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John Hollenbeck

John Hollenbeck's versatility as a percussionist and composer is revealed in a body of work that challenges countless boundaries. Performances with Fred Hersh, Kenny Wheeler and Bob Brookmeyer have showcased Hollenbeck's melodic and sensitive small-group jazz drumming. His unique approach to big band work is evident as a member of Bob Brookmeyer's New Art Orchestra, the BMI Orchestra, Jim McNeely's Tentet and as a frequent guest with the Village Vanguard Orchestra. He has performed and recorded with the WDR Big Band and the Maritime Jazz Orchestra with soloists John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler and Norma Winstone. John's rock-infused drumming can be heard with the Cuong Vu Trio with Stomu Takeishi. Hollenbeck's performance career stretches far beyond jazz. He has performed a variety of traditional musics from around the world, including klezmer performances with David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness and Frank London (of the Klezmatics), projects in Colombia with Antonio Arnedo, and in Argentina with Fernando Tarres. He has also toured and performed at Carnegie Hall with former Astor Piazzolla pianist, Pablo Ziegler. As a composer, Hollenbeck combines elements of his experiences in jazz and world music. The recipient of a B.M. in Percussion (1990) and a M.M. in Jazz Composition (1991) from the Eastman School of Music, Hollenbeck has received many awards and commissions including a National Endowment grant to study composition with Bob Brookmeyer (1994) and a Meet the Composer's Grant in 1995 and 2001. He won the Jazz Composers Alliance Composition Contest in 1995 and 2002 and was awarded the 2002 IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship and 2003 IAJE/ASCAP Commission. Hollenbeck was also awarded a grant from Arts International to travel with his Claudia Quintet to Brazil in the spring of 2002. Exceptionally creative and versatile, John continues to create a passionate new musical language based on world rhythms, lyricism, and spirituality: he composed The Shape of Spirit, a piece for wind ensemble which was issued on the Mons label in 1998 and in1999, he composed Processional and Desiderata for wind ensemble and orator. This composition, written for and featuring the voice and trombone of Bob Brookmeyer, was released on Challenge Records in 2001. Hollenbeck's most recent chamber piece The Cloud of Unknowing, was commissioned by the Bamberg Choir in Germany. The premiere of this piece was recorded by Bayerishe Radio and issued in September 2001 on the Edel Classics label along with works by J.S. Bach, Igor Stravinsky & Paul Hindemith.

John Hollenbeck, Michael Attias & Nordic Artists

by Maurice Hogue
November 5, 2024

This show has a bit of wanderlust. It starts and closes with music by artists from Scandinavia (an all-star band honouring the music and spirit of Albert Ayler, then at the end a new Norwegian/Swedish quartet called Unionen followed by Nacka Forum celebrating its 25th year and the closer by the Finnish trio Hot Heros). The late trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez loved to take his horn all over the world, and that's the plan for his two sons with their newly-formed ...

Album Review

Anna Webber: Idiom

Read "Idiom" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
April 4, 2022

Già da oltre un decennio, la complessità della canadese Anna Webber (sax tenore, flauto, composizione) ci interroga sulla possibilità di compenetrare nel jazz di oggi mente e corpo, attitudine concettuale e abbandono rituale. Non è la prima, ovviamente, a lambire questi territori impervi. Si situa, forse, in una geografia sonora che parte da Cecil Taylor e attraversa le gigantesche ombre di Anthony Braxton e Henry Threadgill. Ma, velocemente, sta atterrando in un pianeta sonoro totalmente proprio, come dimostra questo doppio ...

Album Review

Anna Webber: Idiom

by Hrayr Attarian
August 15, 2021

Award winning composer, saxophonist and flautist Anna Webber is a restless innovator and musical individualist. Her ninth release as a leader, the sublime and magnificent two-disc Idiom is an ambitious project which Webber pulls off brilliantly and with elegance. Five compositions from the “Idiom" series are represented here. Four are in a sparse trio setting while “Idiom VI," which fills the entire second disc, is with a large ensemble. Another one, “Idiom II," (not included here) appeared on Webber's Clockwise ...

Album Review

John Hollenbeck: Songs You Like a Lot

Read "Songs You Like a Lot" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
July 19, 2021

Con questo disco John Hollenbeck conclude la trilogia iniziata otto anni fa sulla reinterpretazione di famosi brani della popular music (Songs I Like A Lot, Sunnyside 2013) e proseguita due anni dopo con Songs We Like a Lot per la stessa etichetta. Nel primo album la scelta dei temi era strettamente personale, nel secondo fu condivisa con alcuni partner (i cantanti Theo Bleckmann e Kate McGarry) ed ora nasce dalla selezione di proposte giunte all'arrangiatore dal suo ...

Album Review

Anna Webber: Idiom

by Mark Corroto
May 29, 2021

Is Idiom, from composer, saxophonist, and flutist Anna Webber, new classical music or jazz? Yes. Is the music scored or improvised? Again, yes. Last question: Is it demanding or easy on the ears? Both. On the heels of two stellar releases, the septet Clockwise (Pi Recordings, 2019) and the Webber/Morris Big Band recording Both Are True (Greenleaf Music, 2020), Webber was commissioned to present Idiom VI at John Zorn's Stone series. She expanded the material from one track heard on ...

Album Review

John Hollenbeck: Songs You Like A Lot

Read "Songs You Like A Lot" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 14, 2021

Every ending a beginning, each conclusion an act of creation. If multi-hyphenate John Hollenbeck's Songs You Like A Lot doesn't slot within that sentiment, nothing really does. This collection marks the completion of a lauded trilogy that's stretched out across the better part of a decade, but it also signals the start of something new--the Flexatonic Arts non-profit, which will serve as an umbrella for Hollenbeck's arts and education initiatives, and the record label it houses, acting as a home ...

Album Review

John Hollenbeck, Alban Darche, Samuel Blaser, Sebastien Boisseau: Mix of Sun and Clouds

Read "Mix of Sun and Clouds" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 20, 2017

La ricca e frammentata scansione ritmica di John Hollenbeck, spesso animata da un'impronta danzante, è un policromo tappeto che interagisce con le parti scritte o gli appassionati interventi di Alban Darche e Samuel Blaser. L'interplay col contrabbassista Sebastien Boisseau finisce di caratterizzare una musica in costante mutazione, che passa da atmosfere d'astratto camerismo a sequenze di magnetica suggestione, capace di rileggere il blues con gli occhi di Julius Hemphill ("Missing Marc Suetterlyn" ) o distendersi liricamente trasfigurando le forme della ...

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