John Hollenbeck & Hot Club Jazz Orchestra: Peace and Justice
Flexatonic Records

The worlds drummer John Hollenbeck has inhabited since issuing his first albums as a leader in late 2001 are remarkable in number and variety. Identifying this beyond-category conceptualist as a jazz drummer seems criminal when his activities are so far-reaching, but that is nevertheless the genre with which he's generally associated. An Eastman School of Music graduate who enjoyed mentorships with Bob Brookmeyer and Meredith Monk, he's collaborated with vocalist Theo Bleckmann and the Orchestre National de Jazz, performed and recorded with the Claudia Quintet and the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and composed classical-styled chamber and vocal works. A multiple awards recipient, the Montreal-based Hollenbeck joined the faculty of McGill University's Schulich School of Music in 2015 but has never ceased blazing an intensely personal trail.

That's clearly shown in the character of his latest release, which finds him collaborating with the Hot Club Jazz Orchestra (HCJO). Laid down in June 2022 in Lisbon's Canoa Studios, the seed for the project was planted the year before when Ukrainian curator Olha Bekenshtein commissioned the drummer to create arrangements of Ukrainian folk music for a large ensemble. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 scuppered that plan, but it didn't stop the music from being recorded and now, four years later, released. Of course anyone hearing the album today does so in light of the devastating death and destruction that have occurred during the time since.

Let's not forget that as impressive as his projects are, equally noteworthy are Hollenbeck's gifts as a drummer, though Pedro Felgar's also credited with drums on five of the nine pieces. Felgar's joined in the Hot Club Jazz Orchestra by five woodwinds players, four trombonists (one a bass trombonist), four trumpeters/ flugelhornists, plus a guitarist (Nuno Costa), keyboardist (Óscar Graça), bassist (Demian Cabaud), and singer (Rita Maria). Luís Cunha's credited as conductor and co-producer. The drummer's comfortable playing in any context, and, no surprise, locks into this one as seamlessly as he does his own ensembles. Two Ukrainian works are performed alongside a Geri Allen cover and Hollenbeck originals, some of the latter stemming from earlier contexts.

A case in point is the album-opening “Sinanari,” which he originally wrote for Claudia Quintet. Using a Turkish song as a blueprint, Hollenbeck transforms the piece into a whirling dervish-styled big-band statement powered by a tight drum groove. Dizzying horns swirl as the music percolates furiously and melodic fragments spin wildly from multiple directions—about as dynamic an opener as might possibly be imagined. Delivered at a less breathless clip, the title work is reflective by comparison as its couples muted horns and forceful rhythms, with wordless vocal textures and bass solos striking aspects of the arrangement.

Whereas some performances are compact five-minute statements, five last from eight to eleven minutes at a time. Like “Sinanari,” “Racing Heart, Heart Racing” reimagines a piece originally written for a different ensemble, in this case the Orchestre National de Jazz and its 2010 Shut Up and Dance album. Stretching out for eight minutes, the setting provides a terrific showcase for the HCJO's sections. Buoyed by a funky clockwork pulse, saxes and flutes intricately entangle until the tempo slows and the mood settles into a relaxing mode. Ear-tickling too is “Sighs” for its merging of prepared piano with vocal sighs, grunts, groans, and whispers and spoken text voiced by Maria in English and Portuguese. Allen's “Feed the Fire” receives a long-form workout that broils with formidable purpose, Hollenbeck in the drum chair and driving the band with serious swing. Another piece from Shut Up and Dance, “Power of Water,” concludes the set on a prototypically fiery note, with both drummers soloing explosively in tandem and a lovely horn chorale distinguishing the track at its end.

The remodels of the two Ukrainian pieces are arguably the album's most memorable for the histories they carry and how powerfully they resonate today in light of current events. Written around 1914 by Ukrainian theatre director/composer Stepan Charnetskyi and based on an old folk tune, Hollenbeck's arrangement of “Oi u luzi chervona kalyna” (commonly translated as “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow”) appears under the title “Red Shades” and exudes palpable urgency as it determinedly and resolutely unfolds. His treatment of the Ukrainian traditional carol “In the Middle of the Yard” proves to be as arresting, especially when it begins with unaccompanied alto saxes before the setting blossoms into a full ensemble ballad statement.

September 2026