John Hollenbeck · composer, arranger, conductor

Theo Bleckmann · voice
Kate McGarry · voice
Gary Versace · piano, organ

hr Radio Bigband
Heinz-Dieter Sauerborn · alto/soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Oliver Leicht · alto/soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute, piccolo
Ben Kraef · tenor/soprano saxophone, flute
Steffen Weber · tenor/soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute, alto flute
Rainer Heute · bari/bass saxophone, Bb/bass/contra-bass clarinet, flute

Frank Wellert · trumpet/flugelhorn
Thomas Vogel · trumpet/flugelhorn
Martin Auer · trumpet/flugelhorn
Axel Schlosser · trumpet/flugelhorn

Christian Jaksjø · trombone
Felix Fromm · trombone
Shannon Barnett · trombone
Manfred Honetschläger · bass trombone

Martin Scales · guitar
Hans Glawischnig · bass
Jean Paul Höchstädter · drums
Special guest: Claus Kiesselbach · mallet percussion, timpani

Theo Bleckmann  voice
Kate McGarry  voice
Uri Caine piano, organ
John Hollenbeck  composer, arranger, conductor
Gary Versace  melodica, organ

hr Radio Bigband
Heinz-Dieter Sauerborn  alto/sop sax, flute
Oliver Leicht  alto sax, clarinet, alto clar, flute
Tony Lakatos  ten/sop sax
Julian Argüelles  sop sax 
Steffan Weber  ten/sop sax, flute, bass clar
Rainer Heute  bass sax, bass/contra-bass clar, clar
Frank Wellert  trumpet, flugelhorn
Thomas Vogel  trumpet, flugelhorn
Martin Auer  trumpet, flugelhorn
Axel Schlosser  trumpet, flugelhorn, flumpet
Günter Bollman  trombone
Peter Feil  trombone
Christian Jaksjø  trombone, bari horn, bass tpt
Manfred Honetschläger  bass trombone
Martin Scales  guitar
Thomas Heidepriem  bass
Jean Paul Höchstädter  drums
Claus Kiesselbach [as special guest]
mallet percussion, timpani

Including Songs Made Famous by Cyndi Lauper, Daft Punk, The Carpenters, The Fifth Dimension & More

How to follow-up a Grammy-nominated album disarmingly called Songs I Like a Lot? By broadening the canvas and releasing Songs We Like a Lot, of course. John Hollenbeck returns after the triumph of Songs I Like a Lot, accompanied again by vocalists Kate McGarry and Theo Bleckmann and pianist Uri Caine, with an expanded palette and even more robust sonic transformations, encompassing everything from Burt Bacharach to the poetry of Kenneth Patchen, from Cyndi Lauper to a deconstructed “Get Lucky.”

A combination of indelible pop tunes and his own compositions, Songs We Like a Lot is propelled throughout by Hollenbeck’s creative arrangements for the Frankfurt Radio Bigband. These arrangements are heard to spellbinding effect in the album’s opener, a moving reimagining of “How Can I Keep From Singing.” The song is most strongly associated with Pete Seeger, and co-written by him; this rendition is intended as a tribute to the recently departed folksinger, who passed away only last year. A slowly swelling opening fanfare gives way to a steady pulse, which in turn builds, via a lovely tenor solo by Steffen Weber, to a rich crescendo, the horns framing delicious harmonies from McGarry and Bleckmann.

Like Miles Davis before him, Hollenbeck plucks a Cyndi Lauper hit — in this case, “True Colors,” penned by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg — from the pop pantheon, chopping and screwing it into a reconstituted suite that retains the lilting flow of the original while using new harmonies and repetitive motifs to recontextualize the beauty inherent in the song. (And not least rescuing it from Kodak-ad purgatory.)

Among the Hollenbeck originals is “The Snow Is Deep on the Ground,” a delicate composition that originally appeared on the Claudia Quintet’s What is the Beautiful?  Bleckmann sings words by poet Kenneth Patchen in both versions; here, rather than the skeletal framework of the quintet, his voice is embraced by a full brass and woodwind blanket of sound. Pianist Uri Caine and vocalist Kate McGarry are two new additions to this lovely, enlarged version.

Another poet’s words figure in the Hollenbeck original “Constant Conversation” — those of 13th-century poet and mystic Rūmī. “Constant Conversation” uses Middle Eastern musical motifs to undergird McGarry’s spoken-word vocal. A riff and a drone and an unerring sense of melody allows Hollenbeck to create an atmosphere that feels at once deeply personal and innately global. This is sole tune on which keyboardist Gary Versace appears on this record, though his piano was heard throughout Songs I Like a Lot.

Theo Bleckmann  vocals, electronic effects
Christian Bachner  tenor/sop sax, flute
Robert Friedl  alto/sop sax, clarinet
Klaus Gesing  tenor/sop sax, bass clarinet
Martin Harns  bari sax, bass clarinet
Heinrich Von Kalnein  alto/sop sax, flute
Jorg Engels, Axel Mayer, Karl Rossman,
Horst-Michael Schaffer  trumpets, flugelhorns
Robert Bachner, Wolfgang Messner, Hans Radinger, Reinhard Summerer  trombones
Oliver Kent  piano
Uli Rennert  keyboards
Henning Sieverts  bass, cello
John Hollenbeck  drums, composition

Theo Bleckmann  voice
Kate McGarry  voice
Gary Versace  piano, organ
John Hollenbeck  arranger, conductor,
mallet percussion, bicycle

hr Radio Bigband
Heinz-Dieter Sauerborn  alto/sop sax, flute
Oliver Leicht  alto sax, clarinet, alto clar., flute
Steffan Weber  ten/sop sax, flute, flute
Julian Argüelles  ten/sop sax, flute
Rainer Heute  bass sax, bass clar.
Frank Wellert  trumpet, flugelhorn
Thomas Vogel  trumpet, flugelhorn
Martin Auer  trumpet, flugelhorn
Axel Schlosser  trumpet, flugelhorn
Günter Bollman  trombone
Peter Feil  trombone
Christian Jaksjø  trombone, tenor horn
Manfred Honetschläger  bass trombone
Martin Scales  guitar
Thomas Heidepriem  bass
Jean Paul Höchstädter  drums

Devoted to Songs by Artists Ranging From Imogen Heap to Jimmy Webb To Queen, Hollenbeck’s Arrangements Offer New Perspective on an Array of Familiar Songs.

John Hollenbeck didn’t seek out popular music when he was kid, but it was always there, and it became an undeniable part of him. Songs I Like A Lot is an album on which the adventurous and internationally renowned composer, esteemed for his ability to strike upon new sounds, turns instead toward familiar forms, and weaves other peoples’ songs into his own unique tapestry.

Growing up in Binghamton, New York, Hollenbeck frequently heard “Wichita Lineman,” a song originally by pop writer Jimmy Webb, as sung by one of his father’s favorite pop balladeers Glen Campbell. Although he was more interested in music that sounded new to him, Webb’s songwriting left an indelible impression. For Songs I Like A Lot, Hollenbeck scoured his memory in search of songs that had similarly become inextricable from his musical outlook. He compiled a big list, and whittled it down with help from vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry, who are featured on the album, along with pianist Gary Versace.

Commissioned by the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, who also recorded the album, Songs I Like A Lot became an exhibition of imaginatively remolded songs from a diverse array of musical worlds. The album contains covers of songs by Jimmy Webb, avant-garde saxophonist Ornette Coleman, the power pop band Queen, sound artists Nobukazu Takemura and Imogen Heap, and the traditional Appalachian ballad “Man of Constant Sorrow.” Broad in their stylistic range, the songs have each carved out a distinct path, and are now connected by having been cast anew with Hollenbeck’s dexterous hand.

John Hollenbeck, the drummer and composer who, according to the New York Times, “inhabits a world of gleaming modernity,” has developed a career based on fusing jazz, classical minimalism, rock, and avant-garde music. He has stunned jazz audiences with his work in Claudia Quintet, and is a rising star in new music circles thanks to his collaborations with vocalist Meredith Monk, and for pieces commissioned by Bang on a Can and the People’s commissioning fund, Ethos Percussion Group funded by the Jerome Foundation, Youngstown State University, Gotham Wind Symphony, Melbourne Jazz Festival, Edinburgh Jazz Festival, and the University of Rochester.

Since he began unleashing his unique and all-embracing compositional style with his first recordings in 2001, Hollenbeck has demonstrated a knack for creating original music that defies category. No matter the ensemble or the context, his music is irrepressible, bursting with infectious grooves, brilliant colors, and skewed rhythmic juxtapositions. His original compositions have put music to poetry, as in the Claudia Quintet’s What is the Beautiful?, where works by poet Kenneth Patchen are brought to life through voice and instrumentation. On Shut Up and Dance, he wrote an intricately textured and groove-driven piece for each member of France’s Orchestre National de Jazz.

Past projects for the Grammy-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble have featured renderings of other composers’ works, such as “Foreign One,” a track from the album External Interlude that flips and gnarls the themes from pianist Thelonious Monk’s “Four in One.” On Songs I Like A Lot, the approach is different:

“Usually when I arrange, I totally dissect and put the piece back together in my own way. But this time, I knew the song must be intact and recognizable, so that was the challenge. Some pieces are close to the originals, and I concentrated on orchestration, and giving them a different twist. Others are far away, but still maintain the essence of the original.”

Despite the challenge of having to maintain the structure of the songs he arranges, Hollenbeck manages to treat each piece with his inimitable style, replete with lush and tightly dissonant chords, glimmering as a result of using woodwinds such as flutes and clarinets intermingled with brass instruments. The machine-like repetitive rhythms, inspired by the motoric pulses of minimalism, give the music a sense of unfaltering motion and direction.

The results are songs that are no less familiar, moving, or catchy than they were in their original states. Instead, they unfold dramatically and unexpectedly, and are permeated with grand gestures and subtle overlapping textures that draw out and increase the overall intensity without tampering with the songs’ driving cores. As Hollenbeck says of Songs I Like a Lot, “all I can say is that this music is still pop to me… and I’m not trying to unpop it.”

Pierre Perchaud  a-guitar/e-guitar, banjo
Joce Mienniel  flute, bass flute, piccolo
Eve Risser  flute, piano, prepared piano
Antonin Tri-Hoang  clar/ bass cl, alto sax, piano
Rémi Dumoulin  clar/bass cl, tenor sax
Matthieu Metzger  alto/sop/midi sax
Guillaume Poncelet  tpt, flugelhorn, keyboards
Vincent Lafont  piano, keyboards, electronics
Sylvain Daniel  electric bass
Yoann Serra  drums
John Hollenbeck  composition
Daniel Yvinec  artistic director

Produced in a creative sphere covering New York, Paris, Berlin and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Shut Up And Dance emphasizes the relation between music and movement.

The spotlight turns to rhythm in all aspects of expression, at times even where least expected: a ping pong ball bouncing across piano wire, miscellaneous objects mistreated by computer software, instrument keys, hands rubbing, PVC tubes morphing into melodies… Percussion is everywhere, a bona fide sequence of powerful melodic passages that blend the shades of a repeating musical sound, pygmy music, art music, electronic music, not to overlook a Gnawas’ trance or a Duke Ellington swing.

John Hollenbeck‘s compositions, inspired specially for this program, stem from an extensive collaboration with Daniel Yvinec and reveal the excitement and body of classical works, in a series of ten mini-concertos, each one dedicated to a different orchestra musician tailored to their unique personality and language.

Turning the notion of instrumental function on its head without a moment’s hesitation, the wind instruments drive the beat, while the prepared piano moves onto the percussion side of the orchestra… It’s all about the idea of movement, conveyed in these mesmerizing rhythms, always and forever crisscrossing so as to ease our separation from self.