The Denison University music department presents John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet in a concert at 8 p.m. on Wednesday (Oct. 23) in Burke Recital Hall. The quintet also will host a master class clinic at 4:30 on Wednesday also in Burke to preview and provide background to understand the evening's music. The quintet is hosted by Denison faculty member Pete Mills. Both events are free and open to the public.

Led by the versatile percussionist Hollenbeck, the Claudia Quintet challenges conventional assumptions about jazz experimentation with its original and stylistically wide-ranging repertoire. Evolving out of the New York coffeehouse scene and a group called the Refuseniks, the group got its name from an admiring fan, Claudia, who approached the band one night early in the band's run. "She rambled on and on about how she was going to make our gig a regular thing. She was going to tell all her friends," Hollenbeck recalls. Claudia never returned except as the namesake and "resident muse" of this new quintet formed after the dissolution of the Refuseniks.

Along with Hollenbeck, the group features inventive vibraphonist Matt Moran, accordionist Ted Reichman, clarinetist/saxophonist Chris Speed and bassist Drew Gress. On their current tour in support of their first recording, the Claudia Quintet visits clubs in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago and numerous universities including Amherst College, Youngstown State University and the New England Conservatory of Music, among others.

In addition to his own projects, Hollenbeck tours and/or records regularly with Bob Brookmeyer's New Art Orchestra, Meredith Monk, Cuong Vu and Achim Kaufmann. He also has worked with the Maria Schneider Big Band, the BMI Orchestra, the Village Vanguard Orchestra and Michael Moore, among others. His most recent chamber piece, "The Cloud of Unknowing," was commissioned by the Bamberg Symphony Choir and issued on the Berlin Classics label.

Moran has distinguished himself as a vibraphonist with a revolutionary and unique approach to the instrument. He leads the group Sideshow and collaborates with artists such as Joe Maneri, Mat Maneri, Mark Dresser and Theo Bleckmann. Moran also is a teacher and performer of Balkan music, and leads an outfit called Slavic Soul Party.

Reichman has the versatility and musicality to make the accordion work in klezmer with David Krakauer, free jazz with Anthony Braxton and pop with Paul Simon. Reichman performed with Hollenbeck in the Refuseniks.

Speed performs in the bands of Tim Berne, Jim Black, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford and Mark Dresser, among others. He also leads his own ensembles, Pachora, Trio Iffy and Yeah, No.

Gress is one of NYC's most in-demand bassists, currently performing and touring with Tim Berne, Uri Caine and Don Byron, among others. As a composer and bandleader he has recorded two albums, "Heyday" and "Spin and Drift," and regularly tours with these groups.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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