PRESS
June 25 2009
Published in: JazzTimes by
Bill Milkowski
On the Claudia Quintet’s 2nd latest, I claudia drummer and bandleader JH incorporates James Brown-influenced “Funky Drummer” backbeats and invigorating 2nd-line grooves into the fabric of his not-easily-categorizable compositions. Is it ambient? Is it avant-garde? Is it mimimalist? Is it Downtown? What the hell is it?
Hollenbeck’s got such downtown ringers as bassist DG, CS, TR and MM on board, so it’s a safe bet that this provocative material will not have precious value above 14th Street in NYC-or virtually anywhere else in America, though they’ll no doubt eat it up in Europe. Granted, Hollenbeck is an adventurous new-music composer and conceptualist who follows the courage of his convictions. But jazz fans looking for
anything remotely swinging may want to bypass this heady-post Steve Reich stuff.