exystence club

Like the best arrangers and orchestrators, John Hollenbeck works best with constraints. His own bands, The Claudia Quintet and GEORGE, offer him unusual small-group instrumentations and unique performers to write for. The jazz orchestra is an entirely different animal, but you can still hear him working the same way: both testing and respecting the forces at his disposal.
Hollenbeck’s latest, Peace and Justice мир і справедливість PAZ E JUSTIÇA, is a bit of a paradox. Its source material is particularly far-flung. Part of the project originated as a commission for scores to be performed in Ukraine, and two traditional Ukrainian melodies appear in the final product. The album leads with an arrangement of a Turkish folk tune, and…

Claudia Quintet’s founder, John Hollenbeck, a fierce, focused, and highly innovative drummer who often seems a step ahead of jazz’s vanguard, returns with his second album from the ensemble George — named after George Floyd — Looking for Consonance. The electro-acoustic group features synth players and vocalists Sarah Rossy and Chiquita Magic, alongside the exceptional saxophonist and flutist Anna Webber.
Difficult to categorize, the music traverses a postmodern landscape shaped by elements of synth-pop, electronica, idiosyncratic rhythmic designs, and open improvisation. “Bounce” is a striking ride that lands somewhere between eerie prog-metal and hallucinatory rave textures. Synchronized vocal lines,…