The Claudia Quintet is a brilliant New York band led by drummer and composer John Hollenbeck who recasts jazz in shimmering new shapes inflected by classical minimalism, new music, progressive rock and post-rock. The Claudia Quintet embraces the textural freedom of electronic sounds and improvisation, the structural ambition of contemporary classical music, and most importantly, the joy of bodacious grooves and unapologetically gorgeous melodies. The quintet s one-of-a-kind jazz and beyond sound, with massive emotional depth, comes organically from the uncanny interplay of its virtuosos members, all of whom are poll winners and band leaders in their own right: Drew Gress (bass), Matt Moran (vibes), Ted Reichman (accordion), Chris Speed (tenor sax and clarinet) and guest pianist Matt Mitchell.
Claudia are always about doing something new and for their sixth album they have released something utterly unexpected: a vocal album featuring the talents of jazz s biggest male vocal star, Kurt Elling and the great Theo Bleckmann.