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DOWNBEAT 2020
John Hollenbeck Takes Back Recordings And Forges Ahead
“By his own admission, John Hollenbeck was a percussion nerd at a young age, obsessed with the idea of becoming a big-band drummer when he was a 12-year-old living in New York State’s Southern Tier region. During the past 40 years, his career has blossomed well beyond those original intentions…”
THE BOSTON GLOBE 2014
Jazz composer Hollenbeck blurs lines at NEC, Lily Pad
“At age 6, [John] heard a very eclectic mix from my music collection,” Pat Hollenbeck says by e-mail, “including [the Balinese] Ramayana Monkey Chant, Beethoven, Tower of Power, and Miles Davis.” He adds: “That’s enough to ruin any 6-year-old for life.”
NEW REPUBLIC 2013
The Post-Jazz Jazz of John Hollenbeck: A lyrical experimentalist
“…Hollenbeck makes music that sounds the way the world looks and feels in 2013.” — David Hajdu
THE JAZZMAN 2013
EFG London Jazz Festival 2013
JOHN HOLLENBECK with CLAUDIA QUINTET and the ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC BIG BAND
“Both performances were outstanding…”
ALL ABOUT JAZZ 2013
John Hollenbeck’s
September Songs
“John Hollenbeck’s productivity would be astonishing in its own right, but the uniformly high quality of this high output places the drummer among the top tier of jazz (and not only jazz) musicians.”
– Jeff Dayton-Johnson
DOWNBEAT 2012
John Hollenbeck
The Right Chemistry
“…there’s nothing quite like hearing the terrific array of colors and contrasts he has crafted over the course of 11 CDs as a leader of both large and small ensembles.”
— John Ephland
JAZZTIMES 2012
Jack DeJohnette & John Hollenbeck: A Tale of Two Drummers
“The story I want to tell now is that of two of the finest practitioners of jazz currently at work who are primarily known as “drummers,” the legendary Jack DeJohnette, and the rising legend that is the career of John Hollenbeck.”
– Russ Davis
NEW MUSIC BOX 2011
John Hollenbeck:
Reveling in the Unknown
A conversation with Alexandra Gardner
“Composer and drummer John Hollenbeck seems most content when faced with musical uncertainty of any sort. Whatever the musical context, Hollenbeck lets go of conceptions around style and genre, happy to enjoy musical experiences without the immediate need to know exactly what they are or where they might be heading.”
– Alexandra Gardner
JAZZTIMES 2011
John Hollenbeck’s Natural Impulses: The drummer-composer on the importance of being himself
“So much has been said about Hollenbeck’s brilliance as a composer that his identity as a drummer can be easily be overlooked. As with his composing, Hollenbeck stresses groove and accessibility in his own playing.” — John Murph
ALL ABOUT JAZZ 2009
John Hollenbeck
(le) Poisson Rouge
“For a concert that crept ever closer to the dangerous three-hour mark, this was a remarkably engaging experience … with New Yorker Hollenbeck at the helm the night swept by without losing its sense of vitality and alertness.” – Martin Longley
the claudia quintet
WALL STREET JOURNAL 2016
‘Super Petite’ by Claudia Quintet Review: An Unusual Combo’s Varied Terrain:
Claudia Quintet alludes to everything from Argentine tango to Pakistani qawwali music.
“Drummer John Hollenbeck is one of the best and least-heralded composers in jazz, and his experience ranks among the most diverse even in an eclectic age.”
– Martin Johnson
THE GUARDIAN 2016
The Claudia Quintet: Super Petite review – byzantine influences put in a car-crusher
4 / 5 stars
hisVOICE 2014
Prostě: Hollenbeck ovládá umění smísit modernost s jazzovými reziduy, údernost s nostalgií, originalitu s refrénovostí, a tím vším (takřka) nikoho nezarmoutit.
– Z.K. Slabý
DOWNBEAT 2013
The Claudia Quintet’s album
September in Downbeat’s HOTBOX
“The interplay of the Claudias has been magical for a few years now, but the eye-opener here is the intrepid nature of Hollenbeck’s compositional sense. ” – Jim Macnie
DOWNBEAT 2011
“John Hollenbeck continues to astound as a composer, prone to value accessibility as much he does adventure, on the fascinating What Is The Beautiful?” – John Murph
BBC 2011
What Is the Beautiful?
“A collaborative jazz/poetry affair that proves to be a piece of vital, living art.”
– Daniel Spicer
BBC 2010
A jazz group questioning the divide between genres and points in time.
“The buzz around this New York ensemble has grown to a roar over the last few years, which is a delicious irony given that The Claudia Quintet is often at its most affecting when playing sotto voce, as if content to whisper rather than bellow into the listener’s ear.”
– Kevin Le Gendre
john hollenbeck large ensemble
THE NEW YORK TIMES 2018
“John Hollenbeck, a drummer and composer, is one of today’s most dynamic orchestral jazz bandleaders, a fact that’s reinforced by the release of “All Can Work,” the arresting new album from his Large Ensemble.” — Giovanni Russonello
DOWNBEAT 2018
“John Hollenbeck’s All Can Work is an album of awe-inspiring majesty…Hollenbeck delivers layer after layer for listeners to explore. Shimmering horns, beautifully placed punctuations and little sonic surprises abound. It’s wonderfully complex music played beautifully, with precision and abandon, by a band that has spent a good deal of time together.”
— Frank Alkyer
KRONEN ZEITUNG 2014
JHLE LIVE at Vienna Concert House
“Delicately designed musical structures and magnificent patterns give in to meditative repetition and deepen in richness and intensity, offering a color-saturated backdrop for playfully meddlesome individual tones.” – Ki
NPR.org 2011
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble: Newport Jazz
“As a drummer, John Hollenbeck is astoundingly precise and creative with his beatmaking. As a composer, he’s going after something akin to that: The regulated insistence of classical minimalism with the flexible color palette of jazz, plus a healthy dose of demented dry humor.”
– Patrick Jarenwattananon
DOWNBEAT 2011
Thunderous, Generous Spirits Pervade John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble
“Hollenbeck and the rest of the rhythm section…supplied plenty of propulsion, but the charts on pieces like “The Blessing” and “The Music Of Life” swelled with classical flourishes that made the music feel gauzy and weightless rather than traditionally muscular. ”
– K. Leander Williams
LA TIMES 2011
The John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble plays REDCAT…
“Under Hollenbeck’s lead, the Large Ensemble’s songs can carry a cinematic drive or ebb and flow with the elliptical grace of modern classical music. ” – Chris Barton
THE NEW YORK TIMES 2009
Eternal Interlude
Big Band Reaches for
Bold Sounds
“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.” – Ben Ratliff
JAZZ MAGAZINE – JazzMan 2009
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble’s album
eternal interlude earns a Jazzman CHOC.
ONE FINAL NOTE 2005
A Blessing
“Hollenbeck does more than pen invigorating charts. He uses his drums to italicize his writing, emphasizing the shapeliness of the lines, drawing attention to inner orchestral details.”
– David Dupont
other large ensemble
AUDIOPHILE AUDITION 2015
Songs We Like a Lot
“There are few composers, arrangers and musicians such as John Hollenbeck. He has the uncanny ability to construct stirring music which can be disconcerting and also captivating. He’s certainly found that balance on Songs We Like a Lot, where he’s conceived a place of discovery and rediscovery.” — Doug Simpson
THE BUFFALO NEWS 2015
Songs We Like a Lot
“This is the second time in a month that this particular tradition of orchestral jazz has given us a masterpiece…What you’re hearing with these truly extraordinary jazz artists is jazz giving itself permission to luxuriate in pure haunting beauty with no guilt whatsoever. And with Hollenbeck, you’re hearing such shameless and luxurious intelligence applied to melodies that are both familiar and beloved.” –Jeff Simon
DOWNBEAT 2013
Songs I Like a Lot
Editor’s Pick
“John Hollenbeck has created an absolute masterpiece of arranging.” — Frank Alkyer
STEREOPHILE 2013
Songs I Like a Lot
John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble Meets Jimmy Webb
BIG BOSS GROOVE
by Robert Baird
THE NEW YORK TIMES 2011
A Distinctive Voice, No Matter Who Is Performing
“Mr. Hollenbeck has grown increasingly accomplished as a composer, ever more assured in the distinctive clarity of his voice. That point was brought home, powerfully, at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village on Monday night.”
– Nate Chinen
THE BUFFALO NEWS 2011
Daniel Yviniec and John Hollenbeck, “Shut Up and Dance” performed by the Orchestre National de Jazz
“Ecclesiastes was wrong. There is something new under the sun. To wit, a gorgeous new kind of orchestral jazz from Europe that takes the art of jazz orchestration and composition way beyond what is commonly heard from American jazz orchestras.”
– Jeff Simon
BBC Review 2010
Shut Up and Dance
Orchestre National de Jazz
“Proof that intricately constructed orchestral music need not be a sit down affair.”
– Kevin Le Gendre
>>READ MORE<<
ALL ABOUT JAZZ 2005
John Hollenbeck & Jazz Bigband Graz: Joys & Desires
“Only days into the new year, and there’s already a strong contender for 2006 “best of lists. That it comes from John Hollenbeck—a drummer who, in recent years, has emerged as one of the most distinctive composers in and out of jazz—is no surprise.” – John Kelman
as a composer
HARTFORD COURANT 2010
“Rainbow Jimmies is a wondrous and varied collection of [Hollenbeck’s] latest compositions.”
– Richard Kamins
JAZZ REVIEW 2009
Rainbow Jimmies is more about Hollenbeck the composer than it is about Hollenbeck the drummer, or Hollenbeck the jazzman…Amazingly diverse and ceaselessly fascinating, Rainbow Jimmies is an essential document by one of America’s most inventive and original composers, and a must-have recording for fans of Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet.” – Dave Wayne
CODA MAGAZINE 2002
no images
Quartet Lucy
The Claudia Quintet
“Drummer John Hollenbeck has a widely varied musical background, and his first three recordings as a leader capture a large part of it, while maintaining some stylistic threads that reassure that he’s more than a musical magpie.”
– James Hale
JAZZTIMES 2001
no images, Quartet Lucy, The Claudia Quintet
“The apparent ease with which Hollenbeck moves among polymetrics and polytones as well as various genres, bands and disciplines is impressive, and his unique style of accessible but willful eclecticism is evident on his debut trio of CDs.”
– Christopher Porter
collaborations
ALL ABOUT JAZZ 2014
John Hollenbeck / Alban Darche / Sébastien Boisseau / Samuel Blaser: J.A.S.S.
“The music features the highly personal, distinct compositional skills of Hollenbeck, Darche and Blaser, observing in an amused manner on the history of jazz, and packed with strong, playful and nuanced melodies.” – Eyal Hareuveni
NYC JAZZ RECORD 2014
JASS
“They are all among the most inventive and exciting players and composers on the scene and they display their first-call skills on their self-titled debut.”
– Terrell Holmes
AVANT MUSIC NEWS 2012
BLIND DATE
“The Blind Date Quartet…is a free improv ensemble notable for an approach that demonstrates the wide range of possibilities open to instruments most often associated with the orchestral or chamber music traditions.” – dbarbiero
ALL ABOUT JAZZ 2009
Refuge Trio
“Sure enough, they triumphantly merge a cerebral game-plan with high entertainment, creating a top pick for 2009.” – Glenn Astarita
