Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos interprets music by the North-American drummer and composer John Hollenbeck under his direction and with the singer Theo Blekmann as guest soloist.

John Hollenbeck is a talented North-American drum player, chief of orchestra and composer, living in New York, where he was born, and has been one of the most original and productive composers in several instrumental contexts, so much in the field of jazz and contemporary improvised music as in other compositional domains closer to classical music. His versatility both as a percussionist and as a composer already reveals a work of considerable breadth and meaning, that, on the instrumental level, has taken him to collaborate with, among others, the pianist Fred Hersch or the saxophone player Tony Malaby, beside being part of the New Art Orchestra, of Bob Brookmeyer.

This project will present two albums by John Hollenbeck with pieces for big orchestra: “A Blessing” with the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble; and “Joys & Desires” with the Jazz Bibgand Graz (Austria). The exceptional voice of Theo Bleckmann is part of the formation and is treated as an additional instrument for the unusual width of its tessitura, either used in the poetic narration or in the more traditional chant.