Label: Out Of Your Head Records, 2026

Personnel - Anna Webber: tenor saxophone, flute; Sarah Rossy: synth, voice; Chiquita Magic: synth, voice; John Hollenbeck: drums, glockenspiel, composition.

Claudia Quintet’s founder, John Hollenbeck, a fierce, focused, and highly innovative drummer and composer who often seems a step ahead of jazz’s vanguard, returns with his second album from the ensemble George—named after George Floyd—Looking For Consonance. The electro-acoustic group features synth players and vocalists Sarah Rossy and Chiquita Magic, alongside the exceptional saxophonist and flutist Anna Webber.

Difficult to categorize, the music traverses a postmodern landscape shaped by elements of synth-pop, electronica, idiosyncratic rhythmic designs, and open improvisation. “Bounce” is a striking ride that lands somewhere between eerie prog-metal and hallucinatory rave textures. Synchronized vocal lines, Hollenbeck’s explosive rhythmic foundation, and Webber’s menacing multiphonics and driving melodic force converge before dissolving into an extended, sustained drone.

The mercurial “Lewis”—dedicated to trombonist George Lewis—embraces shifting meters, incorporating synth-pop-rock passages in five, nimble septuple meter dances, and other intricate rhythmic cycles where the flute takes a central role. In contrast, “Nassam Alayna-Lhawa”, a composition by the Lebanese Rahbani Brothers, offers a gentle, diasporic expression of peace, delivered with clarity and warmth through Rossy’s Arabic vocals.

The ensemble’s revolutionary spirit peaks with “Norma”, a dark experimental piece built on saxophone–voice unisons and assertive rhythmic accents, and “George and Dee”, where strands of alternative synth-pop, new wave, and electronica-inspired experimentation evoke the legacy of artists like Gary Numan and Kraftwerk.

Hollenbeck infuses the album with layered rhythmic complexity throughout. Check out his work on “Porter”, where he lays down treacherous, counterintuitive undercurrents while ethereal vocal chants stay afloat. “Johnson”—a tribute to George F. Johnson—radiates a buoyant, groove-oriented energy, offering a more accessible nu-jazz moment, while “Wayne Phase”—a nod to Wayne Shorter—explores shifting intensities and stylistic breadth with a deep understanding of the honoree’s musical language and eclecticism.

Richly detailed, Looking For Consonance, may prove challenging for casual listen. Still, the group’s fluid command of odd meters and genre-crossing expression ultimately feels organic, inviting listeners to yield to its intricate rhythmic and improvisational allure.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Bounce ► 04 - George and Dee ► 07 - Norma

Label: Out of Your Head Records, 2023

Personnel - John Hollenbeck: drums, piano, composition; Anna Webber: tenor saxophone, flute; Aurora Nealand: voice, alto and soprano saxophones, keyboards; Chiquita Magic: keyboards, voice, piano.

With an admirable career under his belt, drummer/composer/bandleader John Hollenbeck (founder of The Claudia Quintet) deserves praise for every release, and his new project, a super modern post-jazz outfit called George, is no exception. The music was specifically written and arranged to be played by creative saxophonist/flutist Anna Webber, tradition-fueled saxophonist/singer Aurora Nealand, and Colombian-born pop sensation Chiquita Magic. The results are surprisingly pleasurable as Hollenbeck and his female associates turn the preconceptions of new music upside down. All pieces, off-kilter and sensational, act as tokens of appreciation to people named George.

The opener, “Earthworker” (the translation of George in Greek) is molded with disorienting syncopated flexibility, purring keyboard arches, ethereal vocals, balmy flute, and saxophone unisons. The unpredictable shifts in Hollenbeck’s pulse are key, together with the precise synth bass punctuation and chord orderliness that serves as an anchor to Webber’s circuitous tenor solo. The following piece, “Clinton”, is dedicated to the Parliament-Funkadelic’s frontman George Clinton. It starts off with a combination of saxophone forays and thudding drum sounds, becoming less free and more focused when the keyboards enter. There’s an 28-beat-cycle vamp that reshapes effortlessly while the horns of Webber and Nealand remain interactive.

“Washington Carver” salutes the American agricultural scientist in the title with a spunky introduction. A series of summoning synth chords coalesces into a passage that is rhythmically complex, harmonically perceptible and melodically appeasing. Webber radiates energy on flute and then switches to tenor in order to maintain a head-to-head conversation with Nealand on soprano. “O’Keefe” grows in a crescendo of encouragement; while “Floyd” is a cry of despair with irreproachable drumming before all else.

“Can You Imagine This?” worked as a remote test piece for this group’s assemblage. It’s defiantly experimental, alternative and post-rock with Nealand’s haunting words, preconceived fluttering keyboards, and lots of freedom in everything else. Opposing to the relaxed ambient setting of the brushes-driven “Saunders”, there’s this glitchy electronic feel and industrial undertone coloring the closer, “Iceman”, which honors the former basketball player George Gervin.

Letters to George is explorative but never jarring, spreading sonic tinctures that blur the lines of genre. Hollenbeck’s thoughtful ideas definitely set him apart from any other drummer.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Earthworker ► 02 - Clinton ► 06 - Can You Imagine This?