MUSIC OF JOHN HOLLENBECK: A whole host of very talented players join to play John’s compositions, as well as his intricate drumming… if you were inclined to label his music to make it fit into some preconceived notion of what you think it should be, you would need the services of someone with training in psychology. This is not music that “fits” (easily) into a category; strong elements of jazz, yet with the heavy focus on violins, you will hear something definitely akin to chamber music - teasing you into thinking you are listening to neo-classical. The addition of vibraphone on the “Gray Cottage Study” pieces adds an element that has strong affinity with the jazz side of things, but the pieces remain mysterious… this will challenge some listeners who believe music should “only sound one way” (or the other). Listeners who enjoy something different will find this musical experience more an adventure than a challenge, though… it’s best listened to with headphones, and you should map out (just over) an hour, so you can absorb the entire CD at one sitting. Those with more of a bent for jazz-oriented music will probably agree with my pick of “Gray Cottage Study #6 “jazz hands” as a favorite, but those who enjoy something more adventurous will probably settle on the two Ziggurat tracks (“Ziggurat (exterior)” & “Ziggurat (interior)”) for your repeated listens. My absolute TOP pick, though, was the title track (click on the link at the beginning of this review to hear it), which took me (somehow) back to Frank Zappa’s “Jazz From Hell” sagas… it may have been special guest Mark Stewart’s guitar that made that come to mind, but no matter, it is an invigorating yet totally unique piece that will be incorporated into my “forever” playlist, along with a few others from this grand sonic adventure. This one gets our MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating! Get more information at http://www.johnhollenbeck.com Rotcod Zzaj