John Hollenbeck: Trying to sound like a machine...

ABSTRACT

Gravitating from working with electronics to playing acoustically but with improvising musicians who use electronics led me to trying to sound “electronic”. “What are the qualities of an acoustic sound? What are the qualities of an electronic sound? Where do they meet?”

BIOGRAPHY

Genre-crossing composer/percussionist John Hollenbeck, renowned in both the jazz and new music worlds, has gained widespread recognition for as the driving force behind the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and the extraordinary John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble – groups with roots in jazz, world music and contemporary composition. He integrates his deep interest in contemporary composition and spiritual practice into a musical language that is as accessible and expressive as it is advanced. His latest Large Ensemble album All Can Work was released on New Amsterdam Records in early 2018.

hollenbeckJohn has earned four Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Large Ensemble Album for his albums A Blessing and eternal interlude; for his composition Falling Men, from the album Shut Up and Dance; and for his arrangement of Jimmy Webb’s The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress, from the album Songs I Like a Lot. He has worked with many of the world's leading musicians in jazz including Bob Brookmeyer, Fred Hersch, and Tony Malaby, and is well known in new-music circles for his longtime collaboration with Meredith Monk and for his recent work with Ensemble Cairn of France.

John’s most notable awards include a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2010 ASCAP Jazz Vanguard Award and a 2012 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. He has created an extensive body of work including commissions by Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ethos Percussion Group, University of Rochester, Melbourne Jazz Festival, Orchestre National de Jazz, and Frankfurt Radio Big Band. A highly  committed educator as well, John was professor of Jazz Drums and Improvisation at the Jazz Institute Berlin from 2005-2015, and joined McGill University Schulich School of Music’s faculty in 2015.

(Photo by Scott Friedlander)