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Jazz Bigband Graz
John Hollenbeck Jazz Bigband Graz featuring Theo Bleckmann: Joys & Desires
by C. Michael Bailey
This release would look like the dozens of big band recordings that surface every year, except for the small print mentioning Theo Bleckmann. Bleckmann, a fixture in New York City performance art circles, was a conspicuous presence on this year's Winter & Winter recording Las Vegas Rhapsody: The Night They Invented Champagne. Bleckmann isn't singing this time, but his mere presence means something unusual, and perhaps very significant, is up.The first bit of subterfuge surrounding Joys & Desires ...
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by AAJ Italy Staff
Il batterista John Hollenbeck sa certamente come svelare la magia della big band, come evocarne la fascinazione, come sussurrarne la storia senza assolutamente ripercorrerne i clichè. Il suo Joys & Desires si staglia sin dal primo brano come un lucido monolito che riflette la luce circostante e brilla per l'intelligenza compositiva, per l'eleganza degli arrangiamenti e soprattutto per i lussureggianti impasti strumentali, spesso anomali e originali rispetto ai percorsi che le formazioni allargate sono solite percorrere.In questo album, ...
Continue ReadingJohn Hollenbeck & Jazz Bigband Graz: Joys & Desires
by John Kelman
Only days into the new year, and there's already a strong contender for 2006 “best of lists. That it comes from John Hollenbeck--a drummer who, in recent years, has emerged as one of the most distinctive composers in and out of jazz--is no surprise. After all, last year's--A Blessing (OmniTone), with his Large Ensemble, and Semi-Formal (Cuneiform), with the Claudia Quintet--were critically acclaimed, genre-busting albums with roots in jazz, but equally drawn from other styles too numerous to count.
Continue ReadingJohn Hollenbeck & Jazz Bigband Graz: Joys & Desires
by Chris May
Because of their sheer physical bulk and lethal defensive firepower, big bands have remained fundamentally immune to the jazz revolutions of the last sixty years. Bop, hard bop, cool, free, fusion, funked up, rocked out, astral, groove, and ecstatic... all the major reinventions have been created by smaller lineups. (Miles Davis's Birth Of The Cool band is the sole vanguard outfit to have been bigger than a sextet, and itself was only a nine-piece.)So when radicals like Sun ...
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