Jazz Articles about Dave Holland

Dave Holland: Passing the Torch

by Dylan McGuire
December 31, 2010

Standing onstage in the auditorium of the Philadelphia School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), a lanky, grey-haired gentleman stands by the piano, directing a small group of student musicians playing Herbie Hancock's “Cantaloupe Island." He stops the song during the trumpet solo and says to the student in a British accent, “Did you listen to the recording?" The student looks at his feet and replies, “No." “You always have to listen to the ...

Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela: Hands

by Raul d'Gama Rose
December 25, 2010

The music on Hands, featuring stellar turns primarily from Spanish guitarist Pepe Habichuela and British-born bassist Dave Holland, is quite simply one of the most captivating on record. It is completely an alternative to style, to mere virtuosity, and to angelic grace and charm, as dictated by a muse. This music is the epitomé of the darkly beautiful magnetism of duende, and comes not from the hands and the fingers of the musicians, but rather from their innermost being--from the ...

Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela: Hands

by John Kelman
September 6, 2010

Sometimes the best indicator of an artist's versatility is in the side projects they accept. Bassist Dave Holland's career could hardly be described as monolithic, with his discography as a leader--ranging from his quintet (Critical Mass (Dare2, 2006)) to his big band (Overtime (Dare2, 2005)) --nothing short of but exemplary. Still, some of the most unexpected revelations have come on peripheral dates, such as Mid-Eastern-informed Thimar (ECM, 1998), with Tunisian oudist Anouar Brahem and British reed man John Surman, or ...

Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela: Hands

by Chris May
July 5, 2010

Centuries old, an accretion of musics absorbed by north Indian migrants as they travelled, one stream through the Balkans, the other through the Maghreb, towards their final desination in southern Spain, flamenco is not easy for a non-Gypsy convincingly to perform. Intricately codified, rich in lore and tradition, its broad mannerisms can be mimicked quickly enough, but to inhabit its soul, its cante jondo (deep song), takes much, much longer. Some would say a lifetime, more or less.

Dave Holland Octet: Pathways

by Alain Londes
June 7, 2010

With bassist Dave Holland setting up the foundation for the band, during the live taping of Pathways at New York's Birdland in 2009, the rest of the octet paves the way for baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan to develop the title track in the similar vein to his earlier big band recording What Goes Around (ECM, 2002).

At first it's possible to imagine listening to the entire big band due to the fullness of the sound. Some of its core musicians ...

Dave Holland Quintet at Birdland, April 20, 2010

by David Miller
May 3, 2010

Dave Holland QuintetBirdlandNew York, NYApril 20, 2010The Dave Holland Quintet (DHQ) is one of those rarest of things in jazz--a working group. These days, due to a number of factors (cough$$cough), jazz musicians are spread very thin in terms of the number of projects they participate in. They jump fluidly from project to project, sideman gig to leader, studio to club. Frequently they don't even have time to rehearse before a gig with musicians whom ...

Dave Holland: Pathways

by David Adler
April 12, 2010

Bassist Dave Holland's main creative vehicle has long been the Dave Holland Quintet, but in recent years he's launched a number of other groups, tweaking and expanding instrumentation while preserving something of the quintet's signature sound. On Pathways, recorded live at Birdland in 2009, Holland takes another detour with the Dave Holland Octet, which splits the difference between his quintet and big band in terms of size, texture and orchestrated thrust. Incidentally, Holland switched from ECM Records ...