Label: Flexatonic Records, 2020

Personnel - John Hollenbeck: composer, arranger, conductor; Kate McGarry: vocals; Theo Bleckmann: vocals; Gary Versace: piano, organ + Frankfurt Radio Big Band.

With Songs You Like a Lot, drummer/composer/arranger John Hollenbeck concludes the trilogy started in 2013 with Songs I Like a Lot and continued with Songs We Like a Lot. This album, featuring the synergetic pair of vocalists Kate McGerry/Theo Bleckmann on top of keyboardist Gary Versace (who returns after Uri Caine has taken the piano chair on the second installment) and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, is the first to be released on Hollenbeck’s own label Flexatonic Records.

Similarly as in previous sessions, popular songs were culled from different genres (this time chosen online by a group of fans/listeners), being reshaped and stretched into musical states that still respect the integrity of the original versions. Even pushing the program a bit more into the pop canon, the eclectic drummer opens the album with the methodical gospel chant of the traditional “Down In the River To Pray”. This well-intentioned song makes a good catch with the understated “Kindness”, the sole Hollenbeck original, which sounds like a Bjork oddity subtly adorned with affable woodwind lines and beautified with melancholic improvisations from bassist Hans Glawischnig and guitarist Martin Scales.

If James Taylor’s folk rock hit “Fire and Rain” earns a bit of the Joni Mitchell’s mood in the voice of McGarry, then “Pure Imagination”, penned by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the soundtrack of Mel Stuart’s classic film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, is slowly cooked with a theatrical reverie that gains further expression with Bleckmann’s vocal intonation. We have to wait four minutes for an odd-metered bass groove and steady rhythmic propulsion to take effect, but it all melts down again into contemplation until reaching the final climax.

Joni Mitchell’s artistry is indeed well represented in the rendition of “Blue”, where clarinet and synth dialogue in close proximity before muted trumpet and flute join from afar. Step by step, the instrumentation is expanded, but the amiable tones are kept, corroborated by Bleckmann’s quieting pronunciations.

Although I was not particularly impressed with the song selection, there are two pieces in the lineup that made me experience an immediate connection. The first of them was Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love”, here transformed by excellent rhythmic mutations and offering spectacle in the arrangement. It kicks off with a magnetic drum beat over which piano, flute and bass clarinet probe odd intervals. It also adds organ for textural consistency and color, and a tenor saxophone solo that stands out during the most orchestrally populated phase of the song. The other one was a memorable, risk-taking version of Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up”, here launched by a lone trumpet and redirected into a funkified jazz full of groove and harmonic force. Alternating dynamics, the band embarks on stop-and-go fluxes, and the circular passage toward the finale seems to ask for a rap attack. Although it didn’t happen, Hollenbeck prepared an electronic-like infusion with resonating pounding drums and free improvs in the mix.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Blue ► 03 - How Deep is Your Love ► 05 - Don’t Give Up

Label: Clean Feed, 2020

Personnel - John Hollenbeck: drums, percussion, prepared piano; Bernhard Meyer: electric bass, effects.

On their first collaborative duo album, NY drummer John Hollenbeck and Berlin bassist Bernhard Meyer create their own experimental signature with a combination of unbound rock and ambient electronic sounds. Investigations of both industrial and minimal music, and a considerable amount of chilled, low-pressure beats are also found in Grids.

Inspired by landscapes around the world, the album starts and finishes in atmospheric suspension with “Black Rock Desert” and “Vya”, respectively. The innate mystery of the former has its origins in the chromatic bass moves that populate the textural paths conducted by Hollenbeck's iridescent brushwork. Siding with it in tonal quality, the latter piece takes the shape of a tone poem bathed in melancholic dark hues. Also ambient-oriented, “Kozhim, Naroda and Balbanyu” depicts the Russian rivers with a minimalistic, downtempo approach. Yet, you’ll find sweeping rattling sounds and patterned bass noodles spotted with harmonics.

If “Xina Bena Jordao” alludes to the folk Amazonian culture of Brazil by mixing its rhythms with trip-hop vibes and presenting bass chants dubbed with murmuring overlaps for texture, then “Peace-Athabasca” paints the Canadian Delta referred in the title with an interesting combination of indie rock and electronic music. Meyer’s aesthetic bass work brings some dissonance and echo to a composition stirred by Hollenbeck’s rhythmic transfigurations.

On “105, Sangkat Boeing Profit, Khan 7”, the duo focuses on a specific Cambodian scenery, incorporating screeches, slams, clanks and microsounds in the insistent mechanical routines that Hollenbeck’s prepared piano is in charge of. The rigidness of this industrial procedure becomes variable in frequency, and soothing bass lines and effects carried off by Meyer consent in giving the piece a serenely composed conclusion.

“Uluru-Kata Djuta” is a sonic reconnaissance of the Northern Australian park, a protected area characterized by peculiar rock formations. Tinged with attractive sound effects, this number is plotted with a more tangible substance.

Grids will reward more the experimental music follower than the typical jazz listener.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Black Rock Desert ► 02 - Peace-Athabasca ► 06 - Xina Bena Jordao