Event

The Claudia Quintet

John Hollenbeck, drums; Chris Speed, clarinet & tenor sax; Red Wierenga, accordion; Chris Tordini, bass; Matt Moran, vibes

Sometimes they're a swinging big band, other times hip vibesters in a smoking lounge act. They can sound like an Ellington combo, a Scandinavian tone poem, the soundtrack to a film noir, even an indie collective rocking en clavé. In the end, though, they sound like no one in the world but the Claudia Quintet. Each player is a consummate virtuoso with his own star on the jazz sidewalk of fame. And yet the ensemble interplay is wholly original and different, always almost strange, distinguished by the group's intense concentration on Hollenbeck's often-gorgeous eclecticism, which dares to be both experimental and lyrical. "Precisely calibrated but willfully spontaneous chamber-jazz," quips Nate Chinen in the New York Times. Come hear that regulated spontaneity for yourself.