Early Audition: John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, All Can Work

Drummer, composer, and bandleader John Hollenbeck might be best known for his crafty, original work with nimble small groups like the Claudia Quintet and Quartet Lucy, but when he goes big, the results are memorable—he’s a deft hand at writing for big bands and orchestras. Hollenbeck has convened his Large Ensemble twice before on record, issuing two discs worth savoring: A Blessing, released in 2005 on the OmniTone label, and eternal interlude, its 2009 sequel, on Sunnyside.

On January 26, Hollenbeck and his crew will release their third LP, All Can Work, on New Amsterdam Records. The album pays tribute to Large Ensemble member Laurie Frink, a versatile and well-loved New York City trumpeter and teacher who died in 2013 at the age of 61. The album title comes from an email exchange between Hollenbeck and Frink, and reflects “the flexible, optimistic resolve that is needed by everyone involved to create a record such as this one.”

A brief excerpt from the new album has been streaming on the label’s Bandcamp page for some time now. But thanks to Hollenbeck and New Amsterdam, National Sawdust Log is proud to present an exclusive complete track – Hollenbeck’s take on the Kraftwerk song “The Model” – right now, right here.

Via e-mail, Hollenbeck explained how his new interpretation of an offbeat repertoire choice had come about:

A few years ago, I was gathering together pieces for my Songs I Like a Lot album (featuring Kate McGarry, Gary Versace, Theo Bleckmann and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band.) Theo Bleckmann recommended “The Model” by Kraftwerk, which he had done in a solo version that I loved. As soon as I really started thinking about the song I was hearing it played by a brass band. The melody is well known so I thought it would be fun to give it some new “clothes.” Luckily Theo is a good sport, because in the end I decided it would be more interesting without vocals! Since then I have played “The Model” many times with my own and other ensembles. The audiences always seem to love hearing it, and since it didn’t fit on the album I intended it for, I thought it would be great to include a short version to conclude this recording All Can Work.

You can preorder your own copy of All Can Work using the link in the Bandcamp player, or pick it up at your favorite retailer on Jan. 26. And you can hear the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble play its new material live in person on Tuesday, Jan. 30 at Le Poisson Rouge; details here.

Feeling Gravity Wave’s Pull

In recent weeks, the entire catalog of Gravity Wave, the record label curated by California composer Michael Pisaro in association with New Jersey journalist and producer Yuko Zama, has made its way to Bandcamp. That’s welcome news in itself, but better still, Pisaro has just announced the label’s release schedule for 2018. Due in February are two new releases: Étant donnés, “a six-track disc based almost entirely on samples” (according to the label website) and Shades of Eternal Night, derived from performances by pianist Reinier van Houdt and field recordings made in Greece. Van Houdt, you may recall, memorably recorded Pisaro’s piano works for the earth and the sky, a three-CD set issued by Erstwhile in 2016, rated as album of the year here on National Sawdust Log. 

Then before the end of 2018, Gravity Wave will release Nature Denatured and Found Again, a five-CD set comprising field recordings made along the Grosse Mühl River, Neufelden, Austria, from 2011 to 2015, alongside performances by Antoine Beuger, Jürg Frey, Marcus Kaiser, Radu Malfatti, André Möller, and Kathryn Pisaro. For the latest details, keep an eye on the Gravity Wave Facebook page.

Evidence of Evanses

Devotees of the reliably expressive sound artists Grant and Rachel Evans know that physical copies of their releases usually come in tiny editions that tend to disappear more or less instantaneously. With that in mind, you’re encouraged to act quickly if you’re interested in owning one of the 50 cassette copies apiece of the latest releases on Adversary Electronics, the cottage label they established after discontinuing their long-running and much-loved Hooker Vision imprint. Still available as I type this are Ergot Dogs, a solo album by Grant; The Circuit, the latest from Rachel under her Motion Sickness of Time Travel moniker; and Espions, by the couple’s joint venture, Quiet Evenings. But if you miss out (or just don’t do cassettes), fear not: all three titles surely will turn up on the Adversary Electronics Bandcamp page before too long.

New This Week

​Sylvie Courvoisier Trio – D’Agala (Intakt)
Franco Donatoni – Chamber Music – Ensemble Adapter (Kairos)
Kit Downes – Obsidian (ECM)
Morton Feldman – For John Cage – Erik Carlson, Aleck Karis (Bridge)
Roscoe Mitchell & Matthew Shipp – Accelerated Projection (Rogueart)
Bobo Stenson Trio – Contra la indecisión (ECM)
Thomas Strønen Time Is a Blind Guide – Lucus (ECM)
John Surman – Invisible Threads (ECM)
Dmitri Tymoczko – Rube Goldberg Variations – Atlantic Brass Quintet, Flexible Music, Amernet String Quartet, and more (Bridge)
Weird Beard – Orientation (Intakt)

Coming Soon

(☆ – new addition this week)

January 26

John Adams – Piano Music – Jeroen van Veen (Brilliant Classics)
Kris Davis & Craig Taborn – Octopus (Pyroclastic)
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble – All Can Work (New Amsterdam)
Quin Kirchner – The Other Side of Time (Astral Spirits)
David Lang – the day – Maya Beiser (Cantaloupe Music)
Bruce Levingston – Windows (Sono Luminus)
Matteo Liberatore – Solos (Innova)
Gérard Pesson – Blanc mérité – Ensemble Cairn/Guillaume Bourgogne (Aeon)
☆ Jeff Snyder – Sunspots (Carrier)
☆ Sybarite5 – Outliers (Bright Shiny Things)

February 2

☆ The Epichorus – Najara (National Sawdust Tracks)
Aaron Jay Kernis – Dreamsongs: Three Concertos – Paul Neubauer, Joshua Roman, Royal Northern Sinfonia/Rebecca Miller (Signum)

February 9

Ondrej Adámek – Sinuous Voices – Roméo Monteiro, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain/Daniel Kawka (Aeon)
Lea Bertucci – Metal Aether (NNA Tapes)
Pablo Santiago Chin – Three Burials – Dalia Chin, Eliza Bangert, Ensemble Dal Niente/David Cubek, Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia/Walter Morales (New Focus)
☆ Lara Downes & Friends – For Lenny (Sony Classical)
Roger Doyle – Heresy: An Electronic Opera (Heresy)
Helmut Lachenmann – Got Lost; String Trio; Serynade – Yuko Kakuta, Yukiko Sugawara, Trio Recherche (Wergo)
Third Coast Percussion – Paddle to the Sea (Cedille)
Erkki-Sven Tüür – Illuminatio; Whistles and Whispers from Uluru; Symphony No. 8 – Lawrence Power, Genevieve Lacey, Tapiola Sinfonietta/Olari Elts (Ondine)

February 16

John Luther Adams – All That Rises – JACK Quartet (Cold Blue)
Michael Adkins Quartet – Flaneur (hatOLOGY)
Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet – Landfall (Nonesuch)
John Beckwith – Instrumental Works, 2006-2016 – various artists (Centrediscs)
Samuel Blaser with Marc Ducret & Peter Bruun – Taktlos Zürich 2017 (hatOLOGY)
☆ William Brittelle – Without Chasms (New Amsterdam; subscription-only)
Sarah Buechi – Contradiction of Happiness (Intakt)
Markus Eichenberger & Daniel Studer – Suspended (hatOLOGY)
Christopher Fox – Headlong – Heather Roche (Metier)
☆ Shinya Fukumori Trio – For 2 Akis (ECM)
Peter Garland – Moon Viewing Music (Inscrutable Stillness Studies #1) – William Winant (Cold Blue)
Michael Hersch – Images from a Closed Ward – FLUX Quartet (New Focus)
Alice Ping Yee Ho – The Mysterious Boot – Susan Hoeppner, Winona Zelenka, Lydia Wong (Centrediscs)
☆ Nicolas Masson Quartet – Travelers (ECM)
Myra Melford Trio – Alive in the House of Saints, Part 2 (hatOLOGY; reissue)
Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton – Music for David Mossman (Live at Vortex London) (Intakt)
George Perle – Orchestral Music (1965-1987) – Jay Campbell, Seattle Symphony/Ludovic Morlot (Bridge)
Elena Ruehr – String Quartets Nos. 1-6 – Stephen Salters, Cypress String Quartet; Borromeo String Quartet (Avie)
☆ Andy Sheppard Quartet – Romaria (ECM)
☆ Norma Winstone – Descansado – Music for Films (ECM)

February 23

Mark Applebaum – Speed Dating – Takao Hyakytome, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players/Eduardo Leandro, Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensemble/Terry Longshore (Innova)
The Crossing – If There Were Water (Innova)
Dolce Suono Trio with Lucy Shelton – American Canvas (Innova)
Duo Damiana (Molly Barth & Dieter Hennings) – castillos de viento (Innova)
Fossil Aerosol Mining Project – August 53rd (Helen Scarsdale)
Michael Gordon – Sonatra – Vicky Chow (Cantaloupe Music)
Subtle Degrees – A Dance That Empties (New Amsterdam/NNA Tapes)

March 2

☆ Michael Daugherty – Dreamachine; Trail of Tears; Reflections on the Mississippi – Evelyn Glennie, Amy Porter, Carol Jantsch, Albany Symphony Orchestra/David Allan Miller (Naxos)
☆ Olivia De Prato – Streya – works by Samson Young, Victor Lowrie, Ned Rothenberg, Taylor Brook, Reiko Fueting, Missy Mazzoli (New Focus)
☆ Ensemble Musikfabrik – Kreutzungen – works by Vassos Nicolaou, Johannes Schöllhorn, Gérard Grisey, Dieter Mack (Wergo) 
☆ Sebastian Fagerlund – Stonework; Drifts; Transit – Ismo Eskelinen, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hannu Lintu (Bis)
☆ Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette – After the Fall (ECM)
☆ Olivier Messiaen – Catalogue d’oiseaux – Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Pentatone)

March 9

☆ Yale Choral Artists – Statements: Lang, Hearne, Lash – Eric Brenner, Lydia Consilvio, Hannah Lash, Yale Philharmonia/Jeffrey Douma (Naxos)

March 30

☆ Invisible Anatomy – Dissections (New Amsterdam)