Semi-Formal

Semi-Formal

ASIN: B000AXW52S

Track Listings

1. Major Nelson

2. Drewslate

3. Kord

4. They Point...Glance...Whisper...Then Snicker...

5. Bindi Binder

6. Susan

7. Two Teachers

8. Growth

9. Limp Mint

10. Guarana

11. Where's My Mint? (Mint=President)

12. Boy with a Bag and His Guardian Elephant

13. Minor Nelson

Semi-Formal,Claudia Quintet,Cuneiform,Avant-Garde Jazz,Avant-Prog,Free Jazz,Jazz,Modern Composition,Modern Creative,Pop

Average customer rating:

Beyond Category

Pure delight . . .

Semi-Formal
The Claudia Quintet
Manufacturer: Cuneiform
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000AXW52S
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Tracks:

Major Nelson
Drewslate
Kord
They Point...Glance...Whisper...Then Snicker...
Bindi Binder
Susan
Two Teachers
Growth
Limp Mint
Guarana
Where's My Mint? (Mint=President)
Boy with a Bag and His Guardian Elephant
Minor Nelson

Customer Reviews:

Beyond Category.......2005-12-10

A unique and forward thinking ensemble, composer John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet explores the tenuous boundaries between Jazz, Classical and Rock. The group's strengths lie in their inability to be easily categorized. An inventive amalgamation of Downtown compositional intricacies, post-minimalist classical technique and a contemporary post-rock instrumental vibe, along with a healthy dose of non-Western concepts, the Claudia Quintet is truly an unclassifiable ensemble.

As a schooled percussionist, John Hollenbeck has toured, recorded and collaborated with an astonishingly varied set of artists. From traditional jazz giants like trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, to New Music visionary Meredith Monk and contemporaries like trumpeter Cuong Vu and clarinetist David Krakauer, Hollenbeck has amassed an intensely varied world of sound to draw from, and he never shies away from this opportunity with the Claudia Quintet.

Where certain pieces have obvious ties to post-modern jazz, others are definitely aligned with contemporary chamber music. Acoustic variations on funky drum-n-bass rhythms appear and electro-acoustic improvisation is the order of the day. For their third release, Hollenbeck has arranged and structured an album that feels more like a suite than a conventional selection of songs.

The Claudia Quintet's dominant instrumentation, even with acoustic bass and drum kit as its foundation, has a unique, unclassifiable sound to it. Accordion and vibraphone make for an intriguingly rich instrumental color blend when combined with either woody clarinet or breathy tenor sax. In lesser hands, this instrumental assemblage would have an almost nostalgically folksy air to them, but as employed by this group, they almost always sound strangely futuristic. This time around, Hollenbeck has expanded the quintet's sound palette by adding a few extra instruments.

With the group doubling on secondary instruments and electronics, the Claudia Quintet has access to an expanded spectrum of sound previously unavailable. In addition to Hollenbeck on drums and keyboards, Drew Gress handles his usual acoustic bass, along with pedal steel and electric guitar. Vibraphonist Matt Moran also plays some keyboards, as does tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed. Accordion virtuoso Ted Reichman dabbles in electric and acoustic guitar as well as the ubiquitous keyboards.

The opening piece, "Major Nelson", with its repeated and thoroughly composed melody and rhythmic structure resembles classical minimalism, but only on the surface. The tune has a frenetic rhythmic momentum to it that feels more akin to instrumental prog-rock with the timbral quality of jazz, than it does traditional contemporary classical music. "Drewslate" follows, but offers up heady improvisation, even if only bits at a time. Short transitional pieces such as the minimal keyboard etude, "Kord" alternate with more frenzied workouts like "They Point...Glance...Whisper...Then Snicker." Hollenbeck introduces the piece with an acoustically driven organic drum-n-bass rhythm, the quintet slowly appears, one by one, until the entire ensemble is engaged in a string of punchy solos over the rhythm section's numerous tempo changes. Matt Moran's lilting vibraphone solo is contrasted nicely by Chris Speed's burly tenor statements on this standout cut, also the albums longest. In general, most of the solos on the album are fairly brief and economical. This is a composer's album first and foremost, not a free-wheeling blowing session.

Hollenbeck inserts a series of short keyboard pieces between the longer-form compositions to work as "bridges" from one tune to the next. Acting as sonic breathing space between the album's more intense pieces, these minimal, ambient interludes generate a structural flow over repeated listens that makes the album's suite like structure more implicit and unified.

Although the impressionistic interludes are present as the conceptual glue to hold the album together, that is not to say that there are not standout tunes within. The searching melody and subtly intensifying drama of "Two Teachers" and the propulsive rhythm of "Guarana", with its ebullient vibraphone solo and interlocking rhythm section work, come to mind. With their distinctive merger of old world timbres and futuristic concepts, the Claudia Quintet truly sounds like no other working ensemble today.

Pure delight . . . .......2005-11-09

. . . so much so that they're almost bracing in their purity, like tonic water. Leader John Hollenbeck has described The Claudia Quintet as a "big pudding." Troy Collins, a fellow jazz review-poster on Amazon (in a private email correspondence) has called them "static." Well, I can go along with these descriptions if one can imagine a big bracing static pudding, something perhaps not entirely inconceivable. I'd also add "nimble."

From the pudding angle, I envision them as a blancmange. Not just any blancmange, but the blancmange (don't you just LOVE saying, savoring, that word? bla*maazh, bla*maazh) that won Wimbledon on that crazy Monty Python skit. A noble blancmange also flavored with almonds as this tasty white pudding dish often is.

OK, enough culinary nonsense.

It is certainly true that a certain static quality typifies this group, but I would characterize it as lucid stillness leading to satori rather than something negative or problematic. Indeed a kind of Zen control exemplifies much of this music. True, almost all numbers start out static, and not a few remain so throughout (e.g., "Major Nelson," with its insane metronomic beat; "Kord," consisting of three minutes of a single chord augmented or paired down by adding or subtracting fifths, sevenths, ninths, etc., struck on a piano with the sustain pedal engaged for about nine seconds and about five seconds of silence between; "Bindi Binder," about half of which is made up of a single note repeatedly struck on a piano; "Susan," which offers a quite diverse soundscape, but not much rhythmic variety); but it all comes wrapped in a wholly engaging package.

If closely listened to this music reveals lots of very neat little details, such as the amazing drumming and varied percussive moves Hollenbeck employs on "Two Teachers," perhaps my favorite Claudia Quintet piece ever, not least by virtue of Ted Reichman's mind-blowing accordion solo, Matt Moran's demented vibraphone stylings, its very Medicine Wheel-ish vibe, and the evolving controlled chaos that situates the piece somewhere between New Music, chamber jazz, and Indian raga. I also love Drew Gress's pedal steel guitar conception, eerie and elegiac all at once, featured on several numbers, but most prominently on "Growth." A deceptive richness (more like a creme caramel than a simple blancmange, to briefly revisit the culinary metaphor) imbues this music, imparting an aural opulence that, once its alienness is overcome simply ravishes the senses. Sometimes evoking crystalline arctic austerity (the opening to "Guarana," which then morphs into early Philip Glass on steroids), sometimes wrapped in the warm haze of a steamy tropical embrace after the consumption of one too many banana margaritas ("Minor Nelson"), The Claudia Quintet achieves tonal and rhythmic sensibilities seldom if ever encountered in modern music.

I admit, I was somewhat buffaloed the first three or ten times I heard Semi-Formal. But I stuck with it because I've come to regard John Hollenbeck as one of the most innovative composers, players, and group leaders on the planet. After living with this disc for several weeks now, I've concluded it's some of the most remarkable and mesmeric music I've ever encountered. Highest recommendation, for anyone who has ears to hear.

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