John Hollenbeck

John Hollenbeck first gained notice through his leadership of the Claudia Quintet and the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, along with his appearances alongside a wide array of other performers, establishing him as a drummer, percussionist, composer, and bandleader whose instincts reach across multiple traditions. A native of Binghamton, New York who later settled in New York City, he trained under trombonist, pianist, and bandleader Bob Brookmeyer, performed in Brookmeyer’s New Art Orchestra, and later connected with the downtown Manhattan improvising community.

Artists emerging from that milieu typically operate without stylistic borders, and Hollenbeck follows the same path: while rooted in modern creative and avant-garde jazz, his writing also incorporates aspects of contemporary composed music such as post-minimalism. The breadth of his work during the 1990s and the following decade is illustrated by the range of collaborators he recorded and performed with, among them frequent partner vocalist Theo Bleckmann, performance artist Meredith Monk, pianist Fred Hersch, trumpeter Cuong Vu, trombonist Curtis Hasselbring, keyboardist Gary Versace, clarinetist David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness!, and a project directed by trumpeter Frank London, a founding member of the Klezmatics.

Following numerous sideman appearances on jazz and experimental sessions, Hollenbeck launched his own recorded catalog in 2001 with three simultaneous releases on Blueshift/CRI—No Images, The Claudia Quintet, and Quartet Lucy. The Claudia Quintet, originally comprising Hollenbeck with Chris Speed on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Matt Moran on vibraphone, Ted Reichman on accordion, and Drew Gress on acoustic bass, became his primary ongoing ensemble of the new century. After the group’s self-titled Blueshift/CRI debut, Cuneiform Records took over the catalog, issuing I, Claudia (2004), Semi-Formal (2005), For (2007), Royal Toast (2010) with Versace as guest pianist, What Is the Beautiful? (2011) augmented by pianist Matt Mitchell and featuring vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kurt Elling interpreting Kenneth Patchen’s poetry, and September (2013), on which Red Wierenga succeeded Reichman on accordion and bass duties were shared by Gress and Chris Tordini.

Recognition for Hollenbeck’s large-ensemble work also expanded in the new century. His John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble produced A Blessing on Omnitone in 2005 and Eternal Interlude on Sunnyside in 2009, each earning a Grammy nomination for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Album. Additional projects included the Jazz Bigband Graz, whose Intuition album Joys & Desires appeared in 2005, and the Frankfurt Radio Bigband, which commissioned the Songs I Like a Lot series; the first installment surfaced on Sunnyside in 2013, followed by Songs We Like a Lot in 2015. Further Grammy nominations arrived in 2010 for Best Instrumental Composition for “Falling Men,” featured on the Bee Jazz release Shut Up and Dance performed by France’s Orchestre National de Jazz under Daniel Yvinec’s artistic direction, and in 2013 for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress” from Songs I Like a Lot.