CLAUDIA QUINTET, THE Semi-Formal

Description

The Claudia Quintet is proof positive that the pessimists were wrong: jazz is not dead, despite being embalmed by major labels and confined by some musicians to dead ends. In the works of this sensational NY-based, 'jazz and beyond' ensemble, jazz has broken through its rigid shell and been reborn in shimmering and beautifully alluring new form. It lives and breathes in music that melds influences from classical minimalism, new music composition, and progressive and post-rock with an astonishingly fresh jazz sensibility. Whatever one wants to call their music, it has very striking original, unique and attractive qualities. This is a slowly unfolding album; group leader/drummer/composer John Hollenbeck has specifically stated that this album is '...a 'listener's record'.