Jazz Articles about Dave Holland

The Dave Holland Big Band: Overtime

by Jack Bowers
February 18, 2005

What does one do when his initial album as a big-band leader sweeps up almost every award in sight and rockets straight to the top of the best-seller list? If he's bassist Dave Holland, he goes back to the drawing board and works Overtime to make sure his second one is not only as good as but in some ways even better than the first. Having listened closely, this reviewer's candid appraisal is “mission accomplished."

More than fifty minutes of ...

Paul Bley: Circles

by AAJ Staff
December 26, 2004

Paul Bley's 1970 Synthesizer Show and 1972's Paul Bley and Scorpio are reissued jointly as Circles. Except for “Mr. Joy" from Synthesizer Show, all of the songs from these unconventional albums are presented here, featuring Bley's electronic experiments of the day. While the first half of the compilation sounds slightly dated at times, even humorous to modern ears, the second half is a better gauge of the unique advancements made by Bley in the '70s. No doubt, Bley was ahead ...

Dave Holland Quintet at the Outremont Theatre

by John Kelman
October 7, 2004

Dave Holland Quintet Outremont Theatre Montreal, Canada October 2, 2004

In their first appearance in Montreal since the summer of '02, bassist Dave Holland's longstanding quintet made a couple of changes. First, drummer Billy Kilson, who left the group approximately a year ago, has been replaced by Nate Smith, a young player who had subbed for Kilson at various times in the previous year or two and, consequently, was already somewhat familiar to the ...

Dave Holland: Rarum X: Selected Recordings

by Norman Weinstein
May 1, 2004

Bassist and bandleader Dave Holland's career is oddly yet movingly outlined in this collection. Since the artist is responsible for the eleven tunes culled from ten various albums, I have to assume there was a sound reason for neglecting to include anything from What Goes Around, his forceful 2002 big band session featuring many of his finest original compositions. Getting past that omission, there is a tantalizing assortment of intelligently crafted and lovingly performed music in this ...

Dave Holland: A Giant, and Still Growing

by R.J. DeLuke
March 13, 2004

Dave Holland speaks right to the point. Assured. Precise. Confident. The British accent of the England-born musician is perhaps a bit worn off from being in the United States for so long, since 1968 when the 22-year old relatively unknown bassist was called across the ocean to join Miles Davis at a time when the Price of Darkness was about change the world yet again, this time with his mysterious, raucous and marvelous electronic explorations.Holland's come a long ...

Miroslav Vitous & Dave Holland

by AAJ Staff
January 17, 2004

Submitted on behalf of George Harris.

Two bass players separated by mere months of age, both initially influenced by the LaFaro/Peacock school of thought, and both arriving at the burgeoning of a whole new era of jazz are featured on these ECM new releases. Both bassists took diverging paths and Universal Syncopations and Extended Play provide an insightful comparison.

Miroslav Vitous Universal Syncopations ECM Records 2003

Miroslav Vitous, at one time the darling of ...

Dave Holland's Opus

by Clifford Allen
November 11, 2003

Bassist and composer Dave Holland has led a 35-year career that many musicians would find enviable: working with Miles Davis' iconoclastic electric ensembles of the late '60s and early '70s; following that up with Chick Corea and Anthony Braxton in the cooperative ensemble Circle; making his first date as a leader with Braxton and Sam Rivers as sidemen; recording sessions of solo, duo, and bass-quartet configurations that have won the esteem of bassists worldwide; and to top it all off ...