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Dave Holland Sextet: Pass It On
by John Kelman
Sometimes it's necessary to shake up even a good thing. Dave Holland's decade-old Quintet with vibraphonist Steve Nelson, trombonist Robin Eubanks and saxophonist Chris Potter has garnered multiple awards and significant attention. But while the group has evolved as a standalone unit on albums including Critical Mass (Dare2, 2006), and as the core of Holland's Big Band on Overtime (Dare2, 2005), the overall sonority has become, perhaps, a little too familiar.
The debut of Holland's sextet ... Continue ReadingDave Holland Sextet: Pass It On
by Mark Corroto
It may not be correct to state the music of Dave Holland has matured. With the bassist's latest outing, he takes time away from the Dave Holland Big Band to record his current working sextet that plays music much like a very small big band.
This new lineup replaces vibraphonist Steve Nelson with pianist Mulgrew Miller, and adds trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, from Holland's Big Band. From his now infamous Quintet Holland retains trombonist/composer Robin Eubanks and ... Continue ReadingDave Holland with Robin Eubanks at the New England Conservatory
by Jay Deshpande
Dave Holland with Robin Eubanks New England Conservatory, Jordan Hall Boston, Massachusetts March 25, 2008
The relationship between jazz and the academy is often a contentious one: professors trained in the classical tradition are reluctant to give wiggle room to jazz pedagogy, and jazz musicians frequently see their work as beyond the restrictive approach of theory. New England Conservatory, located in the heart of Boston, draws a neat line between these camps: its ...
Continue ReadingHerbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters
by George Kanzler
The participation of such former and present Grammy nominees and winners as Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza and Leonard Cohen (reading “The Jungle Line" like a beat poet), as well as the iconic stature of Joni Mitchell herself, may have immeasurably helped in winning this CD the Grammy Album of the Year award. But that doesn't diminish the significance of it being the first jazz album to win the award in forty-three years. For make no ...
Continue ReadingHerbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters
by John Kelman
While it might be easy, on the surface, to view pianist Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters as a continuation of Possibilities (Hear, 2005), nothing could be further from the truth. Possibilities was an unapologetically pop record; River is unequivocally jazz--although such broad classifications shouldn't matter. River is, quite simply, a superb disc that takes Joni Mitchell's extant jazz proclivities and gives them an even greater interpretive boost. The majority of River is culled from Mitchell's “classic" songwriting ...
Continue ReadingDave Holland: Critical Mass
by AAJ Italy Staff
Questo ottimo album del bassista Dave Holland incarna l’idea di classicità moderna. Ascoltandolo se ne ricava immediatamente la sensazione che sia un lavoro che si pone in una posizione ‘centrale’ nel panorama jazzistico dei giorni nostri. Una sorta di raffinata costruzione architettonica attorno alla quale ruota la musica stessa di Dave Holland, un bassista che non si è fatto mancare in passato i brividi delle avanguardie anche più estreme e che strada facendo ha deciso di ‘rientrare’ in gruppo. Senza ...
Continue ReadingDave Holland Quintet: Critical Mass
by Joel Roberts
Bassist extraordinaire Dave Holland believes that like fine wine, music shouldn't be unbottled before its time. Holland and his highly regarded quintet spent a year and a half honing and retooling the music on their new album until it reached the point he calls “critical mass, where “it has become what it's going to be. That patience, care and commitment to getting things right is evident throughout Critical Mass. This is the work of a working band, ...
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