jacques j. swartz
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services
Profile
Summary
Experience
- Feb 2012 - PresentBrand Strategist / EyeballNYCResearch, analysis, insight and ideas to power the multifarious communicators of Eyeball.
- 2009 - PresentSpecial Projects Consultant / DotDotDotMusicAs a special communications strategist for DotDotDot Music, I provide digital branding and marketing insights to a firm whose clients comprise New Music's vanguard, from Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble to the Kronos Quartet. • Social media consultant on campaigns for “Best of Year” listees 'In-C Remixed' & 'Music for 18 Musicians' • Advise top classical performers and their support staff on website design, campaign timetables and key targets for influence through social media • Work one-on-one with clients to derive a compelling brand message and identify new opportunities for growth in audience & visibility
- 2009 - PresentWeb Marketing & PR Chair / Cornelia Street CafeA 30-year Village stalwart offering eclectic programming, fine cuisine, and over 700 performances a year by musicians, poets, writers, scientists and artists who operate in-between the boundaries genre and convention. I ensure transmission of the Cafe's core identity and commitment to talent throughout the many niche audiences it attracts. • Incepted and now oversee the Café’s first full-scale social media apparatus • Responsible for monitoring, analysis and calibration of social channels • Conceptualize, plan and produce branded content across media, including interviews, email blasts, podcasts, blog posts of every stripe and on-site marketing materials • Direct the flow of paid, shared and earned media throughout relevant channels • Responsible for cultivating the Café’s 'IRL' marketing partnerships, including the navigation and best use of our membership with NYC&Co.
- Aug 2008 - PresentSenior Fellow / Connecticut College Office of AdmissionsSelected to join a corps of dedicated Seniors functioning both as brand ambassadors and interpersonal analysts for one the nation's top liberal arts institutions. • Conducted nearly one hundred face-to-face interviews with prospective Freshmen and Transfers from throughout the continental US • Synthesized and conveyed complex nuances of the student experience as a cohesive brand experience tailored to resonate with each applicant • Produced in-depth evaluative summaries of candidate's intellectual and social capacities • Served as Connecticut College's primary point of contact to prospective students, applicants and their parents
- Jun 2008 - PresentWriter/Intern / Nightlife MagazineAs a fellow at Connecticut College's Center for International Studies in the Liberal Arts, I was charged not only with designing and executing a research program abroad, but also devising and petitioning for an internship there that would amplify understanding of my research topic and ground my studies in a professional, foreign-language context. • Produced bilingual content for Montreal's most widely read free arts and culture publication • Coordinated marketing and sponsorship initiatives throughout several markets • Processed, filtered, and uploaded new video and photo content to high-traffic nightlife.ca
- Sept 2006 - PresentPublic Relations Fellow / Connecticut College Career Services• Redesigned career services bulletins from text-only mailings to professional-grade PDF format • Designed and created promotional materials including flagship poster adverts • Devised and implemented new messaging strategies to reach students • Managed photographers and student models for creative marketing campaigns
- 2006 - PresentPromotions Intern / MadPackersDevised and implemented conventional & guerilla marketing strategies to promote an innovative youth-oriented logistics startup around the New York, Boston, Miami and Binghamton metro areas.
Education
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2006 - 2009Connecticut CollegeBA in Sociology-Based Human ReationsActivities: Toor Cummings Center for Studies in the Liberal Arts, House Senator for the opposition party, Op-Ed columnist for the unpopular, SHS Emeritus for the night-movers, Novice rower for too long
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2008 - 2008La Sorbonne/Paris VII - Denis Diderot(Student abroad) in Sociology and Social Psychology
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2005 - 2006Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New BrunswickBA in EscapismActivities: Dean's List, invitation to Honors
Additional Information
Posts
She was present at the creation, when Charles, Raphaela and I started this little joint almost 35 years ago. She had been an actor with Charles in a couple of plays I directed and she called me up one day in 1977 to say that Charles had given up that profession (the theatah!) for an equally meshuggene one–he was going to open a cafe. I called him up to ask about this nonsense and within a few days we had decided to go in on this mad venture together. He enlisted his then girlfriend, the beautiful Raphaela, and within two months, the three of us–Charles, Raphaela, and I–opened the notorious one-room cafe with the notorious toaster-oven and the famous espresso machine.
Judith was with us in spirit from day one, and physically as soon as we made enough money to have someone come in to do the books. Then Charles and Raphaela took off for Italy for 41/2 months (for which I have never forgiven them) and Judith and I ran the cafe. She became de facto our first manager and did the books for years. In the early 90′s when there was a recession (there were such things in those days, but you are too young to remember), her father died, she inherited some money, and–whoopee!–she became a partner.
Her husband Johnny, who was fifteen years older than she, unbelievably survives her. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, he worked for Bell Atlantic as an engineer for much of his life, in his spare time he was a cartoonist and a playwright (we did one of his plays downstairs), but he began over the last eight or ten years to disappear into the twilit world of Alzheimer’s. And Judith began to devote more and more time to his care. Some years ago she made the painful choice to move him into a home. For the last several years she bicycled up religiously every day to tend to him. For the last several years he has not recognized her.
We recognized her from the beginning as a beautiful, sturdy, indomitable soul. We do still and we will continue to do so as long as this little joint still stands . . .
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The family requests no flowers. Instead donations may be made in her name to The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (alzfdn.org)
with love,
Robin, Charles, Raphaela, Bob, Dan and the whole Cornelia Street crew
I know (or knew) Mike Daisey (well, not well). He performed a number of times (once or twice, quite possibly three times, certainly a number) at a restaurant/performance space I used to own in Brooklyn.
He has also performed at a restaurant/performance space I still own (or co-own), and have co-owned for almost 35 years, in Greenwich Village, called the Cornelia Street Café: the number here is harder to ascertain since we do 700 performances a year (more or less, two more than more or less if it’s a leap year) and if you search our website (www.corneliastreetcafe.com–go ahead, don’t be shy) his name comes up more than fifty times, mostly as Mike Daisey but at least once as Mark Daisey. The “more than fifty” number is because Sherry Weaver who ran a series here for five or six years (the website can’t properly corroborate the first year) inserted it into the copy for her show, which was called SpeakEasy, and which had “a dynamic and constantly changing cast of storytellers that include such greats as Mike Daisey, Jonathan Ames, and Reno, along with homemakers, lawyers, dog walkers, street magicians and writers.”
Last Saturday I was in Colorado. I took my younger son to the airport in Eagle after a week of skiing and drove back to Edwards with the intention of sitting at a café/bookstore called Bookworm (or possibly The Bookworm) to catch up on e-mail and contemplate the arduous business of finishing a memoir.
Did I say “memoir?”
Yes, I too commit “memoir.” The memoir I am trying to finish is a book of café stories—write what you know—which, in some weird way, is a follow up to a, believe it or not, Holocaust-related memoir, which was published some fifteen years ago (actually seventeen, but I would like it to have been less).
Just as I pull into the mall in Edwards, Ira Glass pops up on NPR and devotes an entire program to deconstructing a previous program in which Mike Daisey had not lived up to a journalistic standard of the truth. He had misled Mr. Glass, his producer, and the whole production team. He had even, according to Mr. Glass, lied. I sat in the car for a full hour, enthralled.
I was no clearer after it was over than I had been when it began whether journalistic truth trumps dramatic truth. I have a hard time with “the truth” anyhow. I sat down at an outside table—it was quite balmy—with a large coffee ($2.25). Somebody at a neighboring table told his companion that Mike Daisey was a liar. I had the temerity to interject and say I knew Mike Daisey (not well). Did he really think Mike Daisey was lying? Yes, he did, he had turned off after just a few minutes because it was clear that Daisey was a liar (he used the noun, never, I think, the verb). Was there no latitude, I asked, in telling a story? What about the history plays of Shakespeare? How closely do they hew to Holinshed? How closely did Holinshed hew to history? That’s different, he said.
We smiled at each other; he returned to his conversation, I to my laptop.
On it I was wrestling with a story I should have written thirty years ago (maybe more) when it was fresher in my mind. In the doorway one morning when I arrived at the café was a large bundle, next to the Voilà delivery (croissants, brioches, pains au chocolat); the large bundle was a homeless man, whom I now had the hapless job of rousing. I let him wash up while I set up. I put a table in the doorway with two chairs. I warmed up croissants, brioches and pains au chocolat, I made espresso, and I steamed eggs on the cappuccino machine (our lone warm specialty in those early days). I joined him at the table and we breakfasted together. He had seen better days, he had been in the Merchant Marine, he had had plenty of time to read, and he had devoured Shakespeare. We discussed the history plays and how closely they hewed to Holinshed.
I told him that when the first customer arrived he would have to leave. He understood. Customers were few and far between in those days and we discussed Shakespeare for a good two hours. At a certain point two ladies arrived and indicated they would like to be served. I indicated to my table companion that the time had come. We rose, he kissed me long and hard on the mouth, and took his leave.
These bare outlines I remember. I have a paragraph. Somehow it needs to blossom into a story. A version of, certainly not the, but perhaps a, truth. I’m thinking of calling it “Shakespeare.”
And, à propos titles. the working title of the book itself came in a conversation with an editor, an habituée of the café a good twenty years after Shakespeare (or maybe eighteen), who congratulated me on a complimentary review of my first book that morning in the Times and asked—that question all writers surely dread—what I was working on now. “Well,” I fumbled, seventeen years ago, “I’m sort of thinking about writing a collection of stories about the café, you know, what happens to a Wandering Jew when he finally stops wandering and stands still and opens the doors and, well, the whole world passes through.”
“Great title,” she said.
The book is provisionally titled The Whole World Passes Through. As it currently stands, it opens with a tiny story from the early days, a sort of amuse-bouche, called “Stanley.” Stanley was a former American tennis champion, who now made his home in Kenya. He would show up at the café intermittently, passing through from Africa on his way to some Masters Tournament in Florida or Hawaii or Mexico or on Long Island, and each time he would allude to a café in Nairobi of which Cornelia Street reminded him. ”You know,” he would say, “there’s a place like this in Nairobi. You never know who’s going to be there. You just know, when you walk in, that somebody‘s going to be there. Someone you know from a former life, a different continent, another galaxy—a pal, an acquaintance, a lover, a movie star. Someone you know, or someone you knew, or someone you don’t know yet but you will, someone you may spend the night with, carousing, or the rest of your life. And you go away and you come back, a hundred times, a thousand times, and it’s always the same. But if you stick around, which maybe a handful of people do, sooner or later the whole world passes through.”
Did I make it clear he didn’t actually say those words? He should have. He would have. He does now.
Robin Hirsch founded the Cornelia Street Café with two other artists in 1977. He is the author of Last Dance at the Hotel Kempinski (1995), every word of which was written to be read there.
Paul Hecht‘s ongoing series celebrating the birthdays of poets with words and music continues this Monday with an evening devoted to the life and work of Langston Hughes. Hosted & directed by Hecht, featuring the mighty and sometimes mohawked Malesha Jessie, pianist Ellen Mandel, and actors Denise Burse, Michael Early and Phillip James Brannon.
Feb 13, 6pm. Visit our lovely website or call 212/989-9319 to make reservations.
The fiery hand of Ted Berkowitz has steadily chronicled our Café since he first wandered downstairs in the early oughts. An exhibition of his work, variegated figures caught in between glances and strikes of the keys, opens at 5:30 this Tuesday eve in our back room.
That same night at 7, we celebrate the birth of Cornelia Cuvée. After decades of tasting, and many awards for our wine list, we have finally succeeded in putting our name behind, and our labels on, two wines grown and vinified for us in California by the Millbrook Winery which makes some excellent New York State wines less than 90 miles up the Hudson from us.
They own vineyards in California, where they make a small amount of exceptional Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Our designer John Morrison in tandem with Wine Czar/Minister of Culture/Dean of Faculty Robin Hirsch has designed these beautiful labels
Appellation: Central Coast, California
Clones: Pommard, David Bruce, #667 and Calera Burgundian Dijon clones
Blending Information: 100% Pinot Noir
Harvest Date: Sept. 17, 2009
Harvest Brix: 24.5 degrees
Time in Oak: 8 months
Bottling Date: June 24, 2010
Sensory Evaluation: The cooler temperatures California’s Central Coast vineyards make this the ideal site for cool climate varietals like Pinot Noir. Ripe flavors of cherry, plum and strawberry and soft tannins encompass this well-balanced wine.
Appellation: Central Coast, California
Clones: #76, #95, #96 Burgundian
Dijon clones
Blending Information: 100% Chardonnay
Harvest Date: Oct. 1, 2010
Harvest Brix: 24.2 degrees
Time in Oak: Oak was not used
Bottling Date: April 30, 2011
Total Production: 667 cases
Sensory Evaluation: Bright and floral on the nose with a touch of ripe peaches and pear. On the palate, the wine is fresh with good richness and flavors of exotic fruit.
“Sooner or later, the whole world passes through.”
On January 11th, Robin took to the stage as he often has, this time not as emcee but reader, Café Stories in hand. The chapters chosen that evening told of how he’d come to invert his vagabond world and make a one-room West Village hideout into an improbable magnet for the dispersed many. It was a perfect inauguration to the Café’s first-ever JewFest, a monthlong performance series gathering together some of those far-flung Jewry to speak, play and sing what all they’d encountered in their travels. JewFest brought to Cornelia Peri Smilow, songstress of the American Jewish songbook; Daniel Cainer, “Comic Bard of Anglo-Jewry”; kinetic mystic Yehuda Hyman, who resuscitated Nachman’ s Seven Beggars, and Larry Josephson, veteran apostle of a free radio powerhouse still felt today. Throughout the festival, artist and chronicler Ted Berkowitz bore witness by hand. His work now hangs in the Café’s back room, awaiting its opening this Tuesday eve, at which point we do hope you’ll pass through too.
Our spactacular New Year’s Eve Grand Dinner is served from 5:30pm
$75 per person
($60 if you pair it with any of the shows)
a la carte menu available in the bar room & downstairs
(Click here to view the NYE menu (PDF))
…and in our downstairs cabaret
10:30pm – The Arturo O’Farrill Quartet
Arturo O’Farrill, piano; Bill Ware, vibes; Alex Blake, bass; Jaime Affoumado, drums
We are thrilled to have the great Arturo O’Farrill–Grammy Award winning pianist, composer, educator, and winner of the Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award–return to Cornelia Street with his sensational quartet. Son of the legendary Cuban-American composer and bandleader, Chico O’Farrill, he was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. He has played piano with Carla Bley, Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Freddy Cole, The Fort Apache Band, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. He is the founder and leader of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and their first album Song for Chico (Zoho Records) won the GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album of 2008. In February of this year, Arturo and the ALJO released their third and newest album, 40 Acres and a Burro, which has been nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category for 2011.
For more on Arturo, visit his website and watch the video below about his return to Cuba.
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Oye Cuba! A Journey Home
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Early shows in the cabaret:
5:30 pm – Andy Christie’s Liar Show
For this special New Year’s Eve edition, The Liar Show welcomes Leslie Goshko (Manhattan Monologue Champion), Andy Ross (Mad Magazine), Andy Christie (NY Times; WFUV), Ed Gavagan (The Moth Radio Hour)
8:00pm – The O’Farrill Brothers Quintet
As the sons of GRAMMY award-winning pianist Arturo O’Farrill, Adam and Zachary O’Farrill have performed in some of the most prominent jazz settings, including the Carefusion Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Marian’s Jazz Room, and the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival. They are now stepping forward with their own band, and their own debut album, Giant Peach, which Wall Street Journal says, “bristles with confidence and creativity.” The band provides an eclectic mix of styles in jazz, with innovative, original compositions. Ever since their formation in2009, the O’Farrill Brothers Band has performed in some of the most exciting venues in NYC, such as Birdland Jazz Club, The Jazz Gallery, Cornelia Street Café, and more. The band members have performed with the likes of Joshua Redman, Stefon Harris, Esperanza Spalding, Arturo O’Farrill, DJ Logic, Branford Marsalis, Bob Mintzer, and Slide Hampton.
Please call 212/989-9319 or visit www.corneliastreetcafe.com for reservations.
fragments from conversation with michael lydon in his studio.
in the 60′s michael left an anemic rock beat at newsweek to help co-found rolling stone. he started out tagging along as part of the national psychedelic entourage but his writing and candor brought him closer to the center, sat him next to mick jagger on rough flights and made janis joplin suggest maybe he wanted to pick up a harmonica and give it a try too. matched with encouragement from his the likewise excellent and dedicated pianist ellen mandel, he began new life as a loving crooner. file under: writer-musician/musician-writer/all-around-mensch.
michael lydon plays cornelia street cafe tuesday december 12th at 830.
music: “midnight in manhattan” & “love at first sight”
Celebrating their 15th anniversary in 2012, Claudia Quintet embraces the textural freedom of electronic sounds and improvisation, the structural ambition of contemporary classical music, and most importantly, the joy of bodacious grooves and unapologetically gorgeous melodies. Led by drummer and composer John Hollenbeck, this ensemble features some of the foremost innovators of new sounds in “jazz and beyond.” Their beautifully seductive work recasts jazz in shimmering new shapes with inflections of classical minimalism, new music, progressive rock and post-rock. Claudia Quintet’s latest release, What Is The Beautiful?, featuring special guest vocalists Kurt Elling & Theo Bleckmann, is a tribute to the late beat poet and visual artist Kenneth Patchen, commissioned by the University of Rochester on the occasion of his 100th birthday.
How’d it come to be that these folks in Rochester enlisted you to make an album around Patchen’s work? How did they find you, or you them? What had been your knowledge of/relationship with Patchen’s work prior to that?
I got a call from Richard Peek at the University of Rochester library who told me that for Kenneth Patchen’s 100th birthday they were doing an exhibition of his verbal & visual work—paintings and drawings, covers for records, books. Turns out there’s a patron of the University who’s a jazz lover and was keen to fund a recording of some kind. So they asked me if I wanted to get involved, and I thought it would be a really interesting project for the Claudia Quintet, so I went for it. I started working about a year ago, over the holidays. I couldn’t find any Kenneth Patchen books in the bookstores, so I went to the library filled up on everything he did; there’s also a good biography out there, and that helped. When I found something that hit, I’d write that down, and I ended up with a list of 20 or so poems. His work varied but there were at least five genres that he was working in, and I take a cross-section of those. That’s how it started coming together.
What in particular are the challenges in setting poetry to music? Did you work with Theo & Kurt on the compositional side, or did you compose alone then hand them the music & let them work magic in their singing of it?
This week Cornelia Street Café marks the loss of Paul Motian, a legendary drummer and powerfully influential musician whose long career coursed through many transfigurations of Jazz. Motian performed regularly and in the company of musicians young and old up until the very end of his life, sustaining an inimitable verve & intelligence while battling persistent illness. Of late Motian became the closest Cornelia has had to a house drummer, appearing nearly a dozen times with stalwarts and upstarts from Dan Tepfer to Tony Malaby to Samuel Blasser; his last performance at the Café came at the end of September, with Kris Davis. His absence will be deeply felt in our Downstairs, as it is through the world of Jazz and beyond.
On Thursday Brant Lyon’s mainstay word & music series Hydrogen Jukebox will release Hydrogen Jukebox with The Ne’erdowells: brain ampin’, inscribing forever in polycarbonite plastic their Café-honed home brew of poetry and live improvisatory music. For over two years Lyon & his compats have come together in our Downstairs alongside ageless vetrans and upstart open-mic astronauts, turning loose planned spontaneity every month like fine-cut spinning tops. The album is a full-stop studio-made production that, in these words from Mr. Lyon’s latest message to the press, “brims with all the unpredictability and verve of poets performing at Hydro Juke’s live shows, while brilliantly showcasing the talents of the band—Davey Patterson, guitar; Matt Riganese, keys; Mary Noecker, bass; and Ry Pilla, drums—and their uncanny ability to strike the right note in endlessly inventive ways.”
The spoken word, meanwhile, “covers a dizzying array of topics ranging from the dangers of a hyper-digitalized world and virtual reality dystopias, to a neo-Beat groove, gospel-inflected tribute to Langston Hughes and Allen Ginsberg, a punk rock romp through a phantasmagoria of mind-bending images, bittersweet Coney Island reminiscences, and more.” All this intoned by familiar names; the record features work by David Lawton, Jane LeCroy, Peter Carlaftes, Thomas Fucaloro, Karl Roulston, Puma Perl, Brant Lyon, Frank Simone, Robert Gibbons, Jane Ormerod, and Kat Georges, no strangers to our Café and its friends.
Hydro Juke will celebrate the birth of their CD baby at an All-Star Show & Release Party to be held Thursday, October 27th from 6-8pm. Artists featured on the record will present their work alongside ziggurat stacks of freshly shrink-wrapped compact discs, gleaming in anticipation of your embrace. For those who don’t know Brant & his crew, it’ll be top-knotch 101; for longtime fans, surely a happy reunion, and a great chance to directly support work from the artists you cherish.
Posts
These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right.
All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
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Newly classic alt-alternative bonanza UNDEAD MUSIC FESTIVAL rises in New York again next week. Appearing on three outta four festival nights will be JH himself, each time in a different and rare configuration. To wit:
ON WEDNESDAY MAY 9 at LE POISSON ROUGE in MANHATTAN: A TONIC Reunion show!
(Curated by Melissa Caruso Scott & John Scott)
Disbanded bands reconvene for a night to commemorate a venue still remembered fondly for its fearlessness and dedication to the freeform ethos. John will be appearing alongside his erstwhile bandmates from the golden 90’s, Ted Reichman & Reuben Radding. Together, they are: The Refuseniks!
For a list of others slated to appear and to buy your tickets, cliquez ICI
ON FRIDAY, MAY 11, 8:00 PM at IBEAM in GOWANUS: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DIY
(Hosted by Search and Restore, it’s a night celebrating artist run – DIY spaces around the country)
Appearing at 11 pm: The Drum Major Instinct
with
John Hollenbeck – Drums / Composition
Brian Drye – Trombone
Curtis Hasselbring – Trombone
Jacob Garchik – Trombone
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — Vocals
$10 suggested donation. To read more about the evening’s festivities at IBEAM and elsewhere, click HERE
ON SATURDAY, MAY 12: IMPROVISED ROUND ROBIN DUETS
Madness!
17 artists enter, arranged in a random order. Artist #1 improvises for 5 minutes solo on stage, and is then joined by #2. After 5 more minutes, #3 enters, and #1 leaves—AND SO ON!
What can happen? What will happen, that’s what.
Slated to appear:
Mark Helias (bass), Brandon Seabrook (banjo / guitar), Hilmar Jensson (guitar), Allison Miller (drums), Amir Ziv (drums), Mike Pride (drums), Bob Stewart (tuba), Cooper Moore (piano), Miles Okazaki (guitar), Marika Hughes (cello), John Hollenbeck (drums), Matthew Mottel (keys), Fabian Almazan (piano)…and more to be announced!
A festival pass gains you free entry to this event. Tickets and clues available HERE
Want to get even excited-er about UNDEAD and its musical legionnaires? Check out the premiere episode of Search & Restore’s Spontaneous Construction podcast.
In it, Search & Restore founder Adam Schatz talks with drummers John Hollenbeck (Claudia Quintet) and Greg Fox (Guardian Alien, GDFX) about improvisation, creation and world domination. They converse convivially and even play together! Not 2b missed.
The Refuseniks and me (A Hollenbeck Origin Story)
Did we just pull a fast one with this crazed torrent of dates and players? No so fast, say you, our astute reader. WHO, you no doubt would like us to stop and tell you, are the Refusenik’s?
In the words of John:
1995-1996 was an important period for me, in retrospect, I feel like I arrived at a place that felt like “home” musically-speaking. I finally found the beginnings of a personal voice on the drums and in composition. One of the main reasons I arrived at this place was my association with the Refuseniks, a collective trio with Ted Reichman and Reuben Radding. We played every Monday night at alt.coffee, a grungy internet cafe on Avenue A. Playing with those guys helped me realize who I was, who I wanted to be, as a player. Both Ted and Reuben were totally open and willing to play music that did not fit any one genre. We quickly developed a very eclectic repertoire….Charlie Haden, folk music from Norway, Turkey, Sun Ra, plus originals…. I was trying hard to compose, so it was great that these guys were open to playing my originals, including pieces with “catchy” titles like Abstinence and Diane Hull.
I also met a lot of great musicians through the gig and through Ted and Reuben, who were both more in the “Knitting Factory” scene. Important musicians such as Anthony Coleman, Greg Cohen, David Krakauer, Frank London.
When Reuben abruptly quit music in the summer of 1996 and moved to Montana, I formed The Claudia Quintet with Ted as the anchor member.
Ted by the way, is a talented writer, you can read his version of this story here.
Doris Duke Calling
Frequent listeners of public radio and others well-versed in American higher culture will be instantly familiar with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The DDCF is the ongoing legacy of Doris Duke, relentless philanthropist and lifelong nonconformist, who was an early adopter of surfing, modern dance, and free jazz, and who started her first charitable foundation at age 21. This year DDCF has named its first class of Doris Duke Artists, 21 American performers given unrestricted cash grants so that they may continue to create art freely—and guess who made the inaugural cut?
That’s right, it’s been officially announced and now it can be told: John Hollenbeck, along with colleagues & friends Vijay Iyer & Meredith Monk, will now be among those calling DD their posthumous sugar mama.
And not a second too soon! For as it happens John & his fellow DDA recipient Bill Frisell were just in the midst of heated soul-for-cash negotiations with Guzzler Corp., a multinational powerhouse specializing in the export of crude oil effluent to low-income playgrounds around the world. Thanks to the DDCF and the late Doris Duke, John and artists like him needn’t mortgage their eternal spirit to make ends meet.
Bravo John! Bravo Bill! Bravo all!
You can read a lot more about the DDA program, including a list of its other outstanding recipients here
Karlssonwilker
Starting with 2001’s No Images, John basically hasn’t stopped getting super-acclaimed graphic design dudes Karlssonwilker to make his albums look cool. Since then he’s employed mssrs Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker no fewer than nine times, most recently on CQ’s unapologetically awesome cover for What is the Beautiful?, which features the art of Kenneth Patchen reconfigured in a manner you should really just go look at, trust me.
How JH & KW have not grown coldly distant over the course of what in album design years basically constitutes lifelong marriage, none of us know. Whatever the secret of their longevity as a couple, the union is strong, and now with Karlssonwilker’s brand new website, their work’s whole flow can be viewed left-to-right, now-to-then, all on one screen—including the ill Kenneth Patchen 3D painting thing, which I defy you to describe in words better than it looks, it’s so cool.
Check out all the awesome work Karlssonwilker has done for John on this page.
First, a reminder
A memorial approaches for valve trombonist/composer/arranger Bob Brookmeyer (December 19,1929-December 15, 2011).
It will be held at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (E. 54th St. between 3rd and Lexington Avenues) in New York City on Wednesday, April 11, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. A reception will follow immediately afterward at the church.
That evening, Bob’s music will be played by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (for which he wrote for over forty years) and two specially-assembled smaller groups. There will also be a number of distinguished speakers: (in alphabetical order) Darcy James Argue, Greg Bahora, Dave Bailey, Bill Crow, Ed Dix, Jim Hall, Bill Kirchner, Jim McNeely, Dick Oatts, Jimmy Owens, John Snyder, Michael Stephans, and Terry Teachout. In addition, there will be an audio tribute by Clark Terry, and a video presentation by Maria Schneider, Ryan Truesdell, and Marie Le Claire.
In other news, in other languages We here at the global hollenbeck resource center invite any who may speak German to interpret this fan bloggage from Germany or those of you versed in Italian to translate this 5 stelle review of WITB? in All About Jazz Italia. Both are positive…we suspect.
Have you encountered exuberant press in non-English tongues? Let us know! We’re creating a whole compendium of global emoting as we seek to get Hollenmania formally certified as a transnational epidemic.
And now, an excerpt from the Diary of John
March 26
“Grüss Grott” from Graz,
I’m in the 2nd week of my residency here at the Kunst University Graz Jazz-the oldest Jazz department in Europe!
I first started coming to Graz over 10 years ago, to play in Jazz Big Band Graz, a region sponsored band….so I know the city well.
A few fun facts…..
1)From an English speaking point of view, there is a remarkable resemblance to Elmer Fudd’s dialect and the dialect from the Graz region (called Styria).
2)Graz is a UNESCO City of Design-it boasts some exquisitely modern buildings, such as the Kunsthaus and the Murinsel.
3)The region is well known for it’s high quality food (even on the autobahn rest stops), wine, chocolate and pumpkin seed oil (it is actually more like squash, but pumpkin sounds better).
The jazz school has a nice mix of international students with the largest concentration from the surrounding countries which creates a vibrant, unique environment. Some old friends of mine are on the faculty like Ed Partyka, Ed Neumeister, Dena Derose, among others.
For this residency I’m privately teaching drums, compositions, leading workshop in drums, composition and the all-important “quarter note exercise” giving 3 concerts. I brought the Claudia Quintet here last week. This week I’m playing my music with the “Composers Ensemble” and at the beginning of May I’m coming back to play my music with the very large KUG Big Band (at the last rehearsal I counted 24 members!) who have already started working on some of my most challenging pieces.
Ok, back to the food….one of my favorite restaurants, Mangolds, is in the heart of Graz. I try to go there at least once a day. It has the greatest, biggest salad bar (and they do salad in their own incredible way in the Graz region!)
It is buffet style, so the food is fast and it is relatively cheap! If you are in Graz at mid-day, you must check it out!
John
Pix below of kunsthaus
and Murinsel
In conclusion: Claudia after our expedition to the secondhand store in downtown Fullerton, CA
Look for this on the cover of the next GQ magazine or actually CQ magazine!
These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right. All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
BEGIN TRANSMISSION
to: TRANS-EURO CO-INTEL OPS 8
from: USA PRE-INTEL GR4
re: TARGET: HOLLENBECK
Provided below is a comprehensive outline of times, locations, and costs of entry for the European tour of target groups CLAUDIA QUINTET and JOHN HOLLENBECK LARGE ENSEMBLE. This highly sensitive data provides specific detail as to the planned whereabouts of target JOHN HOLLENBECK and his cohort, including THEO BLECKMANN and other suspected members of target sub-group CLAUDIA QUINTET PLUS ONE.
Following repeated near-apprehensions of JOHN HOLLENBECK throughout the coastal USA, we have finally obtained the below advance reconnaissance and expect to be achieving full apprehension by late March, if not sooner.
In order to ensure our objective is met, apprehension teams should be dispatched to each of the below time-locations maximally armed. As you already know, JOHN HOLLENBECK along with CLAUDIA QUINTET PLUS ONE are as dangerous as they are elusive, and should by no means be underestimated.
Further preparatory intel may be obtained at RIVERFRONT TIMES BLOG as well as at LAWEEKLY TIMES SOUND BLOG. From the latter, re target THEO BLECKMANN:
Bleckmann is an amazing vocalist, something like a German Bobby McFerrin minus the body drumming. He is capable of filling a hall with sounds both soothing and guttural. In the context of his set with the Claudia Quintet, he worked exclusively as a team player, working wonders to create a cohesive band sound, blending in with their unusual instrumentation perfectly
Good luck & godspeed.
Monday, March 12, 2012 Claudia Quintet with special guest Theo Bleckmann @ Stadtgarten Venloerstr. 40, Köln, (Germany) - Set: 8:30 PM All Ages Tickets: VVK: 12,00€; AK: 15,00€
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 Claudia Quintet with special guest Theo Bleckmann @ Dexter Vindegade 65, Odense, (Denmark) 4563112728 Set: 8:00 PM All Ages Tickets: Forsalg: DKK 100 Medlemspris: DKK 60 Dørsalgspris: DKK 120
Thursday, March 15, 2012 Claudia Quintet with special guest Theo Bleckmann @ DE WERF Werfstraat 108, Brugge, 8000 (Belgium) – 050 33 05 29 Set: 8:30 PM All Ages Tickets: 15 / 12 / 7
Friday, March 16, 2012 Claudia Quintet with special guest Theo Bleckmann @ Birdland Neuburg Am Karlsplatz A 52, Neuburg, 86633 (Germany) -049 (0) 84 31 4 12 33 Set: 8:30 PM All Ages
Saturday, March 17, 2012 John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble @ Jazzwoche Burghausen 2012 Am Stadtplatz, Burghausen, 84489 (Germany) – Set: 8:00 PM All Ages
Sunday, March 18, 2012 The Claudia Quintet @ Sägewerk Angerweg 32, Bad Hofgastein, 5630 (Austria) – 06432 6164 Set: 8:30 PM All Ages
Monday, March 19, 2012 The Claudia Quintet @ WIST – Kunst Uni Graz Moserhofgasse, Graz, (Austria) - 043 (316) 389-3080 Set: 8:00 PM All Ages Tickets : 15,–/7,–
These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right. All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
On February 26th Berkeley’s Jazz School for Music Study & Performance will be hosting a special three hour composition workshop with none other than John Hollenbeck himself. This is a rare opportunity to peer inside the technical and creative gearbox of a man whose work routinely big bangs microgenres and improvisatorial playgrounds. To paraphrase the School’s invitation, all musicians with a rudimentary knowledge of music theory are invited to have their minds scholastically blown. Participants can bring pieces that they have started and come away with forty new beginnings. John will also discuss and his use some of his compositions as examples—truly exciting since most of his works are written in multicolored glass sand! Information of all sorts is available here.
MORE CQ GIGS REMAIN
Forget not those shows still un-attended! The hour of Claudia Quintet gig-going is already nigh, y’all!
February 27, Yoshi’s, San Francisco, CA
February 28, Blue Whale, Los Angeles, CA
February 29, Cal State Fullerton New Music Festival, CA
March 1 (with Theo Bleckmann Duo & the CSUF Jazz Ensembles), Cal State Fullerton New Music Festival, CA
March 2, 560 Music Center, St. Louis, MO
Why, what better place than these to grab your very own 100% free
STICKERS
SWEET.
If they can make it out of St. Louis alive, Claudia then continues on to Europe! Details to follow so keep eyes peeled here. For max appetite-whetting, check out this review of a recent JHLE performance at Amherst College…(scroll down to February 19th post)
DOWNBEAT
Another treat: There is an extensive article on and interview with John in the latest issue of Downbeat. Check out what else is inside and learn where you might obtain your own copy here.
MEREDITH MONK REMIXED
Right? How cool is that? What’s that? “Extremely”? Correct! Two discs. Many great reinventions. I mean DJ Spooky. Todd Reynolds. Vijay Iyer. Lee Ranaldo. Nico Mulhy. Effing Bjork! (And why not? Is not MM her spiritual mother, after all?) Double-effing Caetano Veloso! Yes, that Caetano Veloso! Quão maravilhoso. Longtime apostles John & Theo appear as well, with “Wheel”. Seals the deal, don’t it? Indulge in a sampling of songs
POLL POSITIONS
Alternative Music webmag El Instruso (“Dedicado a ‘la otra música’”) has released its 2011 critics poll and neither one nor two but fully three Hollenprojects graced the top rankings. Claudia Quinet was rated #2 Group of the Year, JHLE, #3 Best Live Band, and John himself, #3 Best Composer. To review the other findings, brush up on your arthouse Spanish, and initiate a letter-writing campaign to the many who weighed in, visit this page here.
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These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right. All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
Last night at NYC’s inauspiciously-named Town Hall, John Hollenbeck was named the 2011 Nightlife Award recipient for Outstanding Group. The event was hosted by super-progeny Lucie Arnaz and presented awards to such fine standard-bearers as Jon Hendricks and Randy Weston. John, who was in the midst of leading a caravan of rescued dromedaries from Paris to Berlin, was unable to attend. He is, however, grateful for the support & recognition of the Nightlifers, although this chronicler finds himself asking—which Outstanding Group?
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The mighty John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble assembles at Amherst College on February 18th. This gathering will not only feature a concert performance but also pre-performance Talk, whereupon John & al. will tell ALL. Tickets available through the link above or private collegiate channels of your own devising.
CQ+1 takes California for a spin next month, with a fine hat-tip stop in St. Louis. West Coast Hollenfans best mark calendars as such:
February 27, Yoshi’s, San Francisco, CA
February 28, Blue Whale, Los Angeles, CA
February 29, Cal State Fullerton New Music Festival, CA
March 1 (with Theo Bleckmann Duo & the CSUF Jazz Ensembles), Cal State Fullerton New Music Festival, CA
March 2, 560 Music Center, St. Louis, MO
Thereafter in March both CQ & JHLE will embark for additional gigging in Europe. Additional details and secret messages will be relayed as soon as they’re available.
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Our Team is proud to announce the arrival of a brand new Manager for John: Mr. Steve Cohen. No longer must John manage his own self; now Steve, President of Music + Art Management, Inc. and likewise manager to such artists as Vijay Iyer and DJ Spooky, will be there to manage John’s self for him. Steve, a storied musician-teacher-businessmaker, is joined in managing by Lauren Snelling, who has worked as Artistic Associate at the Park Avenue Armory and the Melbourne International Arts Festival, as well as Associate Producer at Westbeth.
The arrangement began when Steve and Lauren were rescued by John from an invisible quicksand farm in the deep South. Forever indebted to John—and to Theo, whose deep blue threnodies played a key role by distracting the renegade quicksand farmers—they made the pledge of the modern samurai: managership.
All involved are pleased and proud.
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We leave you with this sweet blog post gleefully geeking out to CQ’s “This Too Shall Pass,” a “hard-grooving lament”..
John Hollenbeck was really hoping he could just record What Is The Beautiful? quietly and with a minimum of notice. In addition to diligent precautions taken to avoid being followed to and from the studio, John made all bandmates and recording personnel take a salty blood oath they’d never again speak of the album or dare let slip the finished product to anyone outside of Silver Spring, MD. Unfortunately, as we all know, the album was nefariously leaked and subsequently written about, extensively.
Among the many secret-breaking journos who weighed in were The New York Times, Los Angeles Times,Washington City Paper, New York City Jazz Record, AllAboutJazz.com, BBC.co.uk, Audiophile Audition,Rochester City Newspaper, Avant Music News, The Gig and Jazz After Hours. Further shattering the wall of secrecy were those who audaciously named WITB? to their year-end lists, including JazzTImes, New York TImes, All About Jazz.com, Rock Erie.com, The Big City Blog, Step Tempest, Capital New York…and even more too nefarious to list. How word really got out, we’ll never know, but rest assured John will be recording What Is the Beautiful 2: What’s Really Beautiful underground, or possibly under the sea.
And now, a special note to our friends who received gift cards for the holidays:
All of us know well the feeling of receiving the gift that is as flexible as it is thoughtful: the gift card. Like nothing else, the gift card says “I’ve figured out what general type of consumer good you’d enjoy, but have not burdened you unduly with the specifics. Instead of choosing a gift I can’t be totally certain you’ll love, I’ll just provide this narrowly allocated strip of electromoney and let you decide yourself.” It is with these gift-givers in mind that we here at Team Hollenbeck have come forth to complete the thought process: If you’ve already been gifted a gift card, why not spend your plastic dollars on John & Co. this winter? Complete the gift your favorite givers were just going to give you anyways: Claudia Quintet, JHLE, ONJ—From which John’s “Falling Men” was just nominated for a Grammy—all our projects and friends can be found on iTunes and Amazon.
Lastly, we invite you to share in a Hollenbeck composition of a different kind. Last month John’s longtime mentor & friend Bob Brookmeyer passed away at the age of 81. Please read here John’s elegy for the veteran master, a loving and deeply personal portrait of a legendary man bound to be long missed.
As I sit down to write something about how much Bob Brookmeyer has touched my life and to share my memories of him, I have to put on some of his music. So much to choose from…perhaps Dreams (oh those chords!), but I choose Holiday: the 2007 Bob Brookmeyer piano trio record. I start with Jan Likes – you will notice many references to Jan in his titles. (Jan is the angel that Bob was lucky enough to find and be married to for the last 24 years – his beautiful cornerstone.) Bob on piano was always a special treat. If I had the knack that Bob had to say exactly what I think, I could describe this as what Keith Jarrett would sound like if he had partied harder. (I’m a slow writer so now I’m already on to the next track, Stupid Song-awesome title!)
I first met Bob at the SUNY Binghamton Summer Jazz Workshop when I was 14. I had an emergency appendectomy just a few days before, but with clearance from doctors and my parents, I was at least able to watch the workshops and some of the nightly concerts that Bob’s sextet gave. What a great group this was: Adam Nussbaum, Michael Moore, Jim McNeely, Dick Oatts, and Joe Lovano – I still have my bootleg cassettes. This is the first time I was honored to (I’m on to Child Song now) hear the “Brookmeyer sound”. That warm, huge, enveloping sound – it is identifiable after just a few seconds. And those lines of his, sometimes officially “outside”, but Bob worked hard at believing in them, so they actually sounded “inside”. Most of these tunes are on Through a Looking Glass – you may only be able to find this on vinyl at this point, but it is worth the hunt. I love these tunes. Mel especially sounds inspired!
I remember hearing Hello and Goodbye for the first time, played by the SUNY workshop participants during the day – one of those great Bob pieces that goes through many different moods but maintains an organic thread. At that time, it was being decided for me by some unknown force that I was going to be a professional musician. And there was Bob: showing me what music was about, what sound was about, what swing, creativity, and forward motion were about. Forward motion! Bob never stopped trying to move forward musically-speaking. Sometimes when he would meet up with fellow musicians his own age, they would show their confusion with this aspect of Bob. As in Al Porcino’s famous comment after hearing some of Bob’s modern big band music: “Bobby! What happened?” It was this constant striving to move outside the standard jazz box that was truly inspiring.
The next time I saw Bob was at the Eastman School of Music, I was 18. We played the music from the record, Dreams. I actually played percussion on that concert and brought out a washtub to add its special sound to his music – instead of thinking a washtub was too strange an instrument like you might expect from an older composer, Bob was totally into it. I also remember him explaining what the groove on one of his tunes should be. We were expecting to hear him say the usual “straight eighth” or “triplet feel” – instead he sang the subdivisions “ZOO-BA DO-BA, ZOO-BA DO-BA” and said “Like that”! Needless to say, that groove explanation was a topic of conversation and laughter for years after that!
(I’m on to It Might as Well be Spring. Bob playing or arranging standards is always special. He obviously knew them really well and in many cases had arranged them earlier in his years, so when he took a standard and put his genius on it later on in his career, it is simply awe-inspiring.)
Bob gave some very thoughtful workshops at Eastman and his bubbling creativity was contagious. At some point, he sat at the piano and played simple intervals and encouraged us to listen closely, intently, in order to truly figure out what the intervals feel like and what images come to mind when hearing them. This experience can greatly help a composer looking for a specific feeling or emotional quality. He asked us what we dreamed about doing and he told us what he dreamed about doing. I remember he wanted to do a theater piece with jazz musicians where he would engage the audience from the moment they walked into the theater lobby…and it would seem magical and spontaneous. At that time, he was still thinking about how fun it could be to make the listener uncomfortable, to engage them in a way that would jolt them out of the daily grind.
My next encounter was four years later, as an applicant to his World School of Jazz in Rotterdam. The plan for this school was to run it as a long-term workshop with short-term guest teachers. I was accepted, but the school never got off the ground – this was a big disappointment for Bob and hugely missed opportunity for the world jazz community. Two good things for me that came out of this disappointment was that Bob and Jan moved back to the US, and Bob heard me play the drums for the first time on my audition tape. (I’m switching now to New Love from Spirit Music. I love the way Nils van Haften sounds on this…such a warm, rich sound.)
A year or two later, I applied for and got what ended up being the last round of NEA study grants to study composition with Bob. I only took about four or five lessons, but those were the most important lessons of my life. The exercises we worked on and the basic idea of “cellular” composition (basing a piece on one idea) are the cornerstones of my technique. I’m still working on some of the pieces I started in this creative period that were sparked by Bob’s assignments. I did most of the assignments incorrectly, but usually something good came from my mistakes, so we both found the value in what we were doing. I drove up to New Hampshire for the lessons – Bob and Jan graciously invited me into their home and Jan cooked up some great food, although Bob was really only interested in dessert!
(Now I’m listening to Ding Dong Ding - Mel Lewis and Bob Brookmeyer! I have to stop writing and just listen to that one. That is the first time that song made me cry, that’s for sure.)
The song on my audition tape that got Bob interested in my drumming was a hip hoppy groove that I played on Freedom Jazz Dance. There was something in this groove that Bob liked, it was swinging but in a “new” way. He later told me that this led him to ask me to be the drummer in what became his New Art Orchestra (NAO) in 1996. NAO evolved out of The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Big Band, which was initially run through the auspices of this northern Germany Festival. We performed as the S-H MF Big Band at the Festival and in subsequent years, we’d get on a bus afterwards and head out to perform in other cities as the New Art Orchestra. Bob used to joke that once we drove far enough out of town, it was time to change the sign on the bus to the “New Art Orchestra”. (I’m now on to Silver Lining from Spirit Music. Bob takes some great breaks in this one!)
From the beginning, Bob taught NAO how to be a band. He had this educational talent that is unique, mainly due to his exhaustive experience and dedication. His musical life was a personal trip through jazz history. We worked persistently on sound, phrasing, and ensemble-playing. He told me, as the drummer, what he loved about Mel and Elvin too, but mostly Mel, the drummer/magician who had the unique gift to make a band sound great with grace and coolness. But he also said: Do not even bother trying to copy, because no matter how close you get, you will never be Mel. But knowing what Mel did that Bob loved was extremely helpful. He told me to play with perceived abandon while never forgetting about the groove or setting up the band, but making it all sound like a happy coincidence. He always wanted a lot of activity on the snare drum so that the band could always feel the beat. Cracking the code on how to play drums in a big band is what I imagine learning to drive an 18-wheeler is like. Bob coached me for years until I got to the point where I could easily conjure his advice in my head and integrate it as I was playing.
The New Art Orchestra meant a lot not only to the players, but also to Bob – to have a band of young, enthusiastic people who loved him and listened intently to every word he said was a gift that Bob sincerely appreciated and he told us this often. We learned so much about music and how to make exceptional music with a large group of people. At present, about half of the band are permanent members of radio big bands. These are some of the best bands in the world, but when we come back together as the NAO, we realize this band has a unique sound, an integrated, warm sound that is truly special. This is Bob’s gift to us.
Continued 12:52am December 19th…Happy Birthday Bob!
(No music for the moment, but I’ve got Nasty Dance running inside my head.)
The actual chronology is fuzzy for me but the NAO has had many interesting moments:
Playing the Celebration Suite with Gerry Mulligan and then Scott Robinson (he sounds so great on the recording!) and later on, Michael Brecker! One of my most humbling moments was listening to Michael sit down at the drums at the soundcheck. And just a few years ago, we performed it with Joe Lovano at the North Sea Jazz Festival! Playing with Clark Terry and seeing Clark and Bob clown it up.
One of the most bizarre gigs of my life: The NAO was hired to play for Helmut Kohl’s birthday party around 2000. At the last minute, Bob had to cancel, but the band was already committed to the gig and we, as a band, needed the money. So, we changed our program to Glenn Miller and some other “lite” pieces. It took place in a hockey rink, I think near Karlsruhe. We alternated sets with an “organist” (one of those big white organs with its only “rhythm section” available at the push of a button.) Needless to say his sets started getting longer and ours shorter. Some of the trumpet players got their mutes signed by former Chancellor Kohl. A surreal gig that Bob was lucky to miss!
Over the years, NAO recorded New Works, Waltzing with Zoe, Get Well Soon, Spirit Music, and Standards plus Madly Loving You. Most of these were recorded at the great Studio Bauer with the equally great engineer, Carlos Albrecht, a man Bob really trusted to help capture our sound.
The last record with Fay Claasen, recorded this past March, was a touching experience where the band collectively reaffirmed what a special band we have, what a special sound Bob gave us. It is an exceptional feeling to be part of a band where each and every player is wholeheartedly dedicated to Bob and is there for no other reason than to play their hearts out for him and his music.
And some incredibly important personal moments: At the Schleswig-Holstein festival in 1995 I think, the NAO played a part of a 12-hour classical meets jazz concert. Another set featured parts of the NAO with orchestra. Vibist Matt Moran was called from Boston to play the Milt Jackson part in a piece that Gunther Schuller wrote for the Modern Jazz Quartet with orchestra. Matt and I also ended playing a short free improvised duo set. This was my introduction to Matt, one of my favorite musicians, one of my chief musical buddies and stalwart member of The Claudia Quintet.
Also, that day, a high school friend of his came to see him (she was an exchange student living in Heidelberg). Although she did not notice me, I took an instant attraction to her and did not forget her. She saw NAO again a few years later at a concert near Heidelberg, and not too soon after that we became a long-distance couple. Kate is now my adored wife of 5 years!
Now I’m listening to the NPR-Jazz Profiles on Bob. Most of this stuff I know, but it is just great to hear Bob’s voice, and his sound.
Aside from the NAO gigs, various musicians in the band started asking me to play on their own projects. This led to many tours in Germany and ten years later led to my getting a professorship in Berlin, at Jazz Institute Berlin.
The 70th birthday recording that Ed Partyka organized was yet another moving experience. A band that was not officially the NAO, but quite close, recorded pieces written by friends of Bob’s. I always liked Bob’s deep, low voice, so I created a composition with a musical scenario where “Father Bob” marches into the hall (Processional) and then gives us some fatherly advice: the poem, Desiderata (by Max Ehrmann). I asked Bob to recite the poem and he reluctantly agreed. Eventually he warmed up to the piece and even asked for a study score. In the end, his recitation was exactly what I was hoping for. It is too early for me to listen to this piece now, too painful, but I do hear one of the last lines resonating in his voice clearly in my head…”Strive to be happy.” You can listen to it here.
Around his 74th year, I recorded a small group CD with him and Kenny Wheeler. Thanks to John Snyder for capturing that on film too! Now I need to listen to some of this, it has been a while. The title track, Island, is one of the great tunes Bob wrote for the recording session. Just watching Bob and Kenny sweetly interact with each other personally and musically was inspiring to see. I’m just going to let this record play out so I can give it my full attention. Kenny and Bob’s approaches are so different, but they obviously really admired each other. I remember Bob laughing about Kenny asking him for composition lessons. Check out the DVD!
A few years ago, Bob and I did a couple of quartet gigs with Brad Shepik and Drew Gress in NYC and Cheltenham, UK. It was so deep to experience Bob in that intimate atmosphere and he even played some piano! He was struggling physically (I think it was his knees) but still played great. I asked if we could play a tune of his that he played with sextet that I heard in Binghamton in 1982 and he graciously agreed (it was not his habit to play “old” tunes). I was always hoping that Bob would feel good enough again to do more quartet playing.
For Bob’s 80th birthday, Dave Rivello organized a concert at the Eastman School. I wrote a short musical “happy birthday” with a human greeting card and flowers. (Thanks fellow Eastmanites for making it happen!). Later I expanded this 2-minute piece into Bob Walk for the Orchestre National de Jazz (including a “boomwhacker” introduction with the members of the ONJ slowly reciting the spelling of Bob’s name).
Bob has significantly and positively influenced my life on so many different levels and for that I am eternally grateful. Because of Bob, I: found a band of my own (The Claudia Quintet), found a soulmate (Kate), found my dream teaching gig, am in one of the best big bands EVER (with some of the nicest guys you will ever meet!), and found my voice as a composer and as a mature human being. The thing is, my experience is probably not that unique. I know Bob has touched many others’ lives in the same way, which is the true testament to how exceptional a man and musician he was.
Once a few years ago, Bob left me a phone message, telling me that he loved me. He was the first man to tell me that. That still means a lot to me, not only that he felt it, but that he was courageous enough to say it. This act helped me so much as person, to try to open up and not be afraid to express the strongest of feelings.
Bob, I love you too. In moments like this it is soothing to imagine that you are “up there” jamming with Mel, Gerry, Jimmy and all the others. I now have to stop writing and get back to listening to the hours and hours of great music that you left us! I’m going to start with your arrangement of Willow Weep For Me, that one always gives me chills.
Your beloved friend, fan and eternal student,
John Hollenbeck
//CLAUDIA QUINTET + 1 PLAYS CORNELIA STREET CAFÉ on 12/16 & 12/17//
CQ+1 is visiting the West Village this weekend and hopes that you’re in town. Got the kids this weekend? Bring the kids. Bring your mother, even if you just saw her last weekend. We know you’re busy. That’s why not only will John & co. play both Friday and Saturday nights, they’ll even let you eat dinner right there while you’re listening so you can save time. TONY critics picked it as one of their top 5 things you should do this week, because ”Led by drummer-composer John Hollenbeck, this all-star group combines proggy grooves, floating harmonies and searching improv into a slyly cohesive amalgam that’s unlike anything else in or out of town” and they don’t want you to miss out.
BONUS: Special guest is revealed at last! Did you know it’d be Kurt Elling?
(Really can’t make it? CQ will be back for APAP in “classic” configuration on Jan 7th.)
//SHUT UP AND DANCE IS A SLATE TOP TENNER//
John’s collaboration with Daniel Yvinec’s Orchestre National de Jazz, Shut Up & Dance, was chosen for Fred Kaplan’s Best Jazz Albums of 2011 list in Slate. Please respond with your favorite French language equivalent for “kickass” and we’ll compile the results in a future bulletin.
//HELP SEARCH & RESTORE //
Please support nonprofit community-gluers SEARCH & RESTORE. S&R is not only an expertly-tuned show-listing machine for the invented music community, it’s also a huge video repository of live performances from throughout the creative spectrum.Visit this page to learn more about their plans for the coming year; we hope you consider making a donation.
//HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNETH PATCHEN//
The poet, artist, and stirring precursor would have been 100 years old today.
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These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right. All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
BREAKING (really!): John Hollenbeck has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition! The nomination is for “Falling Men”, one of ten mini-concertos John instrumentally composed for Daniel Yvinec’s Orchestre National de Jazz, appearing on that group’s stellar Shut Up & Dance. You can (and should!) learn more about “Falling Men” at this familiar blog post right here. Meanwhile all parties involved and many that are not are duly excited. John, for example, has already begun to prepare for his pre-awards show masterclass on advanced topics in percussion, featuring Robyn and Megadeth (info on signups will be made available as it emerges).
And now, our regularly scheduled update from the land of Hollenbeck…
Claudia Quintet+1 continues its irrepressible back-and-forth march through the mid-Atlantic, packing houses as they go and spreading tell of What Is The Beautiful?, their still-new LP featuring and dedicated to the poetry of Kenneth Patchen. The record has been earning no shortage of welcome, moving critical pens and upticking steadily the already heavy traffic in both physical and digital recordings. Among the record’s many fans are Down Beat’s John Murph, who deemed it a 4.5 star affair. While deep in Silver Spring, MD, Cuneiform was rising mightily to fill the order overflows, John & company were visited at Philly’s show by room-shrinking crowds, including radio superwoman Terry Gross and jazz critic Francis Davis. In New York, octogenarian impresario George Wein saw CQ+1 break open The Stone and decided he’d have to have them at Newport next year (Kurt Elling is also slated to appear, setting the stage for another team-up). Without question, the race to align with this six-to-eight-man jazz machine is only intensifying.
Stay tuned for details about more opportunities to see CQ+1, before prominence carries them out of range and away to megastadiums, rural superfestivals and aircraft carriers. All we can say now is they’re slated to appear at the Cornelia Street Café on December 16th & 17th with a special guest whose initials are K.E. Hmm….
While you wait for intel, enrich your Hollenloving mind with this article JH wrote in the latest issue of Downbeat magazine. The topic: composing from a drummer’s perspective.
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These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right. All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
All throughout the Jazz Critopolis, praise for Claudia Quintet+1′s latest creation What Is The Beautiful? keeps on ringing out bell-clear. Daniel Spencer of the BBC spared no kindnesses in his appraisal, concluding,
“It all comes together on the title-track: an intensely compassionate piece of writing, bursting with apocalyptic love for humanity, and punctuated by the repeated refrain: “Pause. And begin again.” Supported by a beautifully understated accompaniment, that lets Elling’s delivery exhale just the right amount of gravitas, it’s genuinely moving – and easily elevates the album to the status of vital, living art.”
Meanwhile, John Murph of flame-keepers emeritus DownBeat gave WITB? 4.5 stars of love and affection, asserting, “John Hollenbeck continues to astound as a composer.”
Lucky for us, John Hollenbeck also continues to tour as a musician. As these reviews pour in alongside several many others, Claudia Quintet+1 is readying dates this very upcoming weekend. Friday, November 18th CQ+1+Theo will entrance Zorn-built Alphabet City stalwart The Stone. Saturday, November 19th that crew moves south to the Philadelphia Art Alliance, before continuing on to Metro Gallery in Baltimore, MD that Sunday. Hit those links for tix—IF there’s any left!
Meanwhile if, owing to serious personal calamity or other life-altering circumstances, you have still yet to purchase your own copy of WITB?, have no fear. The good people at Cuneiform Records, now working double-overtime to keep pace with torrential demand, are ready for you to at last make your move. Buy the album at this mighty & unwavering web-store here, where not only can you become the next proud owner of the latest CQ+1 record, you’ll also get instant satiety with two free CQ+1 downloads, right there on the spot. (And while you’re out there hanging ten on the world wide web, why not link arms with your fellow fan at our Facebook-Based Pro-Claudia Adoration Center?)
We leave you now with this freshly-inked annotated playlist that John did for JazzTimes, his picks for 10 vital tracks by drummer Jack DeJohnette.
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These words have been brought to you by Jacques Swartz, Chronicler of John. Jacques would like to reaffirm for all interested parties that he is not, in fact, Mr. John Hollenbeck, nor is he Mr. Hollenbeck’s imaginary alter-ego, but rather a fully discrete being in his own right. All queries, complaints, kind remarks and general feedback regarding this blog may be directed to Jacques at johnhollenwebpr@gmail.com
Updates
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Not bad conditions on the green today. http://t.co/8xLqFuFd
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Amtrak I love you.
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Let us console ourselves, then, with MT @lilahrap Susan Sontag in a bear suit! silly photos of serious writers, via @clairesgould3 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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I'm with @williamhermes - she was the missing link between dance music & Steve Reich. Doubters & baffled friends, try http://t.co/K4FyAFpj3 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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...not to mention Godmother of House, and then some. Gone too soon.3 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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I scored 544 points with OBSCURED in #spelltower! - http://t.co/BMlXxFF3 Word up to @helvetica couldn't stop if I wanted
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Bruckheimer calling. MT@joshtpm: NASA Inspector Gen. Says Stolen Laptop Contained Space Station Control Codes http://t.co/MPghtC7A
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Emma Stone + RDJ = one well-executed meta-banter
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Was really hoping at least some of the dancing would be holographic
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It's just that this Turkish NBC pkg is okay, ditto the shameless & madmen promos #MIST
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Find Oscars et al. tough to stomach without good company & a skeptical 2nd screen to balance out the schmaltz. Endemic to award shows?
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All I'm saying is this st. Paul audience on Wait Wait today sounds like it's having a blast #Sunday
