John Hollenbeck & NDR Bigband

Colouring Hockets

Flexatonic

Colouring Hockets is composer, drummer and six-time Grammy nominee John Hollenbeck’s ninth large ensemble recording in the past 19 years and it is a most unusual one. Teaming with Germany’s renowned NDR Bigband, an institution that’s been in place since 1945, and specifically its percussionist, Marcio Doctor, the album features a four-piece well rounded percussion quartet within the large band.  Hollenbeck can’t take complete credit for this idea which owes mostly to Doctor. Nonetheless, it’s Hollenbeck’s creative large ensemble scores that captured Doctor’s interest. Doctor, originally from Argentina, has been an integral member of the 17-piece NDR Bigband for years but is also a Grammy winning composer and percussionist himself, having collaborated with Carla Bley, The Brecker Brothers, Vince Mendoze and Bob Mintzer in the past. He knew that Hollenbeck was the one he needed to bring his concept to life.

The idea of a percussion quartet within a large ensemble is novel in terms of contemporary music but according to writer Steve Smith in his liner notes, has precedent in the European tradition of the concerto grosso, a Baroque era invention in which a smaller ensemble is embedded within a larger one, with music passed back and forth in both directions. With Hollenbeck and Doctor as percussionists, they needed to recruit two others to form the quartet. The resulting foursome then became Doctor on hand percussion, Hollenbeck on the drum set, Hollenbeck’s frequent collaborator Matt Moran (vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, tapan) and the Mexican-born, charismatic and highly energetic Patricia Brennan, another Hollenbeck collaborator, (vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, crotales, timpani). It was important to bring these two aboard for their ability to read notated scores, have classical background, and also for their improvisational skills.

Here is Doctor’s vision, truncated just a bit – “…I dreamed of creating a sound and setting that I hadn’t heard before for this new project. The core sound of marimba, vibraphone, drumset, and hand drums plus the brass and woodwinds felt very appealing for me. Rhythm being the driving force , but with an emphasis on timbre and texture as well.’’  Perhaps it’s not too surprising given the instrumentation and Doctor’s Argentinian background, that there is a Latin flavor that seeps through here to, kind of unexpected given the thrust of the Germany-based band, however. That influence is rather subtle though as the overall sound is a mashup of contemporary classical, post-rock, and jazz, resulting in well over an hour of scintillating music.

The centerpiece of the album is the two percussion showcases that give the album its name. Hocket is a musical technique dating back to medieval times in which a melodic line id broken up among two or more performers. “Colouring” with the Canadian spelling (Hollenbeck is based in Montreal) references the leader’s imaginative textural palette. “Marimba Hocket” features primarily Brennan and Moran while “Drum Hocket” stars Hollenbeck and Doctor. The energy in both of these pieces if at a whole other level!

Hollenbeck repurposed four previous pieces and added four new ones. “Opening,” kind of a fanfare/overture features the full ensemble and dates to his earliest New York outfit, Refusniks and appeared on the Claudia Quintet’s 2004 release I, Claudia. The expansive “Entitlement,” features multi-reedist Frank Delle, trombonist Dan Gottshall, Moran, and bassist Ingmar Heller, and is from his band’s collaboration with poet Eileen Myers during the pandemic period“Pure Poem’ is another full ensemble piece from the quintet’s 2018 Super Petite. “Shaking Peace,” featuring Moran and pianist Florian Weber, is from Hollenbeck’s 2008 Rainbow Jimmies as “Gray Collage Study #2,” later appearing under its present name on the 2010 Orchestre National de Jazz Shut Up and Dance.

New piece, the start-stop rhythmic “Cool Code” is a great example of the integration of the percussion quartet within the large ensemble and is buoyed by the challenging trumpet played by Percy Pursglove.  The musicians play feverishly over Weber’s prepared piano part in “Wols Hgis” ( “Two Sighs” spelled backwards)  while closer “Sum” gives the reins to trombonist Klaus Heidenreich, tenorist Julius Gawlik and Weber.

Colouring Hockets is unlike any big band or even large ensemble effort you’ve heard. It is truly unique, a tribute to Doctor’s vision, Hollenbeck’s compositional skills, and the versatility of the famed NDR Bigband.  It is one of the best large ensemble recordings of 2024 but coming so late in the year, it may not get its fair due unfortunately.

– JIm Hynes

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