The Rejoicing Ensemble debuts Hans Koller’s “unique, exciting and explorative” jazz orchestra project this April, with guest artist John O’Gallagher. Via email, Hans and John answered UK Jazz News’s questions about this new work for large ensemble.
Hans Koller and John O’Gallagher have been collaborating for over a decade, as Hans explains: “We were introduced by Jeff Williams, the legendary drummer who worked with Stan Getz, Dave Liebman and pretty much everyone else! He lived in London for a while. I remember Jeff saying that I would really love his saxophone player friend John O’Gallagher, who was based in New York, and that I should play with him. I was a bit sceptical, how is this ever going to happen? Then Jeff told me John was writing a book: I was like ‘What kind of musician is that?’ I thought maybe the guy is writing a crime novel, but years later John’s book [Twelve-Tone Improvisation, A Method for Using Tone Rows in Jazz] profoundly changed my perspective on music. He worked on an amazing concept of 12-tone improvisation. Amazing because people thought 12-tone was too complex to improvise with. John broke it all down to simple units and showed how it can be done. When I first played with him I had no idea about this. He didn’t sound 12-tone, complex, cerebral; on the contrary, he sounded totally funky, hip and direct – like a contemporary Sonny Rollins with incredible motific awareness and time. That first tour, we spent quite a bit of time on trains, so we naturally talked a lot and gradually I began to understand what he was working on and how he approached improvising.”
“We first met when I came to the UK on tour with a quartet led by Jeff Williams,” John recalls, “Jeff had moved to the UK a year or two before and introduced me to Hans at our gig at the Vortex. Hans and I hit it off immediately and I came over a few times after that to do a couple of projects with him before I eventually moved to the UK in 2016. I’m always looking for ways to play with him, but since I moved to Portugal three years ago, it takes a little more planning to make it happen. We have had some nice concerts in Portugal over the past year or so with some fantastic musicians from Lisbon and Porto. I’m always looking for ways we can play together.”
A decade ago, John Fordham referred to Hans and John as “heavyweight theoreticians, but fizzing with jazz heat.” “I liked that quote a lot,” says Hans, “Because I started myself to go a bit deeper into conceptual ideas – I went into researching the Lydian-Chromatic Concept of George Russell – but was always drawn to how the music feels, that was always my touchstone. Fordham has great poetic sense and it’s a big compliment and I definitely see it as something to aspire to.” “I think the essence of any jazz musician or improvising musician,” adds John, “is to be a composer/theoretician/philosopher. That certainly doesn’t change over time, it’s only your point of view that has the potential to change and adapt to new information and ideas.”
The concert will be the debut of a new, original, large-scale composition. Hans is the composer, but John’s 12-tone method is crucial to the piece, as Hans explains: “The beauty of John’s 12-tone method is that it doesn’t distinguish between composition and improvisation – they are like two sides of the same coin – and it’s also something very open and ultimately a personal sound development, you can move in and out of these ideas, it doesn’t contradict any more intuitive playing – or perhaps you can approach it as a sharpening of the intuitive playing, and by extension, of the intuitive composing. I’ve basically used it as compositional tool knowing that John will improvise with the knowledge of what’s going on. Some of it he will just sense and know what to improvise, other times maybe I indicate it more specifically. So although it’s my responsibility as the composer, it’s not complete without John the improviser; the two languages, composed and improvised, are intertwined.
The new music draws on Hans’s fascination with theory but also on the folk music roots of jazz. Hans expands on this idea: “George Russell said in 1960 that jazz of the future will be highly chromatic but will retain its earthiness and rootedness, its folk music nature. I always loved his ideas and he is one of the (many) reasons I feel at home in the music. To me, jazz is not classical music, it’s folk music. The sound of jazz, and the way jazz musicians are, is all about community and sharing, being in it together, learning from one another, growing up together throughout a whole life. I’m not saying other musics don’t have these qualities but it’s vital in jazz. Because improvisation is at the heart of it all, people play for one another, there is no other option, you can’t just do your thing! And then of course, jazz is dance music, it’s about groove and time – even when there is no time – it’s a visceral experience.”
Hans and John’s last two albums together – Natural Science and Word from Bird – feature many of the same musicians. However, none of those players, except Byron Wallen and Tom Challenger, feature in the Rejoice lineup for World Heart Beat. Hans explains this decision: “Jeff Williams and others, such as Mike Gibbs, have always championed the younger generations. I’ve benefited greatly from their generosity, and now that I’m in a position where I can see and hear the younger players sounding fantastic, I’m keen to be playing with them. Most of the musicians on this project I know from my work at Trinity Laban, so it’s only natural to be around them with my own music, too. They bring a new type of sensibility and freshness to the project, I’m excited to see it develop on the gig, vis-a-vis my older colleagues and friends Byron Wallen and Tom Challenger.”
REJOICING ENSEMBLE
Reeds: John O’Gallagher, Lauren Breen, Jacob Wilson, George Mooney, Tom Challenger
Trumpets: Byron Wallen, Toby Young, Tom Stringer, Josh Short
Trombones: Dillon Pinder, Christ-Stéphane Boizi, Olivia Hughes
Piano: Hans Koller
Bass: Tom Sheen
Drums: Noah Ojumu, Sacha Harlan
Conductor: Otto Kampa
“Hans Koller’s Rejoicing Ensemble featuring John O’Gallagher” plays World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens on Friday 25 April 2025 (doors open 6.30pm, concert begins at 7.30pm).
