TT 459: Large ensembles from Jihye Lee and John Hollenbeck

and the tenor saxophone of Jason Rigby

At first, in the 1930s, the big band was for dancing, drinking, and partying. There wasn’t amplification yet, so the promoter of the social had to throw up enough musicians on the bandstand to ensure that the beat transmitted through the smoke and the noise to those cutting a rug at the back of the hall.

During World War II, all of America knew names like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Count Basie. It was big money and big fun. Louis Armstrong led a big band specifically to make hit records.

Duke Ellington, that man of many firsts, was the originator of big band music with an esoteric tilt, for example the extended work Black, Brown and Beige, heard in concert at Carnegie Hall in 1943. The big band era started drawing to a close soon after, but there were still some dancers on the floor when Claude Thornhill and Stan Kenton began to practice genuine modernism with the help of arrangers Gil Evans and Pete Rugolo. Dizzy Gillespie’s band tried to ride the short wave of “bebop for the public” with a big band that featured a few wild charts by George Russell.

As the 50’s rolled around, the bands diverged in intent. A handful of stalwarts stayed on the road: Ellington, Basie, Kenton, Woody Herman. They all played for dances, at least some of the time.

The other kind of big band would generally be laboratory bands, with composers and arrangers writing some of the most complex music around, exploring the large band implications of innovations happening in small groups.

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band was crucial, and it was an offshoot from Thad and Mel, Bob Brookmeyer, who seems to cast the longest shadow over a certain strain of big band composing and arranging since the 1980s. Four of Brookmeyer’s most obvious children are Jim McNeely, Maria Schneider, John Hollenbeck and Darcy James Argue.

Under consideration here are two fine examples in this linage released in 2024 by Hollenbeck and comparative newcomer Jihye Lee.

Jihye Lee Orchestra, Infinite Connections, all pieces composed by Jihye Lee.

Saxes and other winds:
Ben Kono
David Pietro
Jason Rigby
Jonathan Lowery
Carl Maraghi

Trumpets:
Brian Pareschi
Nathan Eklund
David Smith
Stuart Mack

Trombones:
Mike Fahie
Alan Ferber
Nick Grinder
Jeff Nelson

Rhythm section:
Alex Goodman guitar
Adam Birnbaum piano
Matt Clohesy bass
Jared Schonig drums
Keita Ogawa percussion

One of the miracles of jazz is the way it can absorb any influences. Jihye Lee features diverse traditional Korean rhythm on all tracks of Infinite Connections, played by the serious team of drummer Jared Schonig and percussionist Keita Ogawa (best known for Snarky Puppy).

This “grid” of Korean rhythm works smoothly with Lee’s modal harmonic language and colorful orchestration. There’s a lot of precise math in the melodic shapes to begin with, and, as development ensues over the course of substantial movements, truly exciting masses of modern big band sound are supported by that same kind of intellectual rigor.

The opener, “Surrender,” starts with Ogawa on Taiko drum.

The hunt and peck melody is played in unison by guitarist Alex Goodman and trumpet star Ambrose Akinmusire (who also takes a great solo on the track).

One of the distinctive elements on Infinite Connections is a full complement of doublers in the sax section. Piccolo, flute, and two clarinets provide a riot of color.

One of the hardest things to do is have your own sound. This was always true, and perhaps it even harder than ever now in the postmodern era when everything is available.

Many sit in the middle of a muddle of influences, but not Jihye Lee. Lee has a sound and a recognizable sonic image. It is Korean and it is modern jazz.

The evolution between the two worlds is portrayed explicitly on “Karma,” which starts like a cinematic soundscape from a foreign land. Piccolo, two flutes, guitar, piano, trumpets in harmon mutes, all in folksy counterpoint in pure E minor. Yet the trombone smears recall Charles Mingus, a reference that naturally leads into a bluesy bass interjection from Matt Clohesy. The piece builds, changes gears, and enters the post-Brookmeyer/Schneider modal jazz language for a luxurious alto solo from Ben Kono. After the solo, the themes from both halves combine and divide.

Infinite Connections on Bandcamp.

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Jason Rigby really sounds great on Infinite Connections! His first solo entrance on “We Are All From the Same Stream” is truly exciting; he also gets a major solo on “Eight Letters.” There’s a breathy tone, some of the Coltrane to Pharoah preach, and seemingly boundless chops. (That breathy tone is particularly attractive; the Michael Brecker/Jan Garbarek “glossy” linage is cool too, but sometimes I crave something darker and fuzzier.)

At the moment Rigby holds it down in Mark Guiliana’s fine jazz quartet, which tours all over and plays the Village Vanguard. Back in 2016, Rigby released an album very much to my taste, One - Detroit - Cleveland Trio with veteran Cameron Brown on bass and slightly younger magician Gerald Cleaver on drums. It’s a straight-up tenor trio with a nice set list including originals, standards, and Herbie Hancock’s “Speak Like A Child” declaimed on soprano. Big swing, big blues, a lot of free rhapsody.

One - Detroit - Cleveland Trio on Bandcamp.

If you are in Brooklyn, Rigby is playing tonight at Bar Bayeux with a quintet.

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John Hollenbeck & NDR Bigband, Colouring Hockets, all pieces composed by John Hollenbeck.

Trumpets:
Thorsten Benkenstein
Ingolf Burkhardt
Christian Höhn
Percy Pursglove

Saxes and other winds:
Fiete Felsch
Peter Bolte
Julius Gawlik
Frank Delle
Luigi Grasso

Trombones:
Dan Gottshall
Klaus Heidenreich
Stefan Lottermann
Ingo Lahme

Rhythm Section:
Sandra Hempel Guitar
Ingmar Heller Bass
Florian Weber Piano, Rhodes
Marcio Doctor Percussion

Special guests:
John Hollenbeck Drums, Timpani
Patricia Brennan Vibraphone, Marimba, Glockenspiel, Crotales, Timpani
Matt Moran Vibraphone, Marimba, Glockenspiel, Tapan
JC Sanford Conductor

John Hollenbeck has an epic side to his composed music. Choir! Anthem! Stars and Dance! The voice of Martin Luther King!

Hollenbeck is also a great jazz drummer, a versatile cat who can do anything, including power a big band in proper Mel Lewis fashion. But Hollenbeck’s perspective is most unique when he considers rhythm from almost a scientific angle, part mitosis and part pure groove.

Colouring Hockets is Hollenbeck’s ninth large ensemble release, and features a core percussion quartet with two mallet players and two drummers: Patricia Brennan, Matt Moran, NDR ace Marico Doctor, and Hollenbeck himself.

It’s a major event, a festival of weird beat.

The melodies and harmonies move gracefully around in Hollenbeck fashion. It is definitely tonal music with a sweet tooth — at times I think of Joe Zawinul — but the unexpected clashes in the melodic line are a bit in the tradition of avatars like Herbie Nichols or Eric Dolphy.

The longest track is “Entitlement,” which goes on an epic journey, surveying a gaggle of styles, from free jazz to “The Charleston,” while still sounding like one aesthetic.

The band plays straight, of course, but they are also required to explore vocalizing and extended technique, like at the top of “owts hgis.” This part of Hollenbeck’s idiom is in line with the many gigs Hollenbeck has done with the legendary Meredith Monk.

The title Colouring Hockets references “hockets,” which is the old musical device of hide and seek. Wikipedia says, “In music, hocket is the rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches, or chords. In medieval practice of hocket, a single melody is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds while the other rests.”

Hollenbeck has a field day with all this percussion at his disposal to create fun hockets. “Marimba Hocket” is just what it says on the box, and “Drum Hocket” is all in.

“Pure Poem” has something a bit different to organize the chaotic melody, for it is based on a “Pure Poem” from poet Shigeru Matsui. Hollenbeck explains:

Every “Pure Poem” consists of four hundred characters, each a number from one to three. Originally written in Chinese script, which figures the numbers one, two, and three with a single, a double, and triple dash accordingly, later poems are written with roman numerals. They are beautiful looking and when recited by the poet in Japanese, extremely rhythmic. Many years ago, just for fun, I assigned a music motif to each number and created a piece using the form of Pure Poem 1007-1103 . The Claudia Quintet recorded this little ditty for our 2016 album, Super Petite. I always had a feeling that this piece could work well in a large ensemble environment, so I was very happy to arrange it for the NDR band!

The NDR soloists include Percy Pursglove, Frank Delle, Dan Gottshall, Julius Gawlik, Luigi Grasso, Fiete Felsch, and Klaus Heidenreich on horns plus guitarist Sandra Hempel and pianist Florian Weber. Those are mostly new names to me, but all the players are virtuosic and evocative.

It is probably challenging to pull off such a sophisticated project with a room full of strangers, but Hollenbeck knows how to make friends, and the result is warm and entertaining.

Colouring Hockets on Bandcamp.